Tenants In Homes Facing Foreclosure Continue Feeling Uncertainty, Despite Protections Under Federal Law

In Orange Park, Florida, First Coast News reports:

• At the Orange Park Parkridge Apartment Complex, residents are just finding out the property is in foreclosure. Pamela Carden lives there and is worried. "I don't know if I have to move; I don't know what our rights are as tenants," said Carden.

• Carden's lease expires in August, but she's decided to start packing in case she has to leave in a hurry. "We have not been notified by the bank, nor the attorneys." But there are protections for renters living in foreclosed properties, said attorney Erica Shaffor of Three Rivers Legal Services.(1) "There's a new federal law that provides protection," she said.(2)

• A landlord has to allow a tenant to live on the property at least three months from the time the foreclosure proceedings begin, she said. An attorney for the lender said tenants should have been informed. Even those on a month-to-month lease are still allowed to live on the property 90 days, said Shaffor. "However, (you) still have to stay current with your rent. If you fall behind you will be subject to an eviction," said Shaffor.

• Carden is pleased that she doesn't have to move out in a hurry, but she said when her lease expires in August, she will have to find a new place to call home. "If you have to move and you have kids or pets, you have to be able to plan and to save," said Carden. This 90-day allowance also applies to anyone living in Section 8 housing.

Source: Orange Park Renter Discovers Apartment in Foreclosure.

(1) Three Rivers Legal Services, Inc. is a local, non-profit corporation which provides free civil legal services to low-income, eligible clients in seventeen counties throughout North Florida.

(2) See the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, which provides important federal protections for tenants in foreclosed properties, including the right to receive 90 days' notice before being required to leave the property and, in many cases, the right to remain for the length of the tenant's existing lease term.

See also, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Staying Home: The Rights of Renters Living in Foreclosed Properties.