The Ridgecrest City Council in California has approved an ordinance that will strengthen the rights of tenants and protect them from bank foreclosed homes. The ordinance will prevent banks from evicting tenants in foreclosed rental properties.
The Tenants Together, a tenant rights organization, together with other local tenant groups, has pushed for the passage of ordinance to address the growing problem of evictions of renters in foreclosure homes.
Industry experts said that the law is a victory for Ridgecrest renters because it will give the relief long needed from evictions after foreclosure.
Under the law, a bank must have a just cause for forcing out renters after they have foreclosed on rental properties. The law stated that banks can only enforce eviction if tenants have been delinquent in their monthly rentals or if owners want to move in into the properties. The law specifically stated that foreclosure is not one of the reasons for evicting a tenant.
Furthermore, the law includes relocation provision which means that tenants, who will be forced to move out of their rental homes for reasons not of their own fault, will receive monetary assistance to cover the moving costs.
The city of Ridgecrest is one of the increasing number of cities across the country that makes it illegal to evict renters due to foreclosure. According to industry experts, some cities have existing anti-eviction laws while others decided to enact them to address the illegal and unfair displacement of renters in foreclosed properties.
So far, about a dozen cities in California have anti-eviction laws. The Ridgecrest law is similar to that of Richmond which applies to houses after foreclosure.
Tenants Together executive director Dean Preston said that Ridgecrest law is a cost-free method for the local government to protect renters from unfair displacement, reduce the number of vacant properties and prevent them from becoming blights by having them occupied.
Early this year, Tenants Together issued a report which offered a look on the effects of foreclosure on renters. The report estimated that about one third of properties in foreclosure process in California were rentals. In its report, Tenants Together urged local officials to adopt eviction laws that are based on just cause to stop unfair evictions of tenants.
Ridgecrest Tenants Association and Tenants Together have partnered to educate city tenants about their rights provided by the new ordinance.
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