Belt Auction

I am renting a home and just found out that it is up for auction in 3 weeks, what can we do, apart from move?

Do we have any legal rights? The owner hasn't told us anything but a man came to take pictures of the house and told us what was happening. There are also a lot of certified letters arriving addressed to the owner. I forgot to mention that we live in Texas.

Public Comments

1. Go to the auction & bid on it.
2. Yes, you still have possession of premises even after auction. The new owner, or lender if it does not sell still has to evict you, they cannot just through you out. You can usually work out a deal to leave in an orderly fashion, within a couple months after the court date for the eviction. You do have some rights and power. The new owner does not want you trashing the place and leaving junk behind that they may be required by law to pay to have it moved and stored for you. I would not pay the old landlord or the new landlord unless you signed a new lease with them. If they want you out you can get several months of free rent while all the legal stuff is going on and save money for a new place. Good Luck.
3. You could try to convince the new owner to rent the property to you if you have a good record with the old owner. This is very risky though since the new owner isn't obliged to assist you in any way and could have you evicted. I think the safest be is to face the inevitable and move out.
4. The lease will be over once the owner/landlord loses title to the house. The new owner probably has to give you a certain amount of notice, maybe 30 days, before he can force you out. He may need court approval for the eviction, though. However, the new owner may not want you out. He may be happy to rent the house out and collect rent. Or there may be no successful bidder and the bank will take the house, which means more delay while it decides what to do with the property. Once the property changes hands at foreclosure, you should stop paying the former owner and PUT THE RENT IN THE BANK! The new owner has a claim on the rent at that point and you could offer to pay rent to the new owner. It's too early now to say what's going to happen.
5. You have right as a renter. If you wanted to buy you have the first right to purchase. If you don't want to buy you still have a lease with a ending date. The new owner has to honer that. So no worries, everything will be fine.