Bay Area: “Judge Throws Out Bank Eviction– Calls into Question Validity of Evictions Across California” by Tenants Together, BeyondChron, February 19, 2010
In a direct challenge to bank evictions of tenants across the state, Tenants Together is urging renters to contest foreclosure evictions. Pointing to a new ruling from an Alameda County Superior Court judge, Tenants Together argues that most post-foreclosure eviction notices issued to tenants are invalid under California law.
California law requires eviction notices (called “notices to quit”) to unambiguously terminate tenancy upon expiration of a time period specified in the notice. According to Dean Preston, Executive Director of Tenants Together, “Banks across the board have failed to comply with this basic requirement of California law when terminating tenancies after foreclosure. These notices are incomprehensible. They don’t clearly state when the tenant is expected to move out. Tenants who received these notices should get legal help and consider contesting these evictions.”
Nation: “A Sight All Too Familiar in Poor Neighborhoods,” by Erik Eckholm, The New York Times, February 18, 2010
MILWAUKEE — Shantana Smith, a single mother who had not paid rent for three months, watched on a recent morning as men from Eagle Moving carried her tattered furniture to the sidewalk.
Bystanders knew too well what was happening.
“When you see the Eagle movers truck, you know it’s time to get going,” a neighbor said.
On Milwaukee’s impoverished North Side, the mover’s name is nearly as familiar as McDonald’s, because Eagle often accompanies sheriffs on evictions. They haul tenants’ belongings into storage or, as Ms. Smith preferred, leave them outside for tenants to truck away.
Bay Area: “Finding the right roommate can be tricky,” by Laura Casey, with contributions from Dave Crow, Contra Costa Times, February 17, 2010
IT WAS A one-in-a-million roommate disaster and, frankly, it was disturbing.
Two years ago, a man with whom Rose Foronda shared her rented, Oakland four-bedroom home “lost it,” Foronda says. He left one day and never came back. Two weeks later, when Foronda and her other housemates became concerned about the welfare of the man’s pet snake, they went into the room and found filth.
“It was disgusting,” she says. “There were stacks of dirty plates, cigarette butts, bullet casings. We even found buckets of urine in the room.”
Foronda and her housemates paid someone to clean up the mess and she learned a valuable lesson: Pay attention to your inner voice when you are interviewing someone you eventually will share a home with.
“I had a thing in the back of my head, a reservation,” Foronda says of the man’s initial interview. “But it was a panic decision, a ‘you have to move in now’ type thing.”
New York: “Worry at Stuyvesant Town as Foreclosure Draws Near,” by Charles V. Bagli, The New York Times, February 15, 2010
The lenders at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are expected to begin an uncontested foreclosure action on Tuesday against the owner of Manhattan’s largest residential complex, according to bankers and real estate executives.
CWCapital, the company that is overseeing the complex on behalf of the owners of $3 billion in mortgages, plans to file the action in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, they said. The owner, a partnership of Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, announced last month that it would turn over the property after defaulting on a $16 million loan payment, rather than wage a battle for control.
Related Story: “Tenants left high and dry after Church of England abandons New York towers,” by Alex Frean and Christine Seib, London TimesOnline, February 15, 2010
When the Church of England walked away from a £40 million investment in a Manhattan apartment complex last month, it simply wrote off the entire amount, promising that “lessons would be learnt”.
Yet many of the tenants of the 11,000 apartments are still dealing with the fallout. Left in limbo as a new buyer is sought for the buildings, they have serious concerns about who will maintain the complex.
