Sometimes I am blown away by the audacity of people and the ease at which they are willing to deceive for their own interest.

As stated in my previous blog, we received information last Friday that our home of almost five years, the home where Judson took his last breaths, was sold back to the bank—it foreclosed.  As tenants in a foreclosure situation, sadly, the only information available to you is that which is considered public record; this leaves the tenant trying to maneuver through a system with very limited knowledge while their home hangs in the balance. 

After we contacted our landlord indicating our knowledge of the foreclosure and confirming that we would no longer be paying him rent, he emphatically told us our information was inaccurate and not valid, that he had come to an agreement with the bank and maintained ownership of the home.  Meanwhile, he demanded our rent for the rest of January while assessing late fees.  He also accused us of being out of line for “investigating” while in the same breath telling us he cares about our family.

We found it hard to believe our long-time landlord, someone we trusted, with whom we had a good working-relationship, would outright lie to us—but something was amiss.  We needed to investigate while also protect ourselves.  More than anything, we just wanted to do the right thing.

Drake and I were left in a tailspin–wondering if we were somehow off-base with the information we had, scrambling for confirmation of the sale (a sale we never wanted in the first place), trying to ascertain our tenant rights, and ultimately anxious over our uncertain future which suddenly seemed even less secure. 

This proved to be a tipping point for me—sleepless nights, headaches, nausea and overall emotional turmoil.  As the facts were in dispute, I felt powerless to determine the truth; every phone call lead to a dead end and our landlord deemed it unnecessary to provide us with further documentation (as much as this seemed sketchy, we wanted to believe the best).

Who would have imagined relief would arise out of a visit from a representative of Freddie Mac showing up on our doorstep this afternoon?   

Though the man at our door came to inform us the property had foreclosed and to give us notice that we will need to cut a deal with the bank to vacate the property (a dreaded thought for us), his presence confirmed the truth—and suddenly I was set free.  I was set free from the confusion that had plagued me these last few days as we tried to make sense of the discrepancies.

But it also revealed something else.  It revealed that our landlord of several years, a man who is fully aware of all our family has been through with Judson, who knows just how much this home means to us, and who said he regarded us as ideal tenants, had flat-out lied to us, several times, to unlawfully milk us for more money.  Here is a man who works in the real estate industry and is clearly knowledgeable about the process, who on his website indicates he “believes in incorporating ethics and integrity into every transaction,” yet was purposefully misleading us.  It hurt.  It hurt us a lot!

Our landlord will likely never know just how destructive his deception has been to us, but we have again been reminded of the value and power of truth. 

And so we cling to the God of all Truth!

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Can anything really be gained through deception?