Chicago Sheriff Puts His Foot Down
A diarist at Daily Kos found an interesting article from the AP reporting that the Sheriff in Chicago (Cook County) has decided unilaterally to halt his foreclosures "because many people his office has helped throw out on the street are renters who did nothing wrong."
The Sheriff will not proceed on evictions unless banks can show by affidavit that the occupants of the homes in question are either the actual owners or have been properly notified as to the foreclosure procedures against them. The Sheriff, Tom Dart, indicates that a 120 day notification period prior to eviction for renters is often ignored by banks. Often, tenants have no idea that the home or building they live in has been foreclosed prior to their eviction:
"[The banks] just go out and get an order the next day and throw these people's names on there," Dart said. "Whether they (tenants) have been notified, God only knows."Evictions for nonpayment of rent will continue, Dart said, explaining that those cases already have gone to court, his office is confident the people being evicted are who the landlord says they are, and there is no question the tenants are aware of what is going on.
Dart said it's only fair for banks to give occupants of a foreclosed property adequate notice before forcing them out.
"You are talking about a lot of people in rental situations living paycheck to paycheck," he said. "To think they are sitting on a pool of money for an up-front deposit, security deposit, is foolishness."
It is good to see the Sheriff working to the limit of his powers to assure that the least powerful and least informed parties in this climate of massive foreclosures - renters and tenants - receive more than a cursory consideration. The banks, as repeat actors in these processes, are very adept at using intimidating and pushy tactics to evict tenants without completing legal and procedural processes that the tenants are legally entitled to receive.
Some law schools (Harvard included) have programs that work to help inform tenants of their rights in situations such as these, but with the deluge of foreclosures and massive numbers of tenants facing - and soon-to-be facing - eviction, it is important that public officials like Sheriff Dart use the means within their control to hold the line against overaggressive banks. He is correct, the tenants are hardly ever the ones who have done anything wrong, and they are those who face the most hardship in recovering from eviction. I hope more sheriffs follow his lead.
Maybe courageous people who act with integrity, like Sheriff Dart, can give banks semninars on "The Elements of Having a Soul".
October 9, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe the seminar should be for the judges who signed these improper writs of eviction in the first place.
October 9, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently, the Sheriff has gotten the attention of the Presiding Judge of the Chancery Court -- although she doesn't appear to be promising all that much.*
* "[Sheriff] Dart described the meeting as positive, but said the judge did not make any decision." The Philadelphia Examiner 10/10/2008
October 11, 2008 2:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
As a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, I can verify that a lot of eviction cases can get thrown out due to procedural issues. Not actually being the deeded owner of a premises and not giving a proper notice to quit are just some of the ways a tenant facing eviction can get claims dismissed by a judge.
That said, a tenant facing eviction shouldn't wait for the mercy of local enforcement officials. Of course, it would be nice (although legally questionable - many of these defenses must be raised in a party's answer to a complaint) if the state started effectively acting as defense counsel for evicted tenants. While hoping for such benevolent sheriffs, a well-advised tenant should seek legal aid. If such advocates are not available, most states offer phone advice for tenants in these situations.
October 9, 2008 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Steve --
Is there much increase in evictions in MA as result of the increase in foreclosures?
October 9, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is common throughout the country. Tenants should read ANY document that comes to the house. In many cases the Foreclosures-R-Us service knows that tenants live at the property and are trying to get around the notice requirements to empty the building quickly. Then there are the states that don't require that the tenant be given any notice at all...
October 9, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
thats awesome sheriff...now how about you going to the media and all other law enforcement agencies and INVESTigate Bernadine Dorhn, who spent 7 MONTHS in jail for Contempt Of Court, and is Currently A Pal of Barry Hussein Obama, our next possible President! hell mayhe Dorhn and Ayers and Obama will be arrested all togther? and maybe he'll be Arrested while in Office! wouldn't that be a first? wouldn't that be Awesome too?? Mccain or anyone else for President. Maybe Palin could drop the religous stuff she would be an even more attractive candidate i believe. all the liberals would vote for her then.
October 9, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, HotGuy, charges would have to be filed before these folks could be arrested. And before that happens, there would have to be what we call crimes committed. We can't just... uh... jug up people on the basis of blinkered slander. Even after eight years of an absentee jackass at the helm of state, we haven't slipped that far.
October 9, 2008 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
OBAMA, OBAMA, OBAMA
Why does it scare you that the next President of this glorious United States of America is a typical American like you and me. In fact he's probably more American than his opponent, the Honorable Senator John McCain. His mother was a white woman his father an African immigrant. He was raised in Hawaii by his mother's parents. He studied and worked hard attended the best universities in the country and returned to give back to the community instead of self. Don't be afraid our best days are ahead of us. We will be led not only by the first African American President but one of the few that have genuinely lived the American Dream. God bless u and God bless America.
October 9, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
NObama NObama NObama
As much as I would LOVE to see a man/woman of color in the oval office, I do not want it to be this one, I do not want it to be this man.
He has a blatantly SOCIALIST agenda which it truly makes me sick to my stomach to think my kids might have to grow up in a country that practices socialism. This country became the most prosperous and generous country in the world because it is a CAPITALIST country that allowed anyone regardless of race, creed or color to work hard and live the AMERICAN DREAM.
As for the financial fiasco we are now in, everybody knows its inception was the sub-prime mortgage bill Barney Frank presented to Clinton who signed it into law (but Bush didn't get rid of it either so I'm willing to spread the blame around). Like a small snowball rolling downhill, it has gathered mass and speed and crashed into the house in the fall of 2008! Lets NOT BE STUPID and partake in more partisan finger pointing because there are dirty fingers everywhere, and the fact is we need everybody to stop pointing and to start WORKING HARD to clean it up. However I would like to suggest that EVERYONE IN THE SENATE AND CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT (because whoever wins was also in the senate at the time)TAKE A PAYCUT AND A BENEFITS CUT (50% seems about right to me) because they should have been the watchdogs for the American public but they have all been to busy namecalling to accomplish a worthwhile thing in the last couple of years. As a hardworking citizen and taxpayer I AM SICK OF IT! They say they feel our pain, I want them to really feel our pain!!! Write the Senate and the Congress and tell them THEY ALL DESERVE TO BE FIRED (we all know we would have been fired from our jobs if our constant bickering with our co-workers prevented us from properly doing our jobs)but being the generous souls Americans are we will be satisfied with pay and benefits cuts (um except for definitely Frank and probably Dodd too, they need to be fired!)until they GET WORKING TOGETHER AGAIN!!! And maybe if they start doing their jobs well again we will THINK about a pay raise in the future.
October 10, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Wikipedia: "Dohrn is director and founder of the Children and Family Justice Center which supports the legal needs of adolescents and their families."
Can you get your mind out of the last century and into the 21st century?!?
October 9, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, hotpants, you found the caps key.
You do know, the Ayers thing is just not playing in Peoria, so to speak? I'm afraid that when you finally realize this, you're going to unglue completely, climb a tower, and start shooting or something.
I am not advocating the use of drugs, but it's always worked for me...
October 9, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
"HotGuy," you always manage to spew your unfounded racist hatred where it is off-topic.
And it is off-topic EVERYWHERE because it is LYING.
LYING is IMMORAL.
How does it feel to lie against people simply because you're an ignorant, racist jackass? I'll bet it doesn't feel good. Why don't you smarten up and stop the lying, so then you can begin to feel good about yourself, as certainly you cannot possibly respect what you currently are.
October 9, 2008 11:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
blinker slander my ass!! fox news ala Dick Morris reported today on Hemmer and Kellys show, that in fact Ayers stole the dough from the Annenbergs and appointed BArry Hussein Nobama as Administrator, and you cant make this shit up man!! To RADICALIZE american students the way this nuts AYers/Dorhn behaved when they were kids. they advocated Rich WHite Kids, killing their rich parents and overthrowing the governemnt and attacking cops and killing securiy guards like my cousin!!
October 9, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like a parody troll, but the Pugs have long since become little more than an extended joke on themselves.
October 9, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
forgive us hot guy,
We didn't know you were stammering out nonsense you heard Dick Morris say on Fox. Barack is surely in the jail cell by now "altogether" with those other two guys if a source that credible is reporting it.
We're all so sad now that the guy whose policies and character we like the most has been found to be jailworthy by Dick Morris. I know, you don't like trillion dollar wars of aggression, trillions in new debt, or near economic depressions either, but now that Dick says Obama should be jailed (and on FOX!) well I guess there's just nothing else to do but follow McCain!
October 9, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
FOX isn't news, asshat. FOX is far-right false propaganda by an Autralian fascist enemy of your country.
October 9, 2008 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it was in some other country or something, but didn't use to be sanctions against lawyers who filed legal papers without having good reason to believe that the facts alleged in them were accurate?
Or is that, like paying taxes, just for the little people?
October 9, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
paulw--
Here's why they get away with it. Tenants who find themselves in this pickle have to hire a lawyer who will move quickly to do the following: stop the sheriff's order, vacate the judgment against the landlord for the property (because a tenant actually lived there) and then quash the summons/complaint (on the grounds that a tenant lived there and it was not the landlord who should have been served). This costs real money and only gets the tenants the time allowed by law (30, 60, 120 days, depending on the state). A lot of lawyers would tell tenants it's not worth it--you're looking at a couple thousand dollars to do this. What should happen is that there should be a few trials for perjury (the Foreclosures-R-Us service is necessarily lying when they say they served notice on the landlord at the property), but given the close ties of the real estate industry to local governments--in your dreams.
October 9, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
PeonInChief has it right. A lot of people renting properties being foreclosed on just don't have the time, the money, or a ride down to the courthouse to file the papers. Plus, some of them have other issues (like too many people living in a Section 8 housing unit) that they are afraid they'll be asked about if they try to complain.
So when the Man says go, they go, in many cases leaving their furniture behind because there's no place to put your stuff if the next stop for your family is the spare bedroom at your sister's place. And if you're not lucky enough to have a sister, there definitely ain't no place for your ratty old sofa at the homeless shelter.
It's funny--if you ever talk with a certain class of potential tenant, you will find that if you ask them where they live, they'll reply "I stay at..." and then either give the address or describe the family member or friend where they live. But they almost never say "I live at..." even if you use the word "live" when you ask the question.
Maybe it's some sort of weird regionalism, but I take it to mean that there are a lot of folks out there who really don't feel that they live anywhere.
Just trying to paint the circumstances in which people might find themselves practically unable to fight an eviction. We like to think that help is available, but a 20 foot rope isn't much good to somebody who's drowning 30 feet from shore.
October 9, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Re: In many cases the Foreclosures-R-Us service knows that tenants live at the property and are trying to get around the notice requirements to empty the building quickly.
Why the rush? There's such a log-jam of foreclosures nowadays that it can take months to get the paperwork through the courts. And most likely the property will just sit vacant for quite a while anyway. In some parts of the country foreclosure auctions have not a single participant showing up-- many people are waiting until the bank is desperate to sell and besides, once the property is REO they can visit it with the bank's realtor, see what issues it has, and purchase it with a normal mortgage rather than cash (which is required at auctions).
IMO, any federal mortgage bailout legislation should include a clause requiring at least 60 days notice (or 30 days with the automatic and uncontested full return of a security deposit) for renters to move out-- and also require a registered letter be sent and received before that clock begins ticking.
October 9, 2008 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
@paulw I was going to make the same point, but you said it first, and better. The "adversarial system" our courts use is good in theory, but it causes gross injustices when one side does not have the money to fight the monied side. A partial solution to this is to change to the system that most of the English speaking world uses: If you sue and lose, then you have to pay the attorney fees of the party you sue. If we had that system, there would be lawyers willing to represent the people who are being wrongly evicted.
October 9, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, no. That's not how this works. In unlawful detainer actions, two things happen if the tenant wins. The tenant might win attorney's fees, but that is so irrelevant. The tenant only gets the right to stay in the property for the legally-allowed time, which may be as little as 30 days. Second, even if you win, your name is recorded in the tenant-screening databases, and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to rent decent housing for the rest of your life. What the Sheriff is doing here is keeping unsuspecting tenants out of that system entirely. Their names haven't appeared on any court documents and they haven't had to put out any money for a lawyer. He's telling the Foreclosures-R-Us services to get their paperwork right (give people the notice they're allowed) right in the first place. (They can't even start an unlawful detainer until they've given proper notice.
October 10, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
and P.S. God Bless You also and God Bless America and God Bless goodhearted people with commonsense like Sheriff Tom Dart. Heaven knows America needs a lot of divine intervention right now.
October 10, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
and p.s. God bless you also and God bless America. Heaven knows we could use a lot of divine intervention right now. And last but not least God bless goodhearted people like Sheriff Tom Dart for using commonsense. It only he could bottle some of it and send it off to Washington D.C.
October 10, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink