Renters get 30 days’ notice after a foreclosure sale

If the building you rent is sold at a trustee’s or tax foreclosure sale, and you pay rent on time and are not otherwise in default, the buyer must give you at least 30 days’ written notice to vacate if it chooses not to keep your lease. Federal law (the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act) can give you longer.

A residential tenant who keeps paying rent in a building sold at foreclosure.

• Only in Texas.
• Only after the foreclosure sale.
• Only if you rent the home.

• Put the deadline on your calendar

  Enter the date on your notice so Techoclaro can count the days and remind you.

  Open the tool

• Tell the new owner you are a tenant

  Send a copy of your lease and rent receipts to the buyer.

• Read your state guide and find free help

  Open the state page for the process, deadlines and legal-aid contacts in your state.

  Open the tool

• It does not apply if you are behind on rent or otherwise in default under the lease.
• Former owners who stay after the sale are not tenants under this rule and can get a 3-day notice.
• This is general education, not legal advice. Laws change and details matter — check the current official text or talk to a legal aid lawyer or HUD-approved housing counselor.

1. State law30-day notice to tenants after foreclosure

   Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(b)

   What it says: After a foreclosure sale, the purchaser must give a timely-paying residential tenant at least 30 days’ written notice to vacate.

   Read the official texthttps://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.24.htm#24.005

• Homeowner lostCited for this right
  Rice v. Pinney

  Rice v. Pinney, 51 S.W.3d 705 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2001)

  an eviction after foreclosure may proceed while a wrongful-foreclosure suit is pending, because the eviction court decides only the right to immediate possession and not title

• Homeowner wonSame topic
  Sauceda v. GMAC Mortgage Corp.

  Sauceda v. GMAC Mortg. Corp., 268 S.W.3d 135 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg 2008)

  a wrongful-foreclosure claim requires a defect in the sale proceedings, a grossly inadequate selling price, and a causal connection between them, and that homeowners who offer evidence of each are entitled to a trial

• Homeowner wonSame topic
  Charter National Bank-Houston v. Stevens

  Charter Nat'l Bank-Houston v. Stevens, 781 S.W.2d 368 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1989)

  when a mortgagee deliberately chills the bidding at a foreclosure sale, the injured owner seeking damages need not also prove a grossly inadequate selling price

• Homeowner wonSame topic
  Ogden v. Gibraltar Savings Ass'n

  Ogden v. Gibraltar Sav. Ass'n, 640 S.W.2d 232 (Tex. 1982)

  when a note holder has the option to accelerate on default, equity demands notice of the intent to exercise that option before foreclosing, and a homeowner sold out without it may recover damages

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Martins v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P.

  Martins v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P., 722 F.3d 249 (5th Cir. 2013)

  a mortgage servicer acting for a properly assigned mortgagee may foreclose in Texas without possessing the original note, and an oral promise to modify a large loan is not enforceable

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  Milton v. U.S. Bank National Ass'n

  Milton v. U.S. Bank Nat'l Ass'n, 508 F. App'x 326 (5th Cir. 2013) (per curiam) (unpublished)

  an agreement to delay a Texas foreclosure falls within the statute of frauds and must be in writing to be enforced

• Homeowner lostSame topic
  BFP v. Resolution Trust Corp.

  BFP v. Resol. Tr. Corp., 511 U.S. 531 (1994)

  the price received at a non-collusive foreclosure sale that complied with state law is reasonably equivalent value under the Bankruptcy Code