patrick.net

Thanks, Roberto, I appreciate your advice. As a corporate attorney, I am familiar with the concept of anticipatory breach which I will keep in mind.

In the mean time, if he doesn't go along with my proposal (anticipatory settlement?), that necessarily means that he intends to list and show the property, thereby breaching anticipatorily. I'd probably have to prove anticipated damages in any lawsuit for injunctive relief. It would be a challenge to prove and monetize my loss of 'quiet enjoyment' of my home.

tenant in foreclosed house says

Thanks, Roberto, I appreciate your advice. As a corporate attorney, I am familiar with the concept of anticipatory breach which I will keep in mind.
In the mean time, if he doesn’t go along with my proposal (anticipatory settlement?), that necessarily means that he intends to list and show the property, thereby breaching anticipatorily. I’d probably have to prove anticipated damages in any lawsuit for injunctive relief. It would be a challenge to prove and monetize my loss of ‘quiet enjoyment’ of my home.

You're an attorney? That explains alot. You're intellectualizing (aka mind fucking) this whole thing a bit too much. IMHO your landlord is enjoying your rent while you're stressing over this whole thing - and in the end you'll still move.

ditto elliemae

That does explain a lot, if not everything. Do what can be done to get your deposit back and leave. If you can't get back your deposit (likely), still get out of there. You are this torqued over a drive by photo? For your own sanity, get outta there! I am easily torqued so I'm telling you: this is a net loss situation - your efforts will be for naught. You already know LL is broke. Write your letters. Make your threats. But it is only for sport b/c you know quite well how this will end. Forget the drama. As for your child, if you have to move "out of district", drive him to the school to finish out the year.

Thanks Roberto, Ditto and Elie.

At this point with all your advice (and Katy's et al.), we've let the property go (in our minds) in Katy's words. Now we're emboldened and empowered. My friend told me on the phone that all this is stressful, but dittomichael used the word "sport" which kind of hit a nerve with me. Not sure if that word captures it all. Maybe "challenge" or "opportunist"... any others?

Yeah, stressful, but my motivation is not to deprive a landlord from his unjust enrichment. My motivation is to live much less expensively until we purchase something this winter or next spring.

I want him to pay his property taxes because our son is in a very good public school (or that's its reputation among homeowners here in town. they talk up the schools all the time!) and I want to be able to say, morally, and to my neighbors that we are not freeloading off of the town. With our lower rent, he can still pay taxes. I think he is on some sort of payment plan with the Town -- we still need to check.

We're not interested in moving -- but will if we have to -- any time soon because my wife had wrist surgery two days ago (and I worked from home with my laptop, my 5 yr old hanging off my shoulders and a 14 month old hitting the "q" key while I'm drafting investor agreements) and will take a few weeks to recover. A bunch of other reasons, too, the details of which are not so relevant.

tenant in foreclosed house says

I want him to pay his property taxes because our son is in a very good public school (or that’s its reputation among homeowners here in town. they talk up the schools all the time!) and I want to be able to say, morally, and to my neighbors that we are not freeloading off of the town. With our lower rent, he can still pay taxes. I think he is on some sort of payment plan with the Town — we still need to check.

It's highly doubtful that he's paying the prop taxes. If you pay them yourself, you're crazy. Not your problem. Don't discuss it with the neighbors and the moral problem vanishes. You're paying rent to a guy who's pocketing the proceeds and you should just accept it.

Not your problem. We're beating a dead horse, here. Good luck.

I am please to say that we just closed on a three-bedroom home in the CT town we grew up in but couldn't afford four years ago when we moved back to the region from Boston as renters (in what became the house in foreclosure shortly after we moved in!).

We put down over 20%, locked in at 4.625 on a 30-yr fixed a few weeks ago (shoulda waited until this week to lock in -- have you seen the 10-yr treasury's plummet over the last two weeks?)

I don't know what our former landlord is going to do now. The oil burner (boiler) needs to be replaced. He needs to find a tenant, but first needs to make a LOT of repairs and paint inside and out. Will that prospective tenant do their due diligence and find out that he is in the foreclosure process?

Landlord was thinking that JPM would reduce his balance on the house (and on his nearby primary residence, which is also in foreclosure), but wouldn't that be absurd? (I want a modification on my stock account -- where do I get me one of those?)

Congratulations.

Thanks, FortWayne!