I Need Help!!
 

I am really embarrassed to ask this, but then again this is totally not my fault. You see my fiance and I are currently renting a condo and today some guy from Comerica Bank came to the door looking for the landlord. Apparently she hasn't paid the mortgage on the place it quite some time and he is trying desperetly to get a hold of her ASAP. He wasn't supposed to tell me this, but he said that if she cannot come up with however much she owes in 9 days the bank is repossesing the house and evicting anyone who lives there. He has tried calling her home and cell and mailing her at her address and she has failed to contact him back. This is so unfair to my fiance and I because we pay our rent on time along with our other bills and now basically have a week to find a new place or pray to God our landlord pays off her back debt. Great timing with the holidays around the corner eh?

So my question is, what can be done on our end to prevent this? Or is there nothing we can do except pack like crazy people and find a new home in 9 days time. Also what legal actions can be done on our end towards our landlord for putting us in this position? I feel we should have at least been notified that there was an issue and to be completely blindsided like this is so wrong in many ways. I literally feel sick to my stomach and want to just cry. I am in freak out panic mode right now.

Wow iam so sorry you are going thru this, But i do not beleive they can just kick you out in 9 days, you have rights to, I think its more like 30 days , hopefully the landlord will come forward and take care of this, good luck hun.

Well if you're landlord is like that I would find a new place to live. But they can't put you out in 9 days. First of all they would have to go to court. It would be 30 days after they file just to get a court date. Then after the Judge hears the case, they have to give you at least 30 days to move. So now your talking around 2 months or so. Not sure what you can do to the Landlord, they might have to pay your moving expenses, but again, I'm not really sure. At this point I would look for a new place, or if you do like it there, talk to that Landlord and find out whats going on.
Best of luck to you;)

yep thats true. I would start looking for a new place. You dont want to take the chnace it will happen again with her. Sorry :bighug:

I think the best thing to do is research "tenant/landlord rights for your state". Here in California, they have to allow the tenant 30 dys to vacate wether they've given notice or been evicted. And if a tentant doesnt/cant vacate in that time, the court process is an additional 30 days... or something of that nature. Im sure that is very stressful and hope things look brighter for ya :)

I don't know that I would panic just yet.

Did you verify that this man was from a bank? I don't know of too many banks that would go to someone's door and give out that kind of information or ask questions. Did you give him any information? I think I would contact my landlord, tell her what happened, give her the man's name and let her take it from there. In the meantime, find out what your rights are so you'll know what you need to do when and if the time comes for you to move.

I agree that they can't evict you in 9 days. There is a whole eviction process but first the bank will need to start foreclosure proceedings and that's a few months I think. So you can breath a little easier. I'm a little bothered that some guy just came knocking like that, that doesn't sound right. I've never heard of the bank coming to your house. They usually just post notice on your front door, and mail you a copy of the foreclosure proceedings via regular and certified mail. Be careful what you tell this guy, there are so many scam artists out there now. You may want to call the bank to verify if they would actually send someone out, if they say no, report it to the police. If they say yes, then I'd suggest they find another method and that the guy told you information he should not have. Major privacy violation in my opinion.

Good luck, and start house hunting. You'll find something.

IF this was a legitimate banker coming to your door....chances are, the landlord has already been taken to court and 9 days is the amount of time the courts have given her. so you very well may have to move out really quick.

i own a property management company. every state has different laws but if the landlord is being foreclosed on, you are really S-O-L in this situation. I get new tenants because of this all the time.

you can take her to small claims court if you have to move out suddenly because of this.

i would start looking right away, in case the 9 days is in fact her last chance of keeping the place. you don't want to come home and have your stuff locked in the house. they will keep all your stuff as "payment" even tho it is yours and not your landlords. just protect yourself here.

i wish i had better news for you, but honestly, i wouldn't wait around to see if they really are taking possession in 9 days. start looking right now. many places aren't able to accommodate "immediate" move in's. so you want to give your new place as much notice as possible.

good luck. if you lived here i would rent you a nice house :)

I can't advice you, but I will be praying for you.

OH NO!!!! You are in our thoughts and prayers! Please keep us posted!

OMG! I'm so sorry! I hope you don't have to move!!!

I don't have any advice but seriously if you need me to watch Keely and Maverick if it comes down to you having to move real quick and you need help with them, please let me know! I can watch them for a few days if you need.

I'll say a prayer for you guys!

I own a rental in California.
In California, regardless of how long the owner was given, YOU have to be given LEGAL notice by the courts. it will take some time to do that, It averages 90 days from 1st legal notice til actual eviction time. You wouldn't have to be out until the hiolidays are over.

but is she actually being evicted? she is not defaulting on HER lease agreement, just the owner defaulting on her mortgage. so the only laws that would apply to this are the "notice to vacate" laws, and i know here, we only have to give 10 day notice, 14 in some counties.
and does that not have to come from the landlord??

Thanks Brenda and everyone else. I got in touch with my landlord and her mood was anything but nervous or worried. It was as if I had just told her I lost my keys or something. She had no real emotion. That kind of freaks me out a bit.

She called the bank and called me back and told me not to worry and we weren't going to be evicted because they never sent anything to her house yet according to the guy who came today they did. I really feel like I cannot believe a word she is saying to me and that she is just pulling the wool over my eyes so to speak until she figures out what to do.

Apparently my fiances Mom has connections through her work so she is going to look in to it. The letter the guy gave me which my landlord said was okay to open had her account number on it so we are going to look in to it and see what exactly she owes and if we really are in jeopardy or not. Also I will be calling the number listed on the letter to see if the guy he came over was legit and try and get a feel for what is going on to protect myself and my stuff.

good idea :thumbup: keep us posted!!!

i would still look for other places to live, sounds like your landlord is not too responsible. Did she deny that she is behind on her payments? see, that's the problem i have. she just said that she never got a letter. well, she should know if she has not paid or not. if she has not paid, it doesn't matter if she "got" the letter or not. i'm sure it was sent...banks take that stuff serious. she can claim whatever she wants. but she needs to be concerned about wether or not she paid her mortgage.

does she have a legit property management company or is she just a small time landlord? does she have other properties? is she licensed? i would look into that stuff as well, because the answers to how much you can really do would lie in what you find out about that stuff.

From my understanding this is the one and only piece of property she is renting and she is not licensed. She moved to Ohio and as some may know Michigan is a terrible state for when it comes to selling and buying homes. The unemployement rate is through the roof and no one can really afford to buy houses. So instead of trying to sell she just rented the property out.

And I agree with what you said about the banks. I have a student loan and have moved from my parents to an apartment and now to this condo and they always seem to find me to send me payment reminders and so forth and that is just a $1,500 student loan. I can only imagine how hardcore and serious they would get over an $80,000 condo.

Okay here is a small update. I researched in to it and the guy who came to my home was from a company called J. M. Adjustment Services, LLC. According to their website they are a third party liquidation company hired by other companies to personally go to peoples houses to try and collect past debt. Pretty much they are a repo company and in this case he was here to try and settle the debt before the condo is repossessed. So now I am thinking she was well aware of this whole thing and in fact recieved the letter monthes ago and this is their last chance effort to try and settle her debt before taking the condo.

I am going to call not only the number left on the letter, but this company as well. I need a solid answer and I need it now.

good for you!! let us know what you find out!!!

also, try to call around and find out what your "rights" are according to your state law.

Well I called the number and the lady was unable to give me any information due to privacy and legal reasons which I understand. She did confirm the name of my landlord all on her own without me even saying a word. And technically according to the lady by calling her I was breaking the law, but she would turn the other cheek and pretend I never called.

I dunno what to do now. It looks as if I am back at square one. We are going to send the landlord a very lengthy email after dinner tonight demanding we get something in writing that says we will not be evicited due to her stupidity. And even if this is all taken care of I still want out of this place ASAP because all trust I had with her is lost. It's just I don't know what will happen if we did break the lease and moved early. We only moved in this past August. Ugggh!

I was kinda worried about you calling the number from the lady. It's your business in the sense you need to know if you need to move asap or not, otherwise it's really not your place to be callling around on this ladies stuff and opening her mail even if she said to considering the nature of the matter. This is just my opinion. I'd be afraid that someone would try and hold me accountable because I did all that stuff.

Again my opinion is leave the landlords problem to the landlord and get the heck out of dodge and wipe your hands of her. Mail that letter you have to her certified to you can prove you gave it to her.

You might call the Attorney Generals Office to find out your rights and get some legal type assistance.

Again, good luck. Fingers crossed that everything works out for you.

Well as stated we sent her a pretty long email last night with our concerns asking for a straight up answer as to why the guy came here and why he said what he said to me. Her reply, besides being snippy and rude basically said to chill out and relax. She doesn't owe anyone money and the guy simply came to get her signature to verify her new address in Ohio. I am sorry, but my gut feeling tells me not to believe her. Why would someone come to your home just for your Herbie Hancock? I mean haven't you ever heard of a fax machine? And even if this is the case why would he say what he said to me? Something seems fishy to me.

i know everyone hates to hear this because of the money...but i would call an attorney. you need to protect yourself...and your stuff!!!!!!! what if they came and changed the locks and your babies were in there??? that would be horrible!!!

This is the time I really wished I had a punching bag in my basement just to let loose on and get rid of all of my anger and frustration. Believing what my landlord told me and that he was just here to varify an address I called that J. M. Adjustment Services, LLC company and voiced a complaint on the guy who came to my house and told me what he told me. If he was just here for that then why would he tell me what he told me? That was what I want answered. The owner was anything, but nice. He demanded that I apologize to him and admit that I was lying for saying what I said about his employee Lou who has been there for 11 years. The thing is thought I was on the phone with Rachael while he was here and she overheard every single thing that was being said and will confirm that I was in fact being truthful.

He continued to not listen to a word I was saying about what had happened or even attempt to believe a single thing that I was able to get in so I told him he would heard from my lawyer and hung up. His attitude was extremely rude and uncalled for and his “faithful employee” Lou should have never disclosed that information with me and what makes it worse is he was lying about it all.

After I hung up I reported the company to the BBB and to the local Fox 2 News for their Hall of Shame. Before I go and contact a local lawyer I am going to post what happened on a website/forum I found that allows you to get free legal advice from real lawyers. See what they say before I go any further.

Here is an article by a well known California eviction lawyer regarding renters rights when the landlord is foreclosed on.. Basically it appears you will have 111 days from the time that the mortgage company notifies YOU that a foreclosure is in progress. Now if she is not renting the condo LEGALLY they may be different. I certainly would check with an attorney right away

Are you renting and worried about what might happen if the landlord gets foreclosed on? You should be concerned, because once the bank forecloses, they can kick you out.
It's surprising to hear that in this tenant-friendly state, but that's what Jim Burmeister, eviction attorney here in Carlsbad, has confirmed.
How will you know that your landlord is in trouble?
Once the landlord has missed a few payments, the bank will post a notice of default on your front door. That's when the process begins, and you have at least 111 days before the bank can take the house. So you have some breathing room, but a couple of things will occur to you:
1. The landlord is taking my rent but not making his payment - RAT!
2. Could I end up with an eviction on MY credit report?
If the bank can kick you out, they'd do that formally with an eviction notice. If you realize that a foreclosure is underway, you might as well surrender to the fact that you're going to be moving. I wouldn't risk an eviction notice, I'd be making plans to get out around the 111th day.
Other ways to see it coming:
1. Ask about repairs - if the landlord bites your head off, it probably means tensions are running hot - for a reason.
2. The landlord is bugging you to pay the rent quicker.
3. Landscaping isn't being kept up.
4. If you know where he lives - check his landscaping too.
5. If appraisers have been coming by, he's trying to refinance.
6. Check the county records for loan amounts.
Generally-speaking, if there's a lot of fast-talking, or no talking going on, then that's a sign of stress. If you flat out ask him about foreclosure, the next 10 seconds will probably give you all the answers you need.