New Hotline Will Help Renters Affected by Foreclosures

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bob Cuddy
SLO Times

Roughly 40 percent of the
foreclosures in San Luis Obispo County affect renters, and a statewide
group has set up a hotline to help them.

Tenants
Together, a group formed to protect renters’ rights, has set up the
hotline “to address a growing problem – the harassment and displacement
of tenants who are innocent victims of the mortgage crisis,” according
to Dean Preston, executive director.

California tenants can reach the Tenant Foreclosure Hotline at (415) 495-8012.

Preston wrote in a press release that approximately 25 percent of
buildings in foreclosure statewide in 2008 were renter-occupied,
including more than 9,000 multi-family buildings.

Preston gave the data for San Luis Obispo County:

Notices of Default: 1,553
Non-owner-occupied notices of default: 608
Percentage of notices of default on non-owner-occupied properties: 39 percent.

Foreclosure Sales: 778
Non-owner-occupied foreclosure sales: 325
Percentage of foreclosure sales, non-owner-occupied: 42 percent.

“Too
often, tenants in these situations are unaware of their rights,”
Preston wrote. “Most tenants don’t know where to turn for help.”

Preston said hotline volunteers will help in several ways, including:

* Finding out if a particular rental property is in foreclosure
* Identifying the new owner after a foreclosure sale
* Helping tenants learn about what to expect as the property goes through foreclosure
* Protecting and recovering security deposits

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California.  We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
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