Renters Traumatized by Foreclosures
July 3rd, 2009
Renters are being traumatized by foreclosures – it being their nightmare. A recent law enacted by the federal government will permit the renters to continue to stay on the foreclosed units till the completion of their period of lease. An extra 90 days would be given to resolve the problem about notifying the tenants regarding the impending foreclosure.
Steve Lehr’s task is to hand over the summons order to the renters of foreclosed units. He represents the attorneys of the mortgage lenders. The process involved the listing of the names of the tenants in Alachua County so that the county could keep track of the progress of the process.
Earlier this year the office of the County Clerk stopped these summons being issued. As a result many renters may not know about the foreclosure until the very last minute when the new owners would evict them bag and baggage. Then they would have very little time to find alternative arrangements.
Lehr does not like it. He said, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to a property occupied by tenants, and you see the panicked look on their face. ‘Do I have three days? Do I have five days? I’ve got kids. I pay my rent.’ What about those people? Who’s going to let them know?”
The procedure of issuing summons was discontinued from 15th January on the promptings of the attorney of the clerk. These summons showed the renters as being sued in the court – this not being good for their records. Clerk Buddy Irby said, “If you were a renter, I’d think you’d be upset that the court records show that you are being sued in a foreclosure suit.”
Another reason for discontinuation was that the summons led to a pile up of plenty of paperwork that consumed time as well as dollars. It was the taxpayers that ultimately had to foot the bill. Irby said that the matter would be more simplified if the attorneys sent letters to the tenants notifying them of the impending foreclosure. Lehr however was skeptical that there is no guarantee that the legal firms will notify the hapless victims. There is nothing to compel them to comply.
Real estate attorney, Karl Klein said the tenants were being sued technically because the banks wanted to enforce a break in the lease. To do so the tenants had to be shown as one of the parties in the foreclosure suit.
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