Moratorium On Water Shut-Offs For Tenants In Foreclosed Homes To Continue In East Bay

From the East Bay area of Northern California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

• The East Bay's largest water agency agreed Tuesday not to shut off service to tenants in foreclosed apartment buildings for the time being, but stopped short of authorizing liens on the property for bills their landlords have not paid. The Board of Directors of the East Bay Municipal Utility District unanimously agreed to continue a moratorium begun last month on water shut-offs to multi-family buildings whose owners stopped paying the water bill.

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• The board's action was criticized by Just Cause Oakland, a tenants-support group that had lobbied for a permanent end to water shut-offs where tenants are not at fault for unpaid bills. [...] The board agreed that it would revisit its policy for multi-family buildings in three to four months. [...] Advocates for tenants and some Oakland officials have complained that the surge in foreclosures has caused a sharp increase in attempted illegal evictions in foreclosed rental properties.

For more, see EBMUD won't leave tenants high and dry. equity skimming unwittingly epsilon