Lenders Are Failing In Obligation To Identify All Occupants In Homes When Requesting Foreclosure Evictions, Says Chicago-Area Sheriff

According to a press release from Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Thomas J. Dart's office:

• [W]hile mortgage companies are supposed to conduct a basic due diligence investigation before requesting an eviction – identifying all occupants – sheriff’s deputies are regularly finding no work done by the mortgage company in advance, leaving the identifying work to deputies working at taxpayer expense.

• “These mortgage companies only see pieces of paper, not people, and don’t care who’s in the building,” Dart said. “They simply want their money and don’t care who gets hurt along the way. On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We’re not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We’re just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today.”

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• [Dart] wants mortgage companies to be forced to provide sufficient information to the Sheriff’s Office in order to conduct an eviction. That will provide greater notification to tenants that their building is in foreclosure and will require mortgage companies and their attorneys to do more leg work in advance of an eviction.

For more, see Cook County Sheriff Suspends Foreclosure Evictions (Move comes in wake of growing mortgage crisis).

In related stories, see:

• Illinois Attorney General Backs Sheriff's Eviction Moratorium,
• Lawsuit Withdrawn Over Eviction Orders (A mortgage lender that filed a lawsuit to force the Cook County Sheriff to evict a suburban Chicago woman from her home has withdrawn the lawsuit. Accredited Home Lenders says it's also suspending its eviction action against Shirley McFarland of Dolton from her foreclosed bungalow.). BetaTenantRentSkimming