Calling all tenants/renters! BEWARE!

We know that many of our friends are not quite ready to jump into the market and purchase and will continue to be renters. In the current economic climate where ¾ of all property owners are in distress, all property renters need to protect themselves! Whether you use a property manager, REALTOR, or draft your own lease, we urge you to add language to your lease to protect your own interest in the property.

When you pay your rent every month how do you know whether or not your landlord in turn is paying his/her bills? Well, there are several ways to protect yourself.

We suggest drafting into the lease something similar to the following:

“Landlord to provide tenant (s) quarterly by fax or email (provide contact info in this clause) proof that mortgage payments have been made on this property and that the property is current on all payments.”

In addition to this, you can also file a “notice of default” with the landlord’s lender that will alert you when a notice of trustee sale has been filed with the Maricopa County Recorder’s office. But, by this point there is a 90 day clicking clock before the property will be sold at foreclosure auction. So, we suggest adding language to your lease about proof the payments are actually being made. Any responsible landlord will not have a problem with this language in the lease if they are planning on remaining current.

Please realize how serious and rampant of an issue this is!

If you have any issues or concerns let us know!