By Moe Bedard
The simple act of renting a home for Main Street Americans has become a sick game of “Where’s the foreclosure?” or another popular rental hit, “Let’s see how long we can rent in this home before it falls into foreclosure?”
The scam of renting a home when it is in foreclosure and not paying the mortgage has now become a national epidemic. Personally, I believe this new Main Street rip off is more rampant than any loan modification or investment scam in the country at the moment.
Scam victims are simply out of luck because currently there are virtually no tenant protection laws and very little is being done by our government to curtail these predatory landlords from fleecing unsuspecting renters.
From the NY Daily:
Under state law, banks that take over the properties don’t have to notify tenants their properties have been foreclosed on, and they can be told to leave in 10 days or face an eviction suit.
“These are people who paid their rent on time, played by the rules, maintained these properties – and one day they wake up and a marshal is at their door ready to evict them,” said State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx-Westchester) at a City Hall press conference yesterday with several City Council members and housing activists.
The group gathered to press for passage in Albany of a Klein-sponsored bill that would force banks and other lenders to alert tenants that their homes have been foreclosed on, and give them as long as 90 days to find housing.
Great states like New York, California and now Ohio are starting to address this two year old scam that has become a national crisis.
From the Newark Advocate:
COLUMBUS — The Ohio House has passed a bill with new protections so renters don’t find themselves suddenly on the sidewalk in foreclosure cases.
The legislation would require landlords to inform current and potential tenants if a property falls into foreclosure. Also, renters would need three weeks’ notice of any sheriff’s sale of a home or apartment building.
Democratic Rep. Ted Celeste of suburban Columbus says tenants largely have been forgotten in the current mortgage crisis and need safeguards.
My personal battle against my predatory renting landlord has been well documented on my blog over that last several months. Sadly, that battle ended for my family and me.
The foreclosure writing has been on my homes walls for the last four months and my family could not take the stress anymore. So, this past weekend we quietly packed up our belongings and rented a 26′ U-Haul trailer and moved to another home in a another city.
Yeah, we never owned the home, but it was still a place my family called home.
It was disheartening to witness my 2 and a half year old son confused as to why we were leaving the only home he has ever known. He didn’t want to leave and he kept saying, “This is my house! I don’t want a new house!” He couldn’t even fathom that we never owned the home or that it was being foreclosed on.
His life is all about eat, sleep, play and then rinse and repeat daily. He did this for his entire life all under one roof and that roof is sadly gone for that kid.
I knew that this abrupt move from our home would have a phsycological affect on all my children. So, my plan was to one up that home with rental that was more suitable for us all. A place where the kids would go, “This is cool!”
That’s what I was searching for and luckily I found it. It took 3 months of searching and cross referencing the Notice of Defaults list here in Riverside County, California to find that perfect rental home not in foreclosure or just another foreclosure waiting to happen.
It is sad that the simple act of finding a rental home has turned into an act of trying to get scammed by a predatory renting landlord. This scam needs to be stopped and our states need to enact laws to punish these criminals that are operating in broad daylight stealing from innocent Americans that are just looking for a place to call home.
Predatory Renting Research Links:
Predatory Renting
11-20-2007 by Moe Bedard
Predatory Renting – New Yorker Renters May be the Next Victims of The Foreclosure Crisis
7-2-2008 by Moe Bedard
Predatory Renting Extends its Grip to Apartments, Low Income Families
3-20-2009 by Moe Bedard