Some Foreclosing Lenders Conducting Illegal Tenant Evictions In Oakland

A story in Northern California's Inside Bay Area is reporting that lenders who have acquired ownership of homes in foreclosure may be illegally evicting tenants or telling them to move in direct violation of a local ordinance that prohibits the practice in many cases. According to the story:

• Across Oakland, scores of renters ... are being served eviction notices or being told to move out as banks take over buildings from defaulting landlords. Yet Oakland's tough rental laws exclude foreclosure as a legal reason to evict tenants, except in rare circumstances. These banks, or the brokers representing them, appear to be ignoring city law or hoping tenants don't know about them. "We are getting quite a bit of evidence that there are many violations of Measure EE" — the city's voter-approved renters' rights ordinance, City Attorney John Russo said earlier this month. "The banks foreclose and the landlords take off."

• Tenants caught in between the banks and their errant landlords may face difficult straits, he said, including eviction. In some cases, building utilities have been turned off because landlords stopped paying the bills.

[...]

• Measure EE, the "just cause" eviction ordinance passed in 2002, specifies when eviction may occur. Except in dwellings built since 1980, the owner cannot evict rent-paying tenants who abide by rental agreements unless the owner occupies at least a third of the building or intends to move into the unit or move family into the unit. The measure also says landlords must abide by lease agreements unless tenants fail to pay rent, damage property or breach some other portion of a rental agreement.

For more, see Mortgage crisis hurting tenants (Some renters illegally evicted from buildings in foreclosure) (if link expires, try here - courtesy of FindArticles.com).

See also, Oakland City Attorney: Foreclosures Shouldn’t Force Evictions (KCBS Radio - 740 AM).

Measure EE available online courtesy of the Oakland Association of Realtors. unwittingly equity skimming beta