landlord filed bankruptcy

[lilbit]

I need to find out if anyone knows the statute of limitations to take a landlord to court? briefly, we entered into a lease option paid extra each month towards the down payment we would rent for proxamently 4 years then at that time the extra we paid in would cover the down payment on the purchase, we signed contract and all but the landlord filed bankruptcy didnt include us as intrested party he had taken out a loan on the property without us knowing about it while living there so they subsequently kicked us out of the house we thought we were buying! and he refused to pay us our money we had for down payment. any advice would be greatly appriciated.
Lilbit