LovelandRentals.com A division of Second Empire Holdings |
Renters Surprised by foreclosure notice When you pay rent on a house you expect to be able to live there. Laura Morataya did -- until she checked the mail recently. "I received the notice probably about a month ago saying that the house was going to go to public auction," said Morataya. Records show the owner has fallen behind on payments. Morataya says he never told her. "It's scary," she said. "I have a 1 year old daughter. Me and my husband are struggling to get by. Like most people, we live paycheck to paycheck. I have no money saved up. If he had given us a little notice, a month or two months, I'd have put a little money aside. But I have nothing." She's not alone. While investigating the story, we found out that Laura's neighbors are in the same boat and their house is owned by the same guy. Dustin and Kristen Barngrover say they've been paying their rent every month, not knowing what was going on. Luckily, they were already in the process of buying a house when they got their letter. "What if we didn't have a place to go to?" wondered Krisen Barngrover. "We have a kid. She needs to eat. She needs to have air conditioning. If we hadn't been looking for a house. We'd be in big trouble right now." |
homeless By Tamara E. Holmes • Bankrate.com Think you're exempt from the financial fallout of the downtrodden real estate market because you're a renter? Think again. If your landlord is facing foreclosure, you could easily end up on the street as well. There were 223,538 foreclosure filings in September 2007, up almost 99 percent from the year before, according to figures from RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosure activity. And it's not just borrowers losing their personal homes -- in many cases lenders are foreclosing on rental properties. Because lenders are not usually interested in managing rental properties, tenants are finding themselves displaced in the process. "It's a real bad problem," says Ken Volk, founder of Arizona Tenants Advocates & Association, an organization that promotes tenants' rights. The influx of tenants contacting his organization in the last three to six months has prompted Volk to compile information on the topic at his Web site, arizonatenants.com. Not only are tenants being forced to leave, but because they generally have no knowledge of the landlord's deteriorating financial situation, they are often taken by surprise. "They (landlords) see foreclosure coming many, many months away. But they may not communicate this to their renters, so this can sneak up on renters," says Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. In many cases, renters find out that the home or apartment they're renting has been foreclosed on when they are informed that an eviction notice is forthcoming from the lender. Such a notice gives renters a chance to willingly vacate the premises before eviction proceedings take place. Even if the renter's lease isn't up for another six months, renters may get only 30 to 60 days to vacate the premises once evicted, because in most states a foreclosure makes a lease obsolete. Because the lease signed by the renter is no longer in effect, the lender or new owner also isn't obligated to perform any maintenance tasks or continue any other amenities the renter may be used to, with the exception of keeping on basic utilities such as electricity and water. While it's almost impossible to know if your landlord is having money problems, if repairs suddenly start going ignored or if your landlord becomes more unresponsive to your needs, you may want to consider this possibility before signing a new lease. If you do find yourself in the position of having to vacate a property that's been foreclosed on, your options are likely limited. |
By Bruce Spence Record Staff Writer October 28, 2007 6:00 AM Beth Stoneback lost her home to foreclosure this month, and she wasn't even a homeowner. Stoneback, a local high school home-economics teacher, got her own hard lesson in home economics: She found out only when an auction-sale notice was tacked to the front door that the home she rented for $1,300 per month was going up for foreclosure auction The property-management agent told Stoneback she was surprised, because the landlord hadn't told her the house was in foreclosure. Then Stoneback found herself temporarily locked out of the house overnight when the locks were changed by a real-estate agent representing a new foreclosure owner with no idea there were renters in the place. "It was kind of weird," said Stoneback, who, with her daughter and son-in-law, was in the midst of relocating to another rental home. Stoneback knew of the growing foreclosure problems in the area, but it never occurred to her that it would affect her. Foreclosures rise Such can be the story when renters of houses owned by investors end up in foreclosure. And there have been increasing numbers of foreclosures. Kevin Moran, a Coldwell Banker Group real estate agent specializing in foreclosures, estimated that about three out of 10 of the foreclosed homes he handles involve tenants. According to the foreclosure-data firm RealtyTrac, there were 1,932 home foreclosures countywide in the first nine months of this year. Sometimes there can be double the pain. Rosa and Alex Lejis lost their home to foreclosure earlier this year because they were facing insurmountable payments from an adjustable rate mortgage reset two years after buying. Already struggling to make their $3,200 monthly mortgage, Rosa Lejis said, they were looking at monthly payments as high as $4,000. "We counted on being able to refinance," she said. The house for which the Lejises paid $500,000 in May 2005 is now on the market recently as a foreclosure property for $299,000. In April, they signed a one-year lease for a five-bedroom home in the once-booming interstate corridor. Lights go out Recently, she called Norbert Huston, a property-management agent handling her rental, about a power outage that blew out the dishwasher and air-conditioner. "He kind of sounded frazzled," she said. "He told me, 'You need to sit down. I just found out that the homeowners are losing the home you're currently renting.' I got the sensation you get when someone punches you in the stomach." Even with the trauma to her family she feels sympathy for the homeowner and harbors no ill feelings. "I feel bad for them, because I've lost a home myself," she said. Huston said the owner wasn't in foreclosure trouble when the Lejis family rented the home in the spring. The owner of the Lathrop rental house didn't respond to a request for an interview. Fearing another strike Lejis said the whole experience has been overwhelming, and she fears renting another home because of qualms that foreclosure might strike again. "It seems like it's melting all around us," she said. Foreclosures began creating problems a couple of months ago because most of the landlords in foreclosure trouble have failed to report that, said Trudy Miller, the Property Management Experts agent who handled the Stoneback rental house for its owners in Hawaii. Thirteen of her clients have had rental houses go into foreclosure, Miller said. Only two told her what was coming. |
Before You Rent Always check the Larimer County website to see if the property you are applying to lease is going into foreclosure click here for Larimer County foreclosures and search by the property address |