A statewide advocacy group called Tenants Together has launched a foreclosure hotline. It's designed to help renters pushed out of their home or apartment because of a foreclosure.
The group's Executive Director Dean Preston says tenants are innocent victims of the mortgage crisis.
"The stories are heartbreaking. We had a call just the other week that a landlord was defaulting on payments and wanted to start removing the water heater and other basic things that the tenant obviously needed in order to sell them off to pay his bills."
Preston says nearly one-out-of-four properties in foreclosure last year were renter-occupied. And he says even though tenants are generally entitled to a 60-day notice to vacate in foreclosure situations…they're usually the last to know.
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