Landlord not paying mortgage house is up for short sale

By BigDeez

My wife and three children are renting a single home in NJ and our landlord stopped paying mortgage 2 months after we moved in.  He was arrested for embezeling money from his employer and is currently in jail.  I’ve been in contact with his wife who is not on the lease or on the title to the home we are renting.  Our landlord told us specifically that she is not part of the rental and we are not to send her the rent check.  Well long story short he went to jail and she begged us to send her the rent.  We continued to write checks in our landlords name but she found a way to cash them.  In recent conversations with her she disclosed to me that he has not paid the rent for about 9-10 months and they have sinced signed paperwork acknowledging that the house is up for short sale due to them defaulting on the mortgage and they have lost their rights to the home.  My wife and I are not comfortable with sending money to someone who broke the lease agreement by not paying the mortgage and no longer even owns the home.  This is just a summarry of the information of our situation but we would really like to know if someone could help us with knowing what our rights are and what recourse we should be persuing at this point.  Any and all information and responses will be very much appreciated.  Thank you.

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