What Happens if I don’t move out after Writ of Possession?

If you signed the lease agreement knowing that the house is in foreclosure, then I don’t think you can sue your landlord for the consequences of his economic failures.

Yes, and suing will not help much since the landlord may not be bursting with cash. Remember, he just lost a property to foreclosure and chances are, he has not earned anything from the sale. The bank could have all the money.

I would suggest moving out when given a 90-day notice instead of just staying and waiting for an eviction.

The length and complexity of the process is almost always an assurance that you will get notified of what’s happening. For tenants who say that they were left in the dark all throughout the process, you need to check with the court and your postal service as to where all the notices have gone to. And where were you when there were home showings?

A foreclosure depreciates the value of homes in the neighborhood so it might be a good idea if you would look for an apartment or a house for rent within the neighborhood too. There could be a substantial decrease in rent compared to what you are currently paying.

If you have been served an eviction notice and it was the first time you have ever received communication regarding the foreclosure, then you can check the court website for details. Knowing the information could help you understand the steps that you need to do next.

When the house is being offered for a short sale, you can write down an offer. It doesn’t matter how low your offer is, a short sale is basically like an emergency sale to stop a foreclosure. The bank would settle for any amount (usually the highest offer) just to get something back from your LL.

If you didn’t know about the whole thing that’s going on, it could be that the LL mispresented you in court by saying that the property is unoccupied. But still, all those house showings should keep you uptodate.

You can write a letter to the judge and type EMERGENCY at the top if you want more time after being served the eviction order. The judge might favor you if you were mispresented in court in the previous foreclosure proceedings. Create 5 copies and bring one to the Clerk Administrative Desk to make sure that the judge will really see and read your letter. You will also need to bring a copy to the Sheriff’s department and another one to the LL.

Thank you for outlining the procedure. However, there could be some variations depending on the state so it’s best to do a check first.

As a landlord, I understand how important it is to keep your tenants in the loop of what’s going on. I want to keep a good relationship with my tenants by helping them understand what I’m going through. This way, I’m also hoping that they won’t file a complaint against me and ask for a refund of the moving out expenses that they will incur.

Thank you for this article. It has helped me to better understand the procedure.

It’s difficult to move a big family out of a house on the date in the evicition order so it’s a good idea to request for an extension. Thanks for outlining the steps. Although it may be different in my state, at least I now have a general idea of what to do.

My previous rental was foreclosed but the landlord was kind enough to inform us about it ahead of time. He also offered to break the lease since there will be showings – multiple – everyday. So we broke the lease agreement and weren’t charged termination costs. There were a few deductions from the security deposit though for cleaning the property but that was it. I guess we were just lucky.

Yes, you were lucky. Others had to find out for themselves since their landlords kept it from them.