Renters in Foreclosure Toolkit

On May 20, 2009, the President signed into a law a bill containing provisions protecting tenants living in foreclosed buildings (the Protecting Tenants in Foreclosure Act is Title VII of Public Law 111-22).

These provisions immediately went into effect and are “self-executing,” so no federal agency (such as HUD) is responsible for making them work.  It is up to advocates to make sure that tenants, landlords, public housing authorities, courts, the legal community, and others involved in the foreclosure process are aware of these new rights for tenants.

Click here for sample letters and notices.

Avoid Foreclosure and the Rescue Scams

It’s estimated 6500 new foreclosures are filed everyday nationwide. That leaves many homeowners who are struggling to hold onto their homes which are easy targets for forclosure rescue scams. Learn how to avoid both foreclosure and the rescue scams.

Austin Area Feeling the Foreclosure Bite

GEORGETOWN — Alma and Adolfo Vasquez might not appear to be prime candidates for foreclosure. Their 3,100-square-foot home near two golf courses is appraised at nearly half a million dollars. They were far from irresponsible buyers, making a 20 percent down payment after selling their California home in 2006, just before the housing bubble burst.

But by early April, the Vasquez family, slammed by a double whammy of rising property taxes and tough times for Adolfo’s home-renovation business, were three days from losing their home at a foreclosure auction.

“It’s an emotional torture,” Alma Vasquez said. “We never thought we could end up in this situation, but it happened. It’s kind of embarrassing; you don’t want to let your friends or anyone know.”

The conventional wisdom is that Central Texas and Austin in particular — thanks to its dynamic economy — have largely escaped the foreclosure epidemic ravaging states like California, Florida and Arizona. The Austin area’s foreclosure rate is still a fraction of the nation’s: 0.5 percent of properties with active mortgages in May, compared to the nation’s 1.8 percent.

But foreclosures are quietly rising here, according to First American CoreLogic, one of several private companies that compile foreclosure statistics.

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Notify Landlord of Problems in Writing

I live in a senior community. In the attic area, insulation has been haphazardly blown, and it looks like pink cotton candy. There are pieces all over the attic. There are little flecks of crystals that shine when light is put on it. Because there are no out ducts for dryers, all of the lint goes right into the ceiling. When we turn on our air conditioning, it fills our apartments with lint and white dust. It is everywhere! Also there are no ducts over our kitchen stoves, and when the fan is turned on it blows right back into our face. In the bathroom, where the fan is in the ceiling, there are no flaps on the outlet on the roof. Whom do I get in touch with about these problems? I have made several phone calls and I always get the runaround.

What are this tenant’s rights?

Protections for Tenants in Foreclosed Properties

Renters whose landlords fall into foreclosure have new protections from evictions under a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama.

The bill provides renters whose landlords have lost their properties to foreclosure the right to stay in the home for 90 days after the foreclosure or through the term of their lease unless the property is sold to someone who will occupy the home.  The bill also provides similar protections to housing voucher holders.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that 40 percent of the households who lose their homes because of foreclosure are renters.

The renter protection provisions went into effect on May 20, 2009, and will expire at the end of 2012. In most states, renters get little or no notice to vacate their homes upon their landlords’ foreclosures. The new federal protections preempt state law unless a state provides a greater level of renter protections at foreclosure.

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Lawmakers Seek to Prevent HOAs From Banning Mezuzahs

When Monica Lundeen Smith and Michael Smith got a letter from their condo owners association asking them to take down “the item” on their doorframe, they assumed it was a simple misunderstanding.

The association, the couple figured, must not have known that the object was a mezuzah, a small box with a scroll inside that Jews traditionally affix to their doorposts.

“We thought we just needed to have the opportunity to explain to these people that it’s part of our religion, that we can’t take it down,” said Lundeen Smith, who was renting the Houston condo with her boyfriend, who is now her husband.

But the association persisted, she said, and two years later, the Texas Legislature is considering a bill inspired by their experience.

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Utility Interruptions

A reader of the Austin American Statesman submitted this question to the newspaper:

Our daughter has lived in an apartment complex for about five months, and the water has been shut off countless times, supposedly because of ongoing construction and water-pipe breaks. There is no warning of an impending shut-off, and a note is usually tacked to the door after it happens. The water stays off for hours at a time, sometimes all day. Our daughter is medically disabled and usually home all day and cannot function without water. What are her rights as a tenant? —K.B.

What did the Austin Tenants’ Council advise this tenant?

Discriminacion Es Ilegal

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has produced a video to educate Spanish-speaking Hispanic families about their fair housing rights. In the video, a HUD employee, while speaking Spanish, explains that it’s illegal to discriminate in housing based on race, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or family status.

Apartment Conditions Affect Renters

For some renters in Austin substandard conditions are threatening their sense of security and even their safety. FOX 7’s Crystal Cotti exposes the problem and the city’s limited ability to solve it in this special report.

House Bill 421 Requires Notice to Tenants in Foreclosures

Rep. Dawnna Dukes of Austin has filed House Bill 421 in the Texas House of Representatives. This bill addresses tenants’ rights during a foreclosure. It requires a landlord to notify tenants within seven days of receiving notice of a foreclosure sale.

Call your state representative to let him/her know your thoughts on the proposed legislation. Find out who represents you.

If you would like to speak before the Texas Legislature on these issues, contact the Austin Tenants’ Council at 512-474-7006.