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Mike Ross: Let foreclosed homeowners, tenants stay in their homes
By adamg on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 8:57am
The city council president is proposing legsilation that would let people who live in foreclosed properties continue to stay there as long as they pay "full market value rent" each month - until the property is sold.
... Foreclosures and evictions lead to abandoned properties. Banks have left over 1,000 properties abandoned in Boston, having catastrophic impacts on neighborhoods. These abandoned homes provide easy opportunities for crime. They become homes for squatters and drug dealers, and lead to crashing property values and skyrocketing crime rates.
The foreclosure crisis also tears apart the fabric of our communities. In March, I took a tour of the Four Corners area of Dorchester with people who'd been affected by foreclosure. The stories I heard that day were not of irresponsible homeowners, but of predatory lending practices that made it impossible for these hardworking individuals and families to keep their property. ...
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Comments
ugh
If they could pay 'full market rent', then why didn't they sell their homes once they knew they were in financial trouble and go rent a home/apartment???
Beat me to it
Uhhh...isn't the problem that they can't pay?
That said, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to ensure that crimes are not being committed on their properties. The banks need to get their shit together as well.
Tenants of foreclosed properties
are not at fault here and should be allowed to remain in them provided that they continue to pay full rent. Both of you above misunderstand the problem.
ahhh
Indeed. Both the UH and BMG posts aren't phrased the best. Letting renters continue rent is indeed fair - especially when most renters don't know a property is even in trouble until it's too late. Will a bank be a good landlord though??
I think the point is that "full market rent"
is less than these peoples' mortgages. They paid way more than the property is intrinsically worth, and that's reflected in the out of whack rent/buy ratio. They are unable to pay more than they could afford, and since it's for a house that, if it were rented, would never fetch that mortgage-level amount anyway, (and since the bank can either get something each month or nothing...) this isn't the worst idea in the world.
Selling one's home is easier said than done, john,
particularly nowadays, with rents here in the Boston area being what they are, plus moving is a stressful process anyway, it adds even more stress on people who're already in deep water to begin with, mostly through no fault of their own. The loss of a job, divorce, illness, or other setback can cause people to not be able to pay their mortgage, and evicting such people from their homes will only make things worse in many cases.
Sure, with a few caveats
Keep in mind that while there are surely normal hard-working families who didn't understand what they were getting into when they bought rental properties, there are also a lot of slumlords who bought stuff they can't afford, don't maintain the place, and don't give a rat's ass about what their tenants are doing in there.
I think that before the city lets the tenants stay, there should be some sort of screening to make sure they've been good tenants and good neighbors. You know, check police reports, check with neighbors (particularly if it's a condo and there are condo bylaws regarding tenant behavior), etc.
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