Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia

You cease to own the house the moment of foreclosure (you already had your month's notice when it started).

The occupants, whether tenants of the prior owner, or even if they are the prior owner(s), are subject to summary eviction (dispossessory) following a foreclosure sale. The occupants are not permitted to avoid eviction (dispossessory) based upon any alleged or actual problems with the foreclosure sale, unless and until they petition a court to set aside the foreclosure. A petition to set aside a foreclosure must be done in Superior Court, and since most evictions (dispossessories) are done in Magistrate or State Court, the tenant cannot generally attack the foreclosure in the Court where the dispossessory is filed.

Note that the purchaser at the foreclosure sale must demand possession of the property. (He can do that immediately). After the lender has demanded possession and the borrower has failed to vacate the property, the lender initiates the eviction proceeding by filing a Dispossessory affidavit with the applicable court in the county where the property is located. After service is complete, the borrower or other occupant has seven (7) days in which to file an answer. If no answer is filed, then the case goes into default and the court may issue a writ of possession that may be executed immediately. If an answer is filed, however, then an expedited trial will be scheduled, usually within two (2) weeks after the filing of the answer. Note that the former owner has no defense to such an eviction, so right after that his stuff can be on the street.

The exception: If you are a bona fide tenant without a lease or with a lease terminable at will, under the Protecting Tenant at Foreclosure Act of 2009, the tenant must vacate the premises within ninety ( 90 ) days. In some cases a bona fide tenant under a bona fide lease may be entitled to occupy the premises until the end of the remaining term of the lease.

What the response above (with the spam link) leaves out is that waiting for an eviction trashes your credit further, puts a lawsuit on your record, tells future landlords that they will have to take the same action to get you out of their property (even ones that might overlook the foreclosure), and if you stretch it out long enough, the sheriff or marshall will show up unannounced to throw all of your possessions on the street. Sure you can "make" the new owner go through all those steps, and they will. It'll harm you much more.