Tenants threaten to blockade foreclosed homes
Published: December 10, 2008
Updated: December 10, 2008
PROVIDENCE - Housing advocates are threatening to begin blockading foreclosed homes if banks try to evict rent-paying tenants who live there.
On Wednesday afternoon, advocates from several Rhode Island housing groups are planning to convene outside of 804 Potters Ave. to issue a warning: Try to evict renters at the three-family foreclosed home there, and banks will face a physical blockade.
Activists are also expected to call on lawmakers to pass legislation that protects tenants. Some members of the General Assembly have said they’ll introduce such legislation when they meet next month. Similar bills died in committee earlier this year.
The Rhode Island Mortgage Bankers Association has opposed parts of the legislation. The association said its members fear buildings won’t sell unless they are vacant and that forcing lenders to become landlords raises their costs.
Reader Reactions
Mike,
what i am sying is that RI has some of the best laws in the country to protect these people. We all need to work together to get throught this. the landlord signed the loan and did not pay. Well now we have a problem. Most banks don’t kick the tennants out. RI has too many laws that are not regarded as it is. So lets use our energey to work together not fight eachother. If you have people that need a place to live let me know i have plenty. When we take over a property we show up with contractors and start fixing.
If the tennat goes homeless then they did not use the existing laws properly. I have been to court enough time to tell you that it some cases it takes over 6 mos to get a non-paying tennant out.
Joe Broker mentioned ‘Blockades, sit-in, forcing action through legislation are all adversarial.‘
Question is: Who is asking for a bigger handout here? The poor tenant who will go homeless? The owner who had to foreclose?
Or is it the banks who will end up with bailout money from all our tax dollars?
And where will that money go? Will any of it trickle down to benefit anything before the CEO’s etc absorb it?
These bailout plans are White Collar Welfare.
At least the human barricades benefit real people in need!
I agree with “combroker”. I’m a loan officer and I know investors buying properties appreciate having renters already in place. If the property is left vacant, especially the neighbors, we all know the sad result. The destruction and stripping of the copper from the property leads to the demolition of said property. Another asset gone,hence the erosion of more tax dollars and house values. Please allow calm heads to prevail.
I think the key to this situation is information. Blocking a home because you think you will be evicted is not effective or practical. I am a Broker and have many mult-family homes owned by lenders. NOT ONE of my tenants have been forced out after the foreclosure. They have been evicted later for non-payment of rent, but not because of the foreclosure. Lenders want tenants the help to offset the carrying costs, keep the home occupied, which deters crime and vandalism. As per the management side it cost a lender far less to manage a property than to repair it. Most of the properties I have sold the buyers want the tenants in because they are paying rent. In some occasions the property requires such extensive repairs that they are asked to leave while it is being fixed. The key to working through this situation is making sure the lender has hired a competent Real-estate firm that is capable of property management and Brokerage. Most are not. It is in the Brokerage firms that we have the problem. They do not want the hassle of management, repairs ect. But if you have a firm that can stabilize the property keep or add tenants. The property sells for more and we begin to recover. If not we have a long road ahead with more declining values. We all need to work together to get through this. Blockades, sit-in, forcing action through legislation are all adversarial.
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