You entered into a “Lease to Own contract”, agreeing to rent a home or commercial place with an obligation to buy at a certain point. It sounds like a great deal because you get to live on the property you fell in love with years before you could afford to buy and you can lock up a buying price in antipation of a dramstic increase of the market price. Things look rosy from where you stand.
The question is what will happen if you miss a month of rent or two. Can the owner evict you and retain every penny you have paid?
As early as in 1972, In a case with similar facts as the one described above, Florida District Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court’s and the buyer’s position, holding that “the parties were in essentailly the same position as if the seller held a purchase money mortgae to secure the buyer’s performance of the buyer’s contract obligation.
In plain English, it basically says that, in a lease to own contract, you are not really an tenant. Accordingly, the seller cannot evict you if you miss your monthly payment. What they can do is to evict foreclosure proceeding, forcing you to either pay or move out. During that time, you can invoke your mandatory right of redemption, meaning offer the full payment and buy the property.