Urgent issue w/rental property & downpayment assistance program

[William Johns]

Hey Everyone.  My wife bought her house in Maryland in 2004.  She used a downpayment assistance program through the county.  I moved in, in 2010 and we got married in 2012.  Last year, we decided to move to California.  We looked up the terms of the program online and it said that the amount would have to be paid back if we sold the house.  We planned to rent the house, so we weren't worried.  As we were packing up to leave we found her original contract which stated that we'd have to pay the full amount back immediately if we rented it out as well.  We tried to find out whether we could pay it back in installments without alerting the program that we were leaving etc. We weren't able to get a conclusive answer so we took our chances and rented anyway since we were already packed up to leave etc.  We got a tenant who was great for the first few months, but now is very behind on her rent.  Our property manager wants to file for eviction, but we are concerned that will alert the county that we are renting and trigger the full payment.  We are not trying to avoid paying back the program, we just don't have the money to pay it all back at once.  I don't really understand the motivation of the program for wanting to keep people in their home for so long (Clearly she wasn't an investor trying to flip a property, having lived there for almost 12 years).  The contract states that they are able to put a lien on the house for non - payment.  Hoping someone has some advice on how to handle this.  Thanks!