My family and I recently needed to move closer to remaining family due to health problems. We went through a property finding service called "rent ready". They run your credit, fill out all of the paperwork for you, work with the landlords to negotiate things like deposit and pets, and so forth. Basically, we paid them $200 to avoid multiple hits on our credit and to make the process easier.
Heres where the nightmare begins. We rented a house in California. We spent nearly $4000 in deposits and first months rent. The house we rented had been vacant nearly a year, and was currently for sale, although the landlord assured us she was doing that as a last ditch effort in case she didn't find a renter. We moved in, signed a month to month rental agreement, and got comfy.
Yesterday the bank came to the house to let us know the landlady hadn't made a payment to them in 4 months. She is 5 grand in the hole with them, she didn't pay last years taxes, and they did not know she had rented the home to us. They are in the process of commencing foreclosure. She had to have known something about this, as we have only lived here for 5 weeks. She continued to get alot of mail here from WaMu, (the bank), she even came by once to pick it up, and asked that we send the rest of it along to her with our rent check last week.
So this is where we are at now. We are trying to scramble to find another place to live, and fast.
Our concern, she hasn't alerted us to any of this situation at all. When and how do we approach her on it?
Are we still required to give her a 30 day notice of our intent to leave the property? (seeing as how we would rather get out NOW)
The property is already in better condition that it was when we rented it, so we will be entitled to our deposit back, but if shes not making her payments to the bank, any chance we will ever see our deposit money without having to sue for it?
If she does want 30 day notice, do we have to pay for that month worth of rent, seeing as how she would be fraudulently taking it from us (i.e. rent skimming)?
Can we contact the local district attorney in regards to her fraud, and is there anything he can or would do for us?
Thank you so much in advance. We are in such a bind, and we just need to figure out, legally, what we can and have to do, before we end up living in our car with our three children.
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