Your rights when your rental is sold or foreclosed

When the owner sells

A sale doesn't end your lease. It stays in force, the rent stays the same until the lease says otherwise, and the new owner is bound by the same Florida law as the old one.

Under section 83.49(7), the old owner has to transfer your deposit and any advance rent to the new owner or agent, with the interest owed and an accounting. There's a rebuttable presumption that the new owner got it, but it only covers one month's rent. If your deposit was bigger, ask both owners to confirm the full amount in writing at closing.

The new landlord has to tell you, in writing, its name and address or the person authorized to receive notices, under section 83.50. Until you get that, keep paying the way your lease says.

When the lender forecloses

Foreclosure is different, because the lender or the buyer at the foreclosure sale didn't sign your lease. The federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act protects bona fide tenants. It was first passed in 2009 and restored in 2018, and because it's federal law it protects you without any Florida action.

• The new owner has to give a bona fide tenant a notice to vacate at least 90 days before it takes effect.
• A bona fide tenant with a lease signed before the foreclosure notice can stay until the lease ends.
• If the new owner will live in the home as a primary residence, it can end the lease, but only with at least 90 days' notice.
• Tenants with no lease, or a lease that can be ended at will, get the 90 days too.

Who counts as a bona fide tenant

• You aren't the owner who defaulted, or that owner's child, spouse or parent
• Your lease came out of an arm's-length deal
• Your rent isn't substantially below market, unless it's reduced or subsidized by a government program like a housing voucher

Florida copied these protections into section 83.5615, which only kicks in if the federal act is ever repealed.

What to do when you hear about a foreclosure

Keep paying rent to your landlord until a court order or the new owner tells you otherwise in writing. Read every paper that arrives. If foreclosure papers name "unknown tenants", they're about you, so note the case number.

Before you pay anyone new, ask for the certificate of title or a deed in their name, and check the owner on the county property appraiser's site. The 90 days run from the written notice to vacate, so plan the move from that date and send your deposit request to the landlord who holds it.