Upcoming Foreclosures

In the state of California, when is it necessary to register/record a lease for rental property?

We are tenants in a home with a One year lease that isn't up until next March but recently someone told us our lease isn't valid unless we have it registered. The place we are living recently went into Foreclosure and we need to make sure we are protected under the new law Obama passed. Is this true, is our lease invalid?

Public Comments

1. Contracts (and a lease is a contract) are valid when signed by both parties. It is usually industrial and commercial leases that are recorded - these are typically 10-year leases, or more. Even many commercial leases, especially smaller or shorter-term ones, are not recorded. Nobody pays recording fees and mucks about with all this recording with the town clerk's office for a measly little one-year apartment/house lease! Too expensive. Waste of time & money.
2. what does the lease have to do with Obama? You don't need to record a lease. If you want to cover yourself check out the property on cyberhomes.com once a month if the owner gets a NOD then it will show up as recent foreclosure activity or ask a local Realtor to do a title search and see if they are in foreclosure. Either way, you have a contract and if they break it then you can sue them in small claims. You can also ask the landlord to show you a current mortgage statment once a month to prove they are making the payments. This shouldn't be a big deal if they are actually paying. Another good way to find out is to have your agent do a mortgage search and find out how mucy debt service there is and calculate what the payment is likely to be including taxes and insurance....then if your rent payment is way lower then the mortgage payment you might have a problem. Most people now a days don't keep houses with negative cash flow. Good luck
3. Recording your lease will not protect you if the owner is foreclosed on. If a bank forecloses on the house you reside in you will be required to move eventually. The time just depends how fast the mortgage holder acts. I've seen it take 6 months to a year for a lender to act, but most start the eviction process within 30 days after they get the property back. Leases are valid even if they are not recorded, but the foreclosing bank is not obligated to a lease that entered into by your landlord.