What renters need to know about foreclosure
If you're renting a home, don't assume foreclosure won't affect you.
As tenants across the country have discovered the last few years, you can end up with a bank wanting to throw you out if your landlord doesn't keep up with the mortgage payments. Some residents who never missed a rent payment have been caught completely by surprise.
The Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition and the Public Justice Center are launching a new education campaign to put renters on guard and remind them of their rights if a foreclosing bank starts talking about eviction.
About 40 percent of Baltimore homes in the foreclosure process are investor-owned, so that does happen all the time. Some landlords get behind because their renters aren't paying, but others simply overextended themselves.
"Tenants are often the forgotten and unintended victims of foreclosure," Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said in a statement about the campaign.
The key things to remember:
Renters generally have the right to remain in the home for the remainder of their lease, or at least 90 days after receiving a valid notice to vacate if the lease term is shorter. Campaign organizers recommend that renters get legal help -- Public Justice offers it for free -- before accepting any deals to move out early in exchange for cash.
How can you know if your landlord is in trouble? Open all mail, even if it's just addressed to "occupant," so you don't miss official notices. You can also find out if a foreclosure case is pending in a Maryland court by putting the landlord's name into the court system's look-up site. (In Baltimore, you can also search by the property address.)
The public awareness campaign, funded with $30,000 from the Open Society Institute, will include television and radio spots as well as MTA bus ads.
Categories: Renting, The foreclosure mess
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Comments
How can we search for foreclosure information in Baltimore City by address? The link in the blog posting allows me to search by name, but I'm not sure how to search by address. Thank you!
Posted by: Melissa | March 15, 2011 2:13 PM
Sorry, I should have made that clearer, Melissa -- you click on the "company" option at the top of the page (default is "person") and type in the address. Always good to try it a couple ways, i.e. "123 N Main," "123 North Main," "123 Main," to account for how it was entered in the system.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | March 15, 2011 2:48 PM
My family went through this 3 years ago, we had know idea until the sheriff showed up with the eviction papers. The absentee landlord lost the property a good 3 months before we knew, we were still sending rent checks even though the bank owned the property. We were confused because the name on the papers was from the lender not our landlord. It was a real mess. We took the landlord to court over the rent that was paid after she no longer owned the property. She never showed in court, the best that happened was a judgement against her. I am sure there is a long line in front of us. Oh well live and learn.
Posted by: gueman | March 16, 2011 3:53 PM