Apartment Owners and Landlords Facing Foreclosure

Foreclosures are hitting apartment owners and landlords.

Talk about a cash flow problem that affects everyone.

You rent an apartment or single family home. You’re current on your bills so there’s no danger you’ll have problems because your rental unit is being foreclosed on – correct? Think again.

Renters are learning that apartment owners and landlords are facing foreclosure. Suddenly, renters are given a notice to vacate and they may only have days to prepare. News reports from across the country are picking up on the growing problem.

Apartments in foreclosure are also found in what are traditionally lower cost housing markets such as Bakersfield, California and Riverside County, California.

California Apartment Association estimates that 25% of foreclosed single family homes have renters living in them. The organization states that landlords and property management companies have ethical concerns regarding tenant security deposits.

So what can you do? There is a web based service that can let you see if your landlord is facing foreclosure. Or, if you’re about to move in to an apartment, you can see if your prospective landlord is facing foreclosure.

Check for Foreclosure.com states “Unfortunately, landlords, banks, and mortgage companies are under no obligation to inform tenants of looming foreclosures, so it's all perfectly legal.”

The site is a subscription service but it also offers a free trial.

The companion site, Tenant Foreclosure.com offers a real life story of a husband and wife who lost several thousand dollars.

"In December 2007, D. Bradshaw and his wife rented a house in Las Vegas for $1,500 a month. Little did they know that four months before they moved in, the house had fallen into foreclosure because their new landlord failed to pay his mortgage.

As soon as they moved in, a notice was posted on the door that the house would be auctioned off in just three weeks. They had paid the landlord $5,500 in move-in costs plus a $2,500 option to by the house the following year.

But in less than a month they would be evicted with no place to go.They took their case to court. The judge realized the couple had been snookered out of $8,000 by a deadbeat landlord and gave them an extra 10 days to move.

Unfortunately, that was the only concession the judge could award because real estate laws favor landlords and banks, not renters."

The site also has a blog
Renters in Crisis.