Memphis-Area Sheriff, Legal Services Firm Join To Spread Word Of New Federal Rights For Renters Facing Foreclosure Eviction

In Shelby County, Tennessee, the Memphis Buisiness Journal reports:

• As a result of the rise in foreclosures and evictions in the city, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Memphis Area Legal Services are working to educate citizens on the subject. As part of the partnership, sheriff’s deputies and civil process servers are delivering pamphlets about the process to property owners and renters summoned to court. [...] The partnership was created as part of the [Federal] Helping Families Save Their Homes Act signed into law [by President Obama] in May. The law requires 90 days before tenants can be forced out.(1)

• Webb Brewer, director of advocacy for Memphis Area Legal Services, said the most important part of the process is that renters or homeowners open and read all letters about the properties they inhabit. Legal services will offer assistance to anyone who asks. The goal of the partnership, said Shelby County Sheriff Mark Lutrell, is to tell renters about their rights. “Some renters have not been told by landlords about a pending eviction,” Lutrell said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure property owners, especially tenants, understand their legal options before they’re evicted.”

Source: Shelby County Sheriff, Memphis Area Legal Services partner to educate renters on foreclosure, eviction.

See also Memphis Commercial Appeal: Sheriff's initiative aims to protect renters from foreclosure eviction.

For Shelby County tenants facing foreclosure evictions, see Brochure: What You Need To Know About Foreclosures and Evictions.

(1) In addition, except where the purchaser will occupy the property as a primary residence, the terms of any bona fide lease also remains in effect. See Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, Title VII - Sections 701 through 704 (Title VII of the new law is known as the Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act of 2009).

See also: HUD Notice PIH 2009-17, Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure: Notice Of Responsibilities Placed On Immediate Successors In Interest Pursuant To Foreclosure Of Residential Property, in which HUD emphasizes that the responsibility for meeting the new tenant protection requirements applies to all successors in interest of residential property, regardless of whether a federally related mortgage is present. The immediate successors in interest of a residential property, which is being foreclosed, bear direct responsibility for meeting the requirements of the law.