Legal Services Agency "Inundated" With Tenants Facing Foreclosure Eviction

In Providence, Rhode Island, The Providence Journal recently ran a story on the problems local residents face when renting homes that end up in foreclosure. Among the problems is the stress being placed on a local legal services office by the increased demand of renters needing legal help and dealing with deteriorating pre-eviction living conditions:

• The Rhode Island Legal Services office in Providence has been “inundated” with cases of tenants who are being evicted by banks involved in repossessing foreclosed houses, said Robert M. Sabel, the agency’s litigation director. “Before, it was an occasional case — once every four or five months,” Sabel said. “Now we’re seeing them daily.”

Some of the deteriorating pre-eviction living conditions for tenants caused by landlords in foreclosure are described as follows:

• A landlord who stops paying the mortgage may fall behind on other bills. Then the faucets run dry and furnaces go cold.

For more, see Collateral damage.

For some information for Rhode Island tenants facing a foreclosure eviction, see Issues for renters facing foreclosure. equity skimming unwittingly gamma