We are acutely aware of the foreclosure statistics over the past couple of years and the number of homeowners being displaced, their erosion of wealth and the family turmoil created as a result of these events. To some extent, the plight of renters that are losing their home and money as landlords succumb to default/foreclosure!
Has The Time Come for A Renter's Bill of Rights to afford some degree of protection for Renters?
Consider some real situations that are happening every day as a Renter; Renter's are moving in and are faced with possibly the first and last months of rent in advance and quite possibly a damage deposit as well as the cost of moving or relocation. The owner/landlord knows that they are in default on their mortgage or that there is an impending default.
They rent and collect their tenant's monies with no intention of paying their mortgage. Is this "Theft by Deception? My thought is yes!!!! For they are withholding information that should be known to the renter and doing it for personal financial gain regardless of the impact on the tenant. Should there be punitive damages available to the tenant?
Should landlords be required by law to notify their tenants upon their personal default prior to renting to a tenant or at any such subsequent default after the tenant has occupied the home?
Should mortgage holders be required to mail a notification letter to the Owner or Occupant at the property address that is receiving a notice of default notice as generally the letter would only go to the mortgagor's address of record?
Should a tenant's rents be required to be placed in an independent Escrow Account until such a default is resolved or the foreclosure process has been completed?
What Say Ye?
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Ron,
Florida renters do have a bill of rights, it is called the Florida Landlord and Tenant Act or FS 83.40. While it is true that a tenants prepaid rents and deposits are often lost without recourse due to unscrupulous property owners the fact is this situation would rarely happen if a licensed professional property manager were the landlord. The tenants in most cases will still be forced to move by eviction as unnamed occupants but at least their deposit and prepaid rent money is safe. A tenant has no right of free use because the mortgage isn't being paid.
Ron,
I'm shocked! If tenants want rights beyond what is spelled out in their lease let them become home owners!
There is an appalling lack of respect for our Constitution and the way of life we developed in America! Many of our original settlers came here for property rights! Until recently those rights were considered sacred! Are we to become just another third world country?
Many today would defile personal and property rights. Many in our own industry scream about the low income people not deserving homes blaming sub-prime loans forgetting the overwhelming majority of those loan that succeeded!
How dare you call for limits on property owners rights!
"Should a tenant's rents be required to be placed in an independent Escrow Account until such a default is resolved or the foreclosure process has been completed?"
Rents, NO! If a tenants withholds rent he should be evicted and subject to damages!
By the same logic, landlords signs contracts for longer periods than a pending foreclosure he should be held libel for damages and criminal fraud! If he signs more than three he should be jailed for racketeering, that's what REICO is for. There is precedents in securities law for three times damages.
Personally, as a real estate broker and under some circumstances as a mortgage broker I was required to maintain a trust account for the safe keeping of other peoples money. Normally to maintain a trust account requires some professional license. I would recommend that landlords be required to deposit any potentially refundable deposits or rents in excess of the current rental period in a trust account with a licensed professional, this need not be a property manager, a bank or title company would provide much more security.
Bill