Foreclosures Sparing Neither Renters Nor Soldiers

June 20th, 2008

Breaking across all lines of division the slippery tentacles of foreclosures are sparing neither renter nor soldiers.

In Las Vegas, Marketa Johnson and her husband Derrick were tenants and they had never missed out on a single payment. Yet on the eve of her husband’s departure for the Middle East war front, a notice of eviction was served. The owner was embroiled in a foreclosure. Marketa Johnson simply had to pack her bags. In her new rented quarters she again got a similar notice. This time she decided to give a fight. Derrick is an air force pilot. He quipped that military personnel make good tenants, take care of the premises and are never late. There is no reason why they should be evicted.

The surging foreclosure crisis is pulling down tenants along with the delinquent mortgage borrowers. Of the foreclosed units, about one out of five were not occupied by the owners, according to a quick survey conducted by Mortgage Bankers Association. In reality the figures are higher because most of the owners want to be listed as occupiers of the mortgaged units.

States have different laws for renters. Following the foreclosure notification the tenants may get either few days or few months to move out. If they learn about it only when the Sheriff pastes the notice on the door front then it is a matter of days only, says Jeffrey Hearne an attorney attached to Legal Services of Greater Miami. The particular clauses may vary from one part of the country to another but basically there is no doubt that the number of renters caught in the foreclosure net is increasing. One out of every four calls coming in is related to foreclosure connected renter problems. Similar increase in calls is being noted by other legal agencies.

Such types of clients hardly reported about a year earlier. In the past 18 months about 5,000 have been thus victimized by foreclosure. Many of the families in Las Vegas are connected with the armed forces. Among other challenges of life and death this is another issue of survival. Michael Estrada, a spokesperson of Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada comments, “it is so disruptive to our mission.” More than 8,000 airmen have their families staying off base. It is becoming more common of the men fighting in the front while the families battle foreclosure related problems – all being problems of basic survival.

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