All Forum Posts by: J Chen

We bought the house at auction about a year ago. The owner filed bankruptcy afterwards. Long story short. Now we officially got the deed. The court ordered that the owner could stay at the property for 90 days after confirmation of sale. Now 90 days have passed. We tried to contact the owner by emailing her, leaving a note at the door, and calling her. But she never responded. It is hard to tell if the property is vacant or not because the windows are covered by curtains. What shall we do in such a situation? Can we just get a locksmith to open the door?  

K. Marie Poe, Tim Breems

I had some initial conversation with the tenant just to figure out what his intention is but have not offered anything yet.

His rent is about $400 lower than fair market value. I am not sure if this is enough to show this is not a "bona fide" contract. Anyway, we will talk to him again to see if he is willing to move sooner if we offer some help.

See this link Page 10 for the amendment to The Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act

http://www.illinoislegaladvocate.org/calendarUploads/CBA_Foreclosure_Program.pdf

Poe, I was actually thinking to give him notice to vacate in 90 days myself. So you think this needs the involvement of an attorney? Also does this 90 days start from the date of sale or the date the deed is transferred to me?

Jon, the lease was renewed earlier this year which is after the notice of default. But I read it somewhere that there is a new amendments to the Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act that changed the date of notice of default to date of sale. Basically, as long as the lease is signed before the sale, it is protected by this Act.

This case has started in 2007 and in 2008 court ruled to vacate the property. But the foreclosing lender went bankrupt and mortgage was sold New York Mellon bank, which reinstated this case in 2012 (under a new case number). I guess HOA took possesion of this house since the previous owner vacated and rent it out in order to recover the association dues.

We recently purchased a house from foreclosure auction with a tenant in it. The previous owner seems to have abandoned it. The rental lease was signed with HOA since HOA was in possession of the house before the foreclosure sale. The current tenant pays rent to HOA directly and is current on his rent. The lease won't end until July 2012. Our intention is not to rent but to move in ourselves. So my question is do we need to honor the lease? If not, do we need to give 90 day notice? If we do need to honor the lease by law, is cash for key our best bet?