More Stories On Tenants With Landlords Facing Foreclosure

The following is an assortment of stories on tenants and the problems arising when landlords find themselves financially overextended:

• Sioux City, Iowa: Tenants of many apartments owned by KJM Properties and Meyer Company are getting the boot from their foreclosed buildings in the coming weeks, but in the meantime they're just doing what they can to stay warm. Boiler and maintenance issues are closing down the apartments at 1529 Grandview in Sioux City. Tenant Starla Thomas says her apartment's main radiator hasn't worked since she moved in. Thomas and other tenants were told by the property owners to use space heaters. See Foreclosed Buildings Offer No Heat For Some Tenants.

• St. Petersburg, Florida: A 65-year-old Vietnam Vet who is paralyzed from the waist down and is current on his rent is served with a foreclosure notice and has recently had his water shutoff after the landlord reportedly failed to pay the bill. He said, "I've got to bathe at least twice a day. I'm on 28 medications three times a day and with the medications I've got to keep clean and without water, I'm stuck." See Frustrated renter deals with water shutoff and foreclosure.

• Valdosta, Florida: Dwayne and Gail Floyd and Ella Lowe are among more than 20 apartment renters that are being forced to move because the bank foreclosed on their building. "We was paying our rent on time. We thought the landlady was doing what she was supposed to do but apparently she wasn't. One morning I heard a knock at the door, we opened the door, there was a guy there telling us we had to get out," said Lowe, 65, an evicted renter who [...] suffers from heart disease and takes insulin. See Tenants Evicted in Valdosta Foreclosure Crisis.

• New Britain, Connecticut: Warren Hinze is a tenant operating a music store in the Raphael building, located just a block from City Hall. The landlord left the country without paying the mortgage and now that building is in foreclosure. Hinze and the other tenants figure the building might be worth something. But one tenant has already left. "They're moving out now," Hinze said. The tenants also have no heat. To tolerate the cold, Hinze put a space heater on the floor behind the counter and he wears a heavy jacket. Earlier in the winter, the tenants pooled money to buy oil for the furnace but it has not lasted. See Looking for a Landlord (A downtown New Britain building still has tenants, but no one to run the building).

• Florida: Florida State Senator Mike Fasano recently authored Senate Bill 454, a proposed law to provide a penalty up to $10,000 for property owners who dupe tenants into leases without first disclosing that the home is in, or headed for, foreclosure. Victims could recoup "reasonable" attorney fees. In addition, the proposed law would require an extra form to be added to the rental agreement. The property owner would have to sign the sheet, either verifying the house is not involved in foreclosure or at least disclosing any legal proceedings to potential renters. The bill will go to Senate committees for consideration when the Legislature begins its 2009 regular session, March 3, 2009. See Legislation Targets Dirty Foreclosure Practices.

• Arizona: State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor has filed a bill to mandate landlords facing foreclosure action to provide tenants with a written notice at least 30 days before the date of a foreclosure sale. Under S1108, a landowner who knowingly fails to provide a notice could be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. "I've had more than my share of constituent phone calls - of folks just beside themselves because they have only had five days to move out of a property that they had been paying rent on," Landrum Taylor said. "I could not hear about another family going through this." See Phoenix senator files bill to protect renters from foreclosure on landlords.

For other posts involving the problems tenants face in homes in foreclosure, go here, go here, go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here. SkimmingKappaRent