It could really suck to rent a house!

[thewayne]

I never considered this before, but let's examine a simple scenario. You're renting a house. You pay your rent 100% on time, you are a perfect renter. The person who owns your house, to whom you are paying rent, gets into financial difficulty, something happening with increasing freqency these days, and the mortgage company forecloses.

And you are out on your ass. And it's possible that the only notice that you get is the justice of the peace nailing the notice on the door. Here's the sick part, as if this isn't sick enough: it's happening in big numbers to the families of U.S. military personnel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080616/us_nm/usa_housing_renters_dc

Comments

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

They're trying to put through legislation in Detroit to counteract this problem; the renter, as long as they are in good standing and are able to make their own mortgage payments, will be able to purchase the remainder of the mortgate for $1.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

That is very cool! I'm glad to hear it. Of course, it's possible that the owner was renting it to you at a loss and you won't be able to afford it, but at least you'd have a shot.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is why Evil Rob and I are still in an apartment even though moving into a house would be really nice, what with the baby and all. We're pretty much in ground zero for the foreclosure meltdown (and this was easily predicted by anyone with financial sense or at least the wit to look for those who have it.) I know of one person whose landlord is in foreclosure, but the banks are so overwhelmed he's "squatting" in the house until they come to kick him out. (He's all packed up and ready to move at a moment's notice, which makes his case less of an issue than that of most renters.)

In California, there's a tiny bit of mitigation in that the state will pay for your moving costs, but of course any deposits or other moneys you've given to your deliquent landlord are well gone. Scary stuff.

[silveradept]

Yep. Owner gets to cut the house loose without too much worry, renter gets stuck with the problem of being homeless. That truly is worrisome.