From CNN (and thanks, Auguste):
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN)
Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said Wednesday he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures.He said many of the evictions involve renters who are paying their rent on time but are being thrown out because the landlord has fallen behind on mortgage payments.
Mortgage companies are supposed to identify a building’s occupants before asking for an eviction, but sheriff’s deputies routinely find that the mortgage companies have not done so, he said.
“These mortgage companies only see pieces of paper, not people, and don’t care who’s in the building,” Dart said. “They simply want their money and don’t care who gets hurt along the way. “On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We’re not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We’re just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today.”
Dart said he wants the judiciary or the state Legislature to establish protections for those most harmed by the mortgage crisis.
In 1999, Cook County had 12,935 mortgage foreclosure cases; in 2006, 18,916 cases were filed and last year, 32,269 were filed. This year’s total is expected to exceed 43,000.
The link is broken. Correct link: here
The part I find the most amusing/disgusting is that the Illinois Bankers Association is throwing a fit.
The bankers are not doing what THEY are supposed to be doing (the research to make sure that the right people are being served the eviction notice, i.e. the landlord and not the tenants), but they have the unmitigated gall to issue a statement threatening the sheriff for not doing what HE is supposed to be doing.
Pots and kettles, and all that.
The bankers are right.
The eviction itself happens after a foreclosure proceeding, where the owner gets found in default.
The eviction NOTICE gets served on people at the home, to NOTIFY THEM that an eviction is forthcoming. The eviction itself can only happen when a certain amount of time has passed after the notice.
After they get the notice, the occupants of the home can go to court and get the eviction stopped. I do this for people all the time. There are many reasons that i can keep people in their homes: if they weren’t properly served; if they can’t be evicted; if their lease predates the mortgage; etc etc etc.
The sheriff can do a bit to make the process better. They can be more careful about serving people, and more careful about verifying identity and occupants at the notice stage. But the final question “can this person be evicted, or do they get to stay in their home?” is a question that needs to be answered by the courts, not the sheriff.
Why do the bankers want to evict the tenants in the first place? It’s not like there’s a hot market to sell the homes. Why not collect rent while they wait for real estate markets to stabilize? It’s better than having the houses sit there empty.