Action Guide for Tenant Victims of Foreclosure

Summary:

Each year, banks and private investors acquiring foreclosed properties displace hundreds of thousands of California tenants. As a tenant, you have done nothing to create the foreclosure crisis. Yet a growing number of tenants in foreclosure situations are struggling to keep their utilities on, protect their security deposits, and stay in their homes.

This guide will help California tenants learn how to assert their rights and fight for what is fair. It is not comprehensive and should be used only as a supplement to the information you will receive by calling our ‘Tenant Foreclosure Hotline,’ studying our website’s ‘Laws and Resources’ section, or contacting tenant organizations in your community. If you need legal advice, you should contact a legal services organization or hire an attorney to represent you.

This Action Guide outlines four steps California tenants in foreclosure situations can take to protect and expand their rights:

Step 1: Find out the ‘Foreclosure Status’ of Your Home

Step 2: Learn and Assert your Rights

Step 3: Pressure the Bad Actors by Shining a Public Spotlight on Them

Step 4: Work to Protect and Expand Tenant Rights in Your Community

Help build power for renters' rights: