<p>I was in a similar situation to the original poster. At least in our case, the landlords had been paying the mortgage until they divorced. Then the wife got he property and didn't pay the mortgage, but did collect the rent. We found this out after a notice of default was posted on our door. We then started looking for a new place. We carefully documented that we were not paying rent the last two months because we had extremely good reason to believe that we would not receive our deposit or last month's rent back. If memory serves me right, my roommate talked to the lender and told them we would be out on a particular date, and that there wasn't a need for eviction. We were out a few weeks before the foreclosure sale.</p>
<p>If you want to be super-diligent, you can check for a notice of default or foreclosure before renting. Those are public filings under the name of the owner. </p>