100+ Tenants Ordered Out Of F'closed Complex; New Landlord Says Mold, Plumbing Repairs In Condemned Units Can't Be Fixed Unless Premises Is Vacated

In Lexington, Kentucky, WKYT-TV Channel 27 reports:

• Some of them say it came as a shock. More than 100 people at Sonnet Cove Apartments in Lexington have been told to leave, because many of the units are considered unsafe.
• "I have to start all over..and I haven't even started," said Melinda Clemons, who just moved in to the complex. Clemons didn't expect to be apartment hunting again so soon. "I signed my lease the 25th of February, and on March 29th I was notified the building was condemned," said Clemons.
• A notice from the new complex owners was put on the doors of more than a hundred tenants who live at the complex. Much to Clemons' surprise, Sonnet Cove had been in foreclosure. Nearly a year ago, dozens of units had been condemned because of mold and plumbing problems.
• Last Tuesday, the complex was purchased by a new company, and the residents were given 30 day's to leave. The new owners referred to the buildings as unsafe.
• "I just moved in," said Clemons, "but other residents have just renewed their leases, and from my understanding others were also unaware of the situation."

For more, see Tenants of apartment complex told to find new homes (More than a hundred people living in a large Lexington apartment complex are asked to leave after dozens of units were condemned a year ago).

(1) While the tenants would probably have no protections against this type of eviction if it were local city/county officials ordering the premises vacated for health and safety reasons, it appears that the landlord in this case would be bound by the Federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, which provides important 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. There is no exception in the law allowing for a landlord purchasing an occupied foreclosure property to boot tenants based on health & safety issues.