Foreclosures In Ohio Silently Victimizing Tenants

Reports coming in from Ohio show that the tenants are the silent victims of the foreclosure crisis. Their voices remain unheard. The income of the ordinary people is also going down because of the foreclosure tornado.

With more and more people being evicted from their houses the demand for rented accommodation has gone up. A recent survey shows that tenants now occupy 30% of all the residential properties. Another reading shows that the income of Ohioans is going down. Tenants have few legal rights and are at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords as well as scammers.

In Cuyahoga County foreclosure filings are rising according to the findings of Policy Matters Ohio. The study is mainly concentrated in Cuyahoga County. It is a non-profit body without any party affiliations delving in economic research. Residential foreclosures increased by 8% from 2007. The number of foreclosed houses occupied by tenants also increased but at a higher rate than the previous category. Renters occupied 30% of the residential properties that were posted in 2007.

Tenants comprise of over a third of the population of Cuyahoga County. They suffer the same trauma as the owners occupying houses but with less focus and fewer avenues of redress or escape. They are not considered to be part of the foreclosure process.

Most of the families are hardly given any decent time before being asked to vacate. To shift suddenly they have to incur significant expenses. It dramatically changes their lifestyle. They usually lose their security deposits and have to pay higher rents for the next shelter and suffer the attendant costs of shifting and storage. For the average family it calculates to $2,500. A rough estimate is that tenants have suffered in all, losses amounting to $10 million.

Over 35% of the foreclosure postings of Cleveland counting to 2,586 and East Cleveland counting to 175 are related to rented houses. Most of the houses in the inner-ring suburbs suffered considerable rise in tenanted foreclosure listings. Report from Cleveland Housing Court show that number of houses being foreclosed having tenants have doubled.

The report suggests enacting of laws for the protection of renters at the state and federal level. Proper and timely notice should be made compulsory. Loans (with no or negligible interest) should be made available for renters to be able to shift and set up home again. The banks should focus on incentives rather than evictions.