What does Judgement of Foreclosure mean (Nassau, Hope: appointed, sale, real estate)

[bankinggirl]

I rented an apt 4 months ago. The landlord never told me they were in foreclosure. I have been following their case on ecourts. It is now at the point where the judge will rule on "Judgement of Foreclosure" on 7/11. A referee was appointed in 2014. Does anyone know if this means they no longer own the house if the judge signs this? I called a few attorneys and they were not sure.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by bankinggirl

I rented an apt 4 months ago. The landlord never told me they were in foreclosure. I have been following their case on ecourts. It is now at the point where the judge will rule on "Judgement of Foreclosure" on 7/11. A referee was appointed in 2014. Does anyone know if this means they no longer own the house if the judge signs this? I called a few attorneys and they were not sure.

I don't know the specifics, but a number of years ago we were pursuing a deadbeat client. Turns out that the bank was pursuing him, too. Just as it was about to get to the point where your landlord currently is in the courts, the client declared bankruptcy. That bought him more time to stay in the house.

[reenzz]

Originally Posted by bankinggirl

I rented an apt 4 months ago. The landlord never told me they were in foreclosure. I have been following their case on ecourts. It is now at the point where the judge will rule on "Judgement of Foreclosure" on 7/11. A referee was appointed in 2014. Does anyone know if this means they no longer own the house if the judge signs this? I called a few attorneys and they were not sure.

Until a judge rules on the foreclosure, they still own the house.

[bankinggirl]

If he rules for the foreclosure are they no longer the owner? I know bankruptcy only stays the foreclosure for a few months.

[kokonutty]

Just plan to move when your lease is up. Nothing is going to happen fast and this probably gives you more flexibility as to when you actually have to move, you might even find yourself in a position where nobody knows who is entitled to the rent but just get out when it's convenient for you.

[bankinggirl]

I was given a lease but it is invalid since the apartment is illegal which they did not tell me when I rented it 4 months ago. A lawyer told me to stop paying rent. Landlord will evict but they will most likely not be able to receive the back rent. I am not planning on doing this. But I will definitely not be paying them the full rent once they no longer own the house. I am just trying to figure out how would I know that.

[unctorious]

Your landlord owns the house until until it is sold at auction and the referee issues a referee's deed, until that time your landlord is entitled to exercise the equity of redemption, i.e., pay off principal, interest, late fees, legal fees and any other fees associated with the default.

It sounds like the lender's motion for a judgment of foreclosure and sale is returnable 7/11, so the papers will be submitted that day and then the judge will issue a decision. If your landlord opposes the motion it will likely take longer for a decision, but not by much. If the motion is granted then the Court will order the referee to provide notice to the public about the sale, publication in a local newspaper over a certain period of time.

[loribell38]

Originally Posted by bankinggirl

I was given a lease but it is invalid since the apartment is illegal which they did not tell me when I rented it 4 months ago. A lawyer told me to stop paying rent. Landlord will evict but they will most likely not be able to receive the back rent. I am not planning on doing this. But I will definitely not be paying them the full rent once they no longer own the house. I am just trying to figure out how would I know that.

Don't think that lawyer gave you very good advice at all. I know you said you were not going to do it anyway. But. Did he also tell you it will be near impossible to get a landlord to approve you for a future rental once you have an eviction on your record?

Will warn you. As a person that is doing vetting for a landlord with many private rentals in Nassau right now Eviction is in the top 3 of reasons we can not approve people. That And poor credit/judgements. And bad criminal/background checks. Don't ruin your future by allowing yourself to be formally evicted. And yeah remember your other thread if I recall. About the fact that landlords should not be allowed to legally rent out space in a home they are not even paying mortgage on themselves. Thus in foreclosure. I would be pissed if I was paying a landlord rent & they in turn were not paying their mortgage. Sadly this happens very often. These people just want the rental $$. They don't care. Can't stand people like your landlord honestly.

But legal apt or not. You did make an agreement to pay rent in exchange for them allowing you to have shelter under their roof. And it is playing out that way when landlords of illegal rentals sue tenants either former or current in small claims court. Been observing it since way back last November.

And many times if the tenants did mention & say to judge this. But your honor apt is illegal. We witnessed judge in just about every case where the tenant said this was quite rude to that tenant. And basically told them that is between the town & the homeowner. Any told them to pay up & move out by end of that month. We were told these particular judges are fed up with people thinking just because rental is not legal they can stop paying & live for free. Remember this. The town & these judges are very aware that MOST apartments in peoples own private SFH's are illegal dwellings. They know if the towns start cracking down on all the illegal rentals we will just end up with more homeless people on the streets.

Then these people only harm themselves as they now have that judgement related to Real Estate on their credit reports. Which stays on for at least 7-10 years.

[bankinggirl]

Since I have been in banking 18 years the only thing I know is an eviction only shows up on a credit report if you do not pay. A holdover eviction will show up on tenant screening but as in most cases having a valid explanation and proof of why eviction should not be held against someone usually can be taken into consideration. In my case I would say LL rented illegal foreclosed apt without disclosing and bank evicted me. Proof would be court papers showing foreclosure. That combined with my long term job in banking should be enough for a LL. Plus most private rentals do not screen. Complexes/realtors do. It bothers me that it is illegal AND foreclosed on....it is very wrong. I wonder if a judge would award back rent in this situation since it is so morally wrong...I was going to move and looked at 30 other apts but LL sent a txt verifying I was moving bc they had another tenant interested.....I was so disgusted they would do this to another person I decided to stay put. I will say that they are staying out of my way....I think they know I know what they are. Plus he was arrested in Jan (not sure why....it shows on ecourts) so I am sure they do not want to make waves. I hope I get to see them evicted....I will keep updating this post....should be interesting.

[loribell38]

Originally Posted by bankinggirl

Since I have been in banking 18 years the only thing I know is an eviction only shows up on a credit report if you do not pay. A holdover eviction will show up on tenant screening but as in most cases having a valid explanation and proof of why eviction should not be held against someone usually can be taken into consideration. In my case I would say LL rented illegal foreclosed apt without disclosing and bank evicted me. Proof would be court papers showing foreclosure. That combined with my long term job in banking should be enough for a LL. Plus most private rentals do not screen. Complexes/realtors do. It bothers me that it is illegal AND foreclosed on....it is very wrong. I wonder if a judge would award back rent in this situation since it is so morally wrong...I was going to move and looked at 30 other apts but LL sent a txt verifying I was moving bc they had another tenant interested.....I was so disgusted they would do this to another person I decided to stay put. I will say that they are staying out of my way....I think they know I know what they are. Plus he was arrested in Jan (not sure why....it shows on ecourts) so I am sure they do not want to make waves. I hope I get to see them evicted....I will keep updating this post....should be interesting.

Well I can tell you this with 100% certainty as I have done 2 types of jobs (mostly for volunteer reasons).

First. As a person that vets tenants for several landlords in SE Nassau I can tell you this. They are all private rentals that I work with right now. Some rentals are whole homes. Some are apts within the SFH's. Mostly all except maybe a few lower priced apartments are legal rentals. One is a basement that they beautifully redid & made legal. Not easy with ToH. But they know the right people so are able to get things done right & legally.

They set aside a few to rent to only people on a program. It is their way to give back to the community. Problem with that is this. They still want to qualify these tenants for their own protection of course. So less than 10% of the people that apply to these few rentals get anywhere near approved on paper. Then once I do the extra investigative work we find only like 1 out of 100 are a possibility. Most have such sad credit & criminal background checks.

Then the kicker. If we can not find them on FB they are pretty much out. And we find many even lied on gov't documents to get approved for free housing benefits. Like who will really live in that household/rental. As well as tell us they work various off the books jobs for extra money so they try to offer us a few bucks under the table to approve them. Our tax dollars at work. Disgusts us when we see this. And sadly we see it far too often.

And we are hoping this fraud is now being weeded out. And of course we have reported these fraud cases. We have no choice renally legally.

And YES we do thorough background & credit checks on everyone. So I can tell you we denied at least 90% of the applicants in just the past month alone as these people purchased a ton of Sandy (even non Sandy) damaged homes over the past several months. They fix them up & then rent them out. These 90% we denied were denied for many various reasons.

We caught most in lies (yes I do lots of extra investigative type of work to find this stuff on them).

They lie about who will live in rental. They lie about pets or smoking. They say credit is great & no evictions. They HOPE to find a private landlord that will be naive & stupid enough to not find out the truth. My work does not pay me. But it does give us substantial reduction in my rent as it is our landlord & his friends & relatives I/We do this for. So works for both parties. As I am on SSDI so I really can't work. This work is easy for me as I can so simply do it from my bed really.

So you see you can get denied for many more reasons than just what shows up on your credit report or the basic tenant screening process. Some private LL's do now have a much wider tool to help them. Thank Social Media for that. Many are denied simply based on that. And for the private rentals LL's are permitted to do that all they want.

Question I have for you here. Have you tried to even apply for any other apts since this started for you? Because if you did I am curious to know were you approved or denied? Because I know if I was in your situation I would most certainly want to get out of that rental & move & start a stressful free life knowing I don't have to constantly worry about a roof over my head.

And heck yeah I totally agree landlord was in the wrong to rent out space in a place that they knew they were not paying their own bills & mortgage.But we see that VERY often. They likely did it because they needed the money & maybe hoped those extra $$ from the rent would help them actually save their home. Or like many when it comes to LI. They know the rental market well & knew they could get good $$ from a desperate tenant. Many times it is pure GREED.

Thing is it is the tenants job to make sure the LL they are going to rent from is legit. But I can say this. Most apt searchers on LI are VERY desperate now & honestly do not care at all. And are just hoping someone will approve them. But once they move in they DO care & start going after that LL anyway they can. Saying apt is illegal we don't have to pay. Key is the tenants KNEW apt was illegal BEFORE they moved in. To many other things. This is GREED on the part of the tenant. Don't take a rental & then cry & complain. But they do. Hence why LL's are extremely picky if they do have an illegal rental. They want to pick the tenant that they feel will bring the least amount or trouble or drama into their lives. Honestly from what we have seen I can not blame these LL's.

While I know that was a very long explanation. Here goes part 2 about you getting a judge to award you back rent paid & LL not having a leg to stand on. We had to observe some Small Claims cases for our job. All were landlord vs. tenant cases. Mostly all were illegal apts. But not all. But in your case I will talk about what might apply here. For many the LL was suing the tenant for unpaid rent for an ILLEGAL apt in Small Claims court as that is an option if LL's want to take a chance getting caught themselves by town with an illegal apt.

When it came time for the tenants to speak this is what happened. The tenants said various things & had various reasons for either A) Not paying rent. B) Not being able to move ( most could not get approved for another apt or find one for months they said). Or the big one C) the damage they did to rental.

Some cried they needed an extension as they had kids. Could not find another rental & they have been looking for months many claimed.

When tenant bought up & said cried to the judge & said "But your Honor the apt is illegal". The judge said this. Listen that is between the Town & the LL/Homeowner. And then told the tenants that regardless of that you had an agreement to which you agreed to pay in exchange for shelter. Then told those tenants to pay up & move out by the end of that month. So in Small Claims court we see LL's winning a majority of the time. The LL's we know sue their tenants in Small Claims court as we are finding it is quicker & easier. Not to mention cheaper for the LL. They are public hearings. Try going to observe some yourself one day. We found it very interesting & a great learning tool. A few times these judges were even nasty to the tenants.

And I believe if a LL wins a judgement it will show up in the public records section of your credit report. Because in a few instances the judge did say I hope you are happy with yourselves as now this will be on your credit report for future LL's and anyone else that uses that to offer you something. Even jobs.