In many instances the law protecting tenants from foreclosed landlord is ineffective. One of the victims is a family of Patrick Duff and Sasha Davis. They were evicted from their tenanted house in Mableton, Georgia, together with Mia their ten day old baby. No warning had come. The couple insisted on the steps of Cobb County Courthouse that they had no idea about the landlord being in foreclosure. Duff put it aptly saying that “the rug was yanked out from under us”.

Karen Gandolfo a consultant dealing with issues relating to mortgages in Atlanta said that these incidents indicate that something is very wrong. It appears that due process was not observed. She added that the tenants should be aware that federal law gives guarantee to the tenants that they cannot be thrown out without a minimum notice of 90 days once the house is taken away by foreclosure from the landlord.

The couple contends that the landlord tried to explain away that the letter that had come to the landlord was not an eviction notice. They said that everything was fine and that the “Bank of America had made a mistake”.

The house the renters lived in was in the name of Carmen Villanueva but actually Rafael Villanueva was also one of the owners. The records show that they have been residing in their house in the sub-division of Vinings.

Duff and Davis did some researching checking on the public records. They discovered that the landlords had had their house swallowed up by foreclosure last August when the bank listed it for a foreclosure auction. This meant that the Villanuevas couple had not been paying their mortgage for that house for a good number of months previous to that. But Duff and Davis had continued to be current on their rent from February when their lease had started till November. After August the Villanuevas did not even own the house!

Last August the bank sold it on the steps of the courthouse last October to an investment firm – it being the present owner of the unit.

The Villanuevas are not responding to any calls.

Maggie Kinnear of Atlanta Legal Aid speaking to 11Alive News said that this incident should not take place again with any other tenant because of a federal law inked by the President in 2009 May – ‘Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act’. She explained that the law was meant to protect tenants from evictions when their landlords lose the units to foreclosure.

Original Post In Many Instances Law Protecting Tenants from Foreclosed Landlords is Ineffective on ForeclosureRepos.com.