The moratorium on foreclosure evictions that propelled Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart into the national spotlight last week and secured his "good-guy" reputation back here at home has officially concluded.
Satisfied by the Cook County's decision to incorporate new renter-friendly provisions into the foreclosure eviction process, Dart has announced that he'll resume all law-abiding evictions on Monday.
If new safeguards adopted by Dart's office are any indication, the appeals from helpless renters seem to have really gotten to the sheriff. (Or maybe it was the shout out by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.) He plans to add a social worker to his evictions unit staff for the express purpose of helping folks find new homes or social services. An attorney and financial crimes unit will also team up within the department to investigate mortgage fraud, which has exacerbated the county's foreclosure crisis.
Had Dart not suspended evictions, tenants in 24 households would have put out of their homes during the past week alone. Under the old rules, lenders wouldn't have been required to note the existence of renters when they filed eviction petitions in court. Now they'll have to provide that along with proof that the tenatns have been given either 120 days notice -- unless their lease expires sooner.
If lenders take their time getting up to speed on the new guidelines, the sheriff's office is reserving the right to hold off on evictions. If they aren't prepared, "We're not doing it," sheriff's spokesman Steve Patterson said.
But for those that have their act together, the evictions will resume early next week. "We're ready to go ahead," Patterson said.
Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:18
I don't like the new procedures much.
I've been following this and being neither banker, landlord nor sheriff, it seems to me that the burden of notifying good-standing tenants that the rental property they are occupying is in foreclosure should be on the LANDLORDS, who have been making the money off their tenants, after all. The landlords should have to provide the court with a list of all the tenants occupying the property and signed notifications from each good-standing tenant indicating they have been informed of the foreclosure of the property before the foreclosure may proceed.
Charlie (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:34
I disagree. It just wouldn't work if you put the burden on the landlord. Remember, the landlord is the one who is being foreclosed against. Most of the time he defaults in the foreclosure case and is not before the court, and in a lot of cases, he is simply gone. The party that wants the decree of foreclosure is the lender, and consequently he has a motivation to give the notices. If the lender doesn't give the proper notices, he just doesn't get his decree. I think that they are doing it right.
Pauline Ford Caesar (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:42
I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate Tom Dart's character and integrity in this matter. I am glad to see there are still people out there with enough humanity to treat people as if they have value and not just expendable collateral damage to this economic disaster.
God bless you Mr. Dart you have my total respect.
treetracker (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:43
Good job Sheriff Dart! You should run for Governor - time to put some common sense back in the system.
Dan (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:45
I happen to be a renter in this situation. My wife and I signed a two year lease on a rental home in June ... we found out one week after move in that our landlord has been foreclosed, he has until December to redeem it. We only found out because we opened mail addressed to him from the court and had reason to believe from neighbors that he was in legal trouble.
Our landlord is being foreclosed on three properties and is rumored to have fled the country. We have no means to recover our security deposit and are required by law to keep paying our rent to his shady LLC based in Chicago to protect our legal rights (don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong about paying the rent, but we should be able to skip the last month of it to get our deposit back ... we can't.)
When we move will be determined by when HSBC auctions the place off ... we have 15 month old twins and may be forced in the dead of winter with little notice. It's an absurd situation and we did nothing wrong to get into it. A quick check of Craigslist rentals recently revealed that roughly 20 percent of posted rental properties are in foreclosure. This is a crisis that must be addressed immediately and it's going to get much worse. These are band-aid solutions to a growing problem.
kevin (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:47
I like what they are doing also. Make sure they have their doc in order first. It s good to see someone stand up for the people. I think the sheriff has a human heart.
Anonymous / Anonimous (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:56
So I'm " double anonimous" ' To previous "single anonimous" .
You're right and then some worong as well. to assume any bankrupt guy ( landlord, in this case) will do all the hooplas to the T on rental process . Look at it this way. The poor slob has lost his shirt. He's gonna be in the street himself . A case in point. I've seen a video of aformer develpoer who lost absolutely everything money, biz, wife, family over this tsunamy blowing across his former $milliion estate. Maybe spend his first night under th bridge tonight for all the greedy and underhanded approches perpetrated by so "NOT SO CLEAN CATTLE" of bankers/ finance companies and it's derivative holders who cares less as long as they get to suck the last penny off the guy under bad weather here. This guys wanted so much money so bad and ultimately gets to keep the properties. The former owner is thrown out to cold. So I agree with new rulings they should work further to keep it iif they want to foreclosure done for their advantage. while providing some leeways and protections to unsuspecting tenants. WAY to GO !! Sheriff !! PS: I like him a lot.
Angela Caputo on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 10:07
In a perfect world, landlords would clue their tenants in on a pending eviction, but Dart says too often they're long gone by the time the eviction process begins. Here's an example... In Albany Park, a guy bought a multi-unit building, subdivided it into condos, and took out individual loans on each unit. He began renting the units before deciding to flee the country with the mortgage money. When the lenders stopped getting paid they began harassing the tenants. Why? Because the landlord was AWOL. Incidentally, that was the case that prompted Dart to order the suspension.
Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 10:41
I disagree - this government has bailed out the fat "kats" and they continue receive their fat checks even though they were the cause of this problem - they should all be fired and their severance packages should be withheld - the guy who worked for WAMU for less than six months got a severance package of $13 million dollars when he was asked to leave - that dog doesn' hunt! Bush has been paid $400k/year for what?
This stinks like horse manure
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