This is regarding bankruptcy in TX. I have read so much but cannot find a specific answer. I will try to give you the short version.

We moved into a house in October with a verbal agreement from the owner to lease his house from him. He lives in Mexico and is in real estate. He sent us a blank lease at the end of November. My husband had to get help in filling it out. We mailed it back to him. He emailed the middle of Dec asking where it was and we told him we mailed it. He said he hadn't checked his P.O. Box.

We have not heard from him since then even though we tried to get a hold of him. We even got a "bankruptcy court" notice with his name on it sent our address. We didn't open it but could see there was a date in it for him to appear in TX court.

He called 3 days ago and threatened to evict us if we didn't wire him $5000. Now we know he doesn't have a leg to stand on because he hasn't signed the lease or mailed it back to us, much less contacted us.

My question is this... since he's lived in Mexico for more than 6 months (closer to 9, I think), shouldn't he have filed for bankruptcy under their law and not in TX? And could he have been trying to hide the fact that he had "rental property" because he would have had to claim the money as income?

We have also been storing his van and his belongings in the garage (which we moved there) because he said he would get them out by the end of Nov.Does it sound like he's trying to commit fraud?

All this time we have been thinking the house was in foreclosure so we hadn't even fully unpacked. We have been expecting someone to knock on the door and tell us we have 30 days to get out. Now he wants "back pay" and won't explain why he hasn't contacted us for almost 5 months. How do we know he's even up to date on the house payments now?? Is any of this public record? Any advice? How can we even trust him now?

Btw, this is not some shack. This is a 2650 sf home in a nice neighborhood. And we have 5 kids going through this uncertainty too!

Thanks in advance.