The difficulties in outreach to tenants comes as the government continues expanding options and assistance to borrowers and renters dealing with foreclosure. In addition to the new federal law, the Treasury Department plans soon to rollout its plan encouraging more short sales by offering financial incentives to lenders and borrowers. Currently, the lease would dissolve at the time of foreclosure and the renter would lose their home. Agents who perform BPOs have an inherent conflict of interest, because they are working for lenders who want to quickly dispose of properties. Speculators and other investors scoop them up at the fire sale prices, dragging down property values overall.

The current struggle to win justice for the residents at some apartments has broader implications for the overall campaign to win a general moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs in the state of Michigan. As the economy further declines more people will face illegal lockouts and displacements. There were only few incidences when the landlord was honest enough with the renters, notifying them about the foreclosure situation months in advance.

Many are being joined by scores of renters who discover, often with no warning, that their rented house or apartment is now owned by a bank, which wants them out in a matter of days. For most of these renters, their options are bleak. It simply means that now is the time to buy all of the Michigan foreclosure properties that you can through Short Sales, rent them out and flip them later. Or re-finance in the near future and pull out the massive amount of equity that you have in the property. That’s often the first indication of trouble for renters. Some also encourage tenants to open mail that comes addressed to “occupant,” since sometimes foreclosure notices will be mailed that way.

Douglass Diggs, a city planning director, said they are encouraging tenants to try lease-to-own or rent-to-own contracts so that they could capitalize on low home prices partly caused by Michigan’s high foreclosures by state. Tenants in common arrangement is not much different from joint ownership or partnership. However, there is some subtle form of difference between the two. Damages may include moving expenses, new apartment application fees and deposits, and the difference between new rent and the old rent, if any.

Some people a rental agreement to a “month to month” rental, designating a lease for a longer rental terms. To avoid permanent damage on a renter’s record, the renter can have an order of eviction vacated in court. In the past year apartment owners have found an automatic increase in demand for rented accommodation because of the foreclosure crisis. Another reason is that after suffering the foreclosure marauding, few people can afford to buy houses; they have no option but to move into rented lodgings.

If the landlord fails to disclose and the tenant has to move as a result, the tenant can recover twice his actual damages and all prepaid rent. This legislation will require that in the event of foreclosure, existing leases for renters are honored, except in the case of month-to-month leases or owner occupant foreclosing. If so, a minimum of 90 days notice will be required. Sadly, the most vulnerable, yet forgotten victims of today’s foreclosure crisis, have been the young dependent children of low-income renters who end up facing homelessness along with their parents. Consequently, parents have been forced to entrust their children with relatives or close friends in order to save them from the experience of homelessness.

In Michigan 28% of the foreclosed houses were not lived in by the owners but had been rented out. In California of all the properties foreclosed, 22% of the units were not occupied by the landlords. The current listings of bank foreclosed homes in Denver show prices of homes ranging from $65,000 to $308,000. One of the reasons why home buyers prefer Denver to be their residence is because of wide opportunities. It’s an extreme example of misplaced punishment: the landlord doesn’t pay the mortgage, and the person who’s renting pays the price. Unfortunately, renters are often the last to know that their landlord has fallen behind on his payments.

By letting renters stay in those homes, instead of evicting them, Fannie Mae can leave those properties on auto-pilot and worry about the rest. Also, as someone who has considered buying rental properties, an occupied property is more valuable than a vacant one. Fannie Mae has pledged to change that with its new renter policy starting this month. The plan will allow renters living in foreclosed properties to sign new leases with Fannie while the property is up for sale, or give the tenants money to move. Fannie has yet to establish the length of the leases, and the amount of move-out assistance will vary by state and property. Freddie Mac says it will unveil a similar program in a few weeks.

This scenario is becoming all-too-familiar for thousands of renters nationwide. Unintended victims of foreclosures are dealing with problems first hand due to the failing economy. Biggest question we have is why one legal document (the mortgage) trumps another legal document (the lease) and what renters recourse is. Will they ever get their money back??? Some states, including California and Illinois, have recently passed legislation giving renters a grace period, ranging from 30 days and up, to stay in a property after it’s been sold in foreclosure. Others are considering similar legislation.

Such displaced renters are usually in the dark about the financial situation that led their landlords to foreclose. But Carreon has a window into the particulars behind his situation because of his contact with law enforcement in this case. That’s often the first indication of trouble for renters. Sher also encourages tenants to open mail that comes addressed to “occupant,” since sometimes foreclosure notices will be mailed that way. Legally speaking the renters lose their tenancy rights with the onset of foreclosure. Usually tenants have to move out within 30 days of being served notice.

Hopefully in the future landlords will be required to disclose their financial troubles for the benefit of renters. What makes the situation particularly awkward is even though a renter may be in good financial standing, he or she may still wind up being penalized. Even worse, landlords often continue to find new tenants for vacant properties even after foreclosure proceedings have begun in some kind of effort to repair their finances. Other renters might be in a bad way but this one has six months of rent plus a thousand dollars. I wish I could live somewhere for six months rent free and then someone give me a thousand dollars on top of that.

Typically, tenants are given 30 days to vacate the premises – something that’s already happened to a number of Bula Enterprises renters. Therefore let the renter beware, and research the status of the space he/she/they are about to occupy. Is the landlord solvent? And renters are getting the real brunt of the beating. Up until very recently tenants in some parts of the country had as little as 3-days to vacate the premises of a foreclosed property after being notified by the financial institution taking possession of the property due to defaulted mortgage payments.