Rent a House Safely? Check Out the New Landlord So You Don't End Up Out on the Curb (2nd in Series)

In the first article in this series we covered how to find out if the owner of the home you are about to rent was in foreclosure and some tricks to use to see if foreclosure might be coming soon, but was not yet filed.

Today we are going to look at what happens if you find out your potential new home is owned by a "person" who is not breathing.

That is not a dead person. If the owner of the house has died recently, the public records you checked based on the previous article will still show the name of the deceased. You are unlikely to see an update in the name until the legalities required following the death are finished.

The non breathing owners you are concerned with here are if your potential palace is owned by a corporation or a trust or a lending institution, think bank.

If it is owned by Chase Bank, Bank of America or any other name that sounds like a bank, it is most likely that the person offering to rent the house to you does not have the right to do so. Banks wind up owning a lot of houses and look to sell them as fast as they can (supposedly), but very unlikely they will rent them while they wait for the sale.

If the house is bank owned, you need to see solid proof that the "Landlord" you are talking to has the authority to rent to you before you put out one cent. Tell then you want proof of ownership to give to your attorney.

Then actually take whatever they give you to an attorney and make sure. It is worth a couple of hundred dollars to make sure your rent payments are actually buying shelter.

If the house is owned by a corporation that does not sound like a bank, go to the web site of the Secretary of State for the state where the house is located and get the name or names of corporate officers and make sure you are dealing with someone authorized by the corporation to rent the house. If you have any doubt, also get this verified by an attorney.

Just as though the house was owned by "Bill Jones" check the corporation name in the civil court records to see if the house in foreclosure or if there are liens or judgments against the corporation or if the company is the defendant in a law suit to collect money.

If the house is owned by a trust, you man not b able to get the name of the actual owners. A name will appear in the records and that is the name of the "trustee." A trustee is required by law to do what the owner of the "beneficial interest" of the trust directs.

So you may deal with the trustee to rent the house. The trustee, in all states that I know about, has the legal authority to keep the name of the beneficial owners secret. So, do not be concerned if you cannot learn who really owns the house. Land trusts are usually used by sophisticated real estate investors, so the "trust" name is not a red flag.

Land trusts, of course, are also used by sophisticated crooks, so by all means do your due diligence. And more about that in the third article in the series.