WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

I don't know about you, but I have no sympathy at all for those landlords whose single-family, rental homes are in foreclosure across the country.

About 500,000 homes are expected to be placed in foreclosure this year, according to RealtyTrac of Irvine, CA.  Moody's of New York City puts the number at 1.7 million.  I personally think 750,000 is more accurate.

Even so, both research houses figure about 40 percent of the total foreclosures this year will be on single-family rental homes--homes not occupied by the actual owner.

I say those landlords deserve to lose their properties for failing to pay their mortgage loans on time and for not notifying the lender of their temporary or permanent financial bind.

All my sympathy, however, is directed at the renters.

Many never knew their landlord wasn't paying off his or her mortgage with their monthly rent payments.  Instead, he or she was pocketing the rent and making a deposit all right - right into their personal bank account.

Up until last week, the bank or whatever lender was holding the delinquent mortgage on the home, could legally have a representative knock on the renter's front door and order the occupant to vacate the premises within 48 hours.

Talk about Gestapo-style tactics.  Give me a break.

Now, however, the playing field has changed dramatically in favor of the renter.

For the first time in 233 years, the Obama Administration has pushed through legislation that allows the renter to stay in his or her home until their lease expires.

For example, if the tenant had signed a 12-month lease in January and the foreclosure action came in  February, the renter would have another 11 months grace to stay in the home.

Even then, the renter gets another 90 days grace, or three months, to find another property.  So that is a total 14 months of eviction protection this hypothetical renter would have under the new law.

Without a lease, the renter is allowed to stay in his home for a full 90 days, or 12 weeks, after the foreclosure action has been completed and recorded.  That process can take up to a year.

From what I hear, all lenders are abiding by the new law.  Some are even going further and offering cash "buyouts" if the renter will vacate the premises at a specified date, usually earlier than the new law requires.

Some, even, will reimburse the renter for any special maintenance or cleanup chores done on the property.

I like that. Most bankers, I know, are not ogres or Scrooges.

Their main concern is getting the property back in decent shape and then reselling it quickly so that they can get the asset off their books and recoup a partial amount of the original mortgage loan.

Until now, there had never been local, state or national protection for renters against foreclosure actions.

What there should be as well, is legislation punishing those heartless landlords who rent to tenants, without telling them their properties are awaiting a foreclosure action.

And that's the way I see it - for now.   

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