Tenants Not Spared Foreclosure Waves

Posted in Foreclosure, November 27th, 2007 |

The statistics is rather high – of 8 properties tainted by foreclosures one tenant is looking at the sky for shelter. Tenants are taken unawares and are thoroughly confused. The worst thing is that so far nobody has focused on their plight and they have been left to fend for themselves. The renters are of many kinds – some live in apartments while others have made entire houses their homes. So far the no details have been collected about the exact number of tenants facing foreclosure related marching orders.

The figure of one out of 8 foreclosed units being occupied by tenants is rather vague and on the low side. The number is much greater. Mortgage Bankers Association have been compiling data and they are rather skeptical themselves about the ratio of 1:8. In the near future in a couple of months 1 million units are expected to fall into foreclosures and this means more tenants will find themselves at sea.

Many of the renters complain that they have paid their rents regularly and yet have not been informed about the shaky foundations of ownership. At the last minute, when they hardly have time to look around for an alternative, are they told to go. With so many looking around for rented accommodation the going is not easy.

The legal fraternity is aghast. This is not business in the usual sense – it is a sacrilege of human rights. Investors had over reached themselves and the tenants are now unknowingly for no fault of theirs paying the price of foreclosure related issues.

Not all the houses tagged with foreclosure are occupied by owners. Nevada is one of the top ranking foreclosure offenders. Here 28% of the foreclosed houses were not lived in by the owners but had been rented out. Nevada, Arizona and Florida – the top three rankers have an average far above the national median. In California of all the properties foreclosed, 22% of the units were not occupied by the landlords. These are reliable figures from online tracking agencies. Lenders hurry to evict tenants because a vacant house fetches a better price.

The Northern couple lives in new Las Vegas. Their house has now been foreclosed. They have always timely paid their rent. But now they are living under the shadow of a notice that might come any day telling them to move out within 72 hours.