JARNJ3
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2008
These folks appear to be collateral damage as a result of this weak economy.
Any ideas\suggestions how renters could protect themselves? I know that they sell renter's insurance for the contents of the rental unit - but I wonder if they could sell some type of insurance against your landlord going into foreclosure? I know some landlords can order credit reports on prospective leasees - I wonder if the leasee could order on a potential landlord?
So glad we own our own home now - but we rented for years. This hits very close to home.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/23/landlord.foreclosure/index.html
Any ideas\suggestions how renters could protect themselves? I know that they sell renter's insurance for the contents of the rental unit - but I wonder if they could sell some type of insurance against your landlord going into foreclosure? I know some landlords can order credit reports on prospective leasees - I wonder if the leasee could order on a potential landlord?
So glad we own our own home now - but we rented for years. This hits very close to home.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/23/landlord.foreclosure/index.html
By Sheila Steffen and Deb Feyerick
CNN's American Morning
ROOSEVELT, New York (CNN) -- When Lisa Brown moved into her rental house on Long Island last summer with her three daughters, she says, it felt like a new beginning.
Lisa Brown has to move out of her rental house because it is facing foreclosure
After living in apartments, the spacious house got her attention immediately. "It was bigger than what I had lived in," she says. Brown was also won over by the neighborhood with its tidy homes and good school district. "I wanted to come here, and I wanted to see my kids graduate from this school district."
But they hardly had a chance. Instead, fighting back tears, she says, "I have to get out."
Brown and her family are being evicted not because of anything they did, but because her landlord defaulted on the mortgage and the house fell into foreclosure. The house was recently sold at auction.
The bad news came just seven months after Brown had moved in. A real estate broker came to the door and handed her an eviction notice, telling her she had 30 days to vacate. "I was hysterical, I was like, what do you mean?"
The broker explained that the landlord no longer owns the property and that the lease was no longer valid. Brown had no idea the house was in foreclosure. As a tenant, she always paid her rent on time, and she assumed the rent was going toward the mortgage.
"I didn't see there was a problem," she said. "You know, I'm paying rent, and she's putting it toward her mortgage, I didn't see the problem."
Unfortunately, Brown is not the only tenant caught off guard. According to the Center for Housing Policy, nearly 20 percent of all foreclosures are on rental properties, and tenants' rights in such situations are minimal.