He ain't paying his mortgage, I ain't paying my rent

Hi, David:  Thank you for stopping by, and for your comment.  Tenants are afforded their protections under the Tenant in Foreclosure Protection Act of 2009.  As you're most likely aware, shelter under the law requires that the tenants be in a bona fide lease prior to the banks' commencement of foreclosure proceedings.

That is the case most of the time.  In cases where it's not, the landlord, property manager, etc are bad actors in that they should've done the tenants a better service in verifying the place was clean prior to placing the tenants.

Tenants bear a bit of responsibility even in those cases, though- as the issue has been at the forefront of our newscasts for so long now.  They should make their best attempts at due diligence in case the folks they're leasing from are jacklegs.

The overall premise here survives both cases, though- tenants should always pay for the time they're under another's roof.

Hi, Ellie:  Thank you for stopping by , and for your comment.  As I mentioned in #6, tenants bear some of the burden in Due Diligence-land.  There are really only two ways in which the scenario you're described can happen:

1)  Tenants move in when the place is already 2 years or so into a foreclosure and get bounced a week later.  In this case, the tenants should've known the place was in foreclosure before they moved in.

or

2)  The tenants have been in the place for a while, they're been getting notices in the mail and saying "Hmmm...I don't know no Bank of America.  And who's 'Unknown tenant in possession' supposed to be?"  They threw everything away and ignored notices from the courts as well.

Until they arrived "home" one day to find "Moving Day" had happened without 'em.

Hi, Philip:  Thank you for stopping by, and for your comment.  Absolutely.  When folks apply to rent a place from me, I don't care what happened to the place they just left (or are looking to leave). 

I want to know that the folks paid their rent up until the day they last closed the door at the other place before I ever let them rent one of my places.

Hi, Tammy:  Thank you for stopping by.  Property Management is a business that's always had it's good and it's bad.  It's not as easy as many would think, doesn't pay as much as many would think- but has it's good aspects in terms of monthly income, etc.

It's not for everyone, though- and surely not for the faint of heart.  Sometimes, I wonder how much longer it's for me!

Hi, Sara:  Thank you for stopping by, and for your comment.  Place to live= their paying for the place to live.

Hi, Donne:  Thank you for stopping by- and for your comment and contribution.  There once was a time when things could be done on a handshake...a man's word was his bond.  That worked pretty well for us from the days of Adams and Jefferson, through Wyatt Earp and Mayberry.

Sadly, those days are gone and I figure the Baby Boomer generation will go down as the last one ever to have enjoyed them.

One thing that's surprising to me:  With all of the shadiness and foolishness running rampant these days, it's amazing how many folks with jacked up credit want to offer me/my owners 3 months', 6 months' or the entire year's rent in advance.

I explain to them the 1) we'd only give it to the owners a month at a time anyway, because 2) there's such an incredible risk in giving an owner a bunch of money and their heading to Vegas with it or something.

That 6 months' rent the tenant paid up front does no good when the A/C blows up and the owner's flat broke busted!

Hi, Wallace:  As always, thank you for stopping by and for your comment.  It's funny how the timeframes are different from one county to the next- and even more so one state to the next.

In Alabama, I'd file an eviction and it could easily take 4 months to finish up.  The main reason there was/is that it'd be, say, Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies with badges and all that would clean the places out.  They'd make something like $50/hr each.  That was the reason for the delays- as there are only so many deputies on the detail- one gets sick and they're hurtin', etc.

Here, it varies a good bit from county to county.  Orange County runs 5-6 weeks- but my last one in Lake County took just 25 days from initial filing to my meeting the deputy at the house.  Out there, they just verify no people are in the place and say "OK, you got it!" and have you sign for possession.

That one was so fast it was funny, though:  the tenant got served the same day the thing was filed- on April Fool's Day.  She thought it was a joke and didn't pay it much mind until just 3 weeks later when she got another gag gift- her 24-hour notice to vacate.

For some reason, she didn't think that one was too funny...

Hi, Sussie:  Thank you for stopping by, and for your comment.  Absolutely true.  I just wish "A lease is a lease, of course, of course" had a better ring to it.....

Hi, Donne:  Thank you for stopping by again- and for your question.  We've never used score and score alone- and I'm pretty glad, to be honest with you- because that's a fairy good sign that folks on our end are acting fairly and/or without bias.  The apartment industry and some management companies over the years have had bad actors not treating folks fairly- thus their need for simple numbers and no room for interpretation.

As anyone that has run a good number of credit checks will attest, however, it's quite possible for a young lady with a Victoria's Secret card and a year-old car as the only thing on her credit report to have a score in the mid-700's.  A married couple making over $400,000/yr may have 25 credit lines and never been a day late on anything in their lives- but their scores are in the mid-500's due to the bureaus' and FICO models that view the ability to incur debt as a huge problem and ding the couple for having too much good credit, so to speak.

On the face of things, that couple would seem like great tenant prospects- and great for anything else.  They'd be denied/rejected by a number of apartment communities today, though- as they say that you need a 600 or 625+ and you're their next new residents or you have numbers lower than that and you're declined because those evaluating credit across the board have done a crappy job.

All that said to stress that the folks' derogatory scores isn't the problem- it's how they got them, what their reports show aside from short sales, foreclosures, etc that mean something, too.  If the reports show that they've paid things on time, lost a job and had problems, etc that led to their losing a place- there's a good chance they could get a place by paying the 1st month's rent and one month's equivalent as a security deposit as everyone else does, and also paying their last month's rent.

That all goes out the window, though, if they've lost their home and it's just another thing that they never paid on.  Big difference between folks losing their homes after paying everything on time and doing their best to act responsibly and those who have never paid anything on time in their lives.

It's a lesson that many in our entitlement state world need to learn- Fair Housing means just that:  everyone is treated fairly.  Fair Housing dosn't mean you can do as you dang well please and not pay your bills while others are paying their's- then complain because they got approved for something and you got declined.  That would deny the folks that pay on time their due.  There comes a time when folks must realize that they're responsible for the beds they make.

Hi, Donne:  Welllllll...at times yes, at times no.  I see both sides of the owner/investors line of thinking when they're deciding whether to use my services, for example.  I know that some folks can afford me, some can't- and it's actually better to "lose out" on management prospects that really can't afford you yet try to do so.  The elation in signing said owner quickly fades when you place a call for a blown-out compressor and find the owner doesn't have two nickels to rub together.  So screening your owners is important, too.

Can tenant prospects (not only those with foreclosures in their rear-view, but all) get good deals from individual owners?  Yes.  Can they come across great folks that they can rent from for years and years without problems?  Absolutely.  The problems lie in what happens when things don't go quite as well as initially intended.

Even the most well-intentioned of owners might not be up to speed on Fair Housing laws, things like the Tenant in Foreclosure Protection Act of 2009, and your standard landlord/tenant laws. 

It's funny, too, that it often seems that the worst-intentioned of owners know the rules and laws better than the well-intentioned ones- they simply choose to ignore them.