Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

If you have a fixed-term lease, your lease is not invalidated even if there is a foreclosure. The new law signed by Obama called "Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009," signed on May 20, 2009, states that if you have a lease you cannot be forced to move even after the property has been sold through foreclosure until the end of the terms of the lease or 90 days, whichever is later. If your lease is a month-to-month lease, you also have 90 days to move out. If the property is sold at foreclosure to an owner who plans to occupy the property, then you have 90 days to move.

You are obligated to pay the current landlord rent until the foreclosure sale on September 10th. So, you should have continued paying. He has a right to serve the 3-day to quit on you for nonpayment of rent. However, after the property has been sold at auction, then you are no longer obligated to pay him the rent, but pay the new owner, which could even be the bank.

You should Google this law and bring it to the attention of the landlord. He will be liable in court if he forces you out in violation of this.

Larry L. Doan, Esq.

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