Now-Foreclosed Landlord's Below Market Rental Rates Expose Unwitting Tenants To Immediate Boot, Leaving Them Blindsided As New Owner Takes Over

In Kissimmee, Florida, WFTV-TV Channel 9 reports:

• Some renters in Kissimmee signed leases that they thought locked them in at a great price. But WFTV investigative reporter George Spencer discovered that when their original landlord went into foreclosure, their below-market rates opened them up to eviction.



• Louis Barrueto disassembled his family's dining room table as his wife packed boxes. Next door, neighbors loaded up a U-Haul. The two families and others in the Oakwater community insist they are being blindsided by evictions.



• “It's hard to adjust to. I'm taking medication for my blood pressure, which I've never had a problem with,” said renter Veronica Barrueto. The Barruetos moved into the community in November. Their lease promises rent of $750 dollars a month for a three-bedroom unit. They saw it as a great deal for their struggling family. Then-owners at Oakwater, the Apostolou family, leased similar great deals to other tenants, perhaps dozens.



• The problem was that the bank would soon foreclose on the Apostolous family, and a new owner would step in. Some residents said they came home to find that their water had been cut off. Others said they walked right up to their front doors and found the locks had been changed.



• An attorney for the new owner, Orlando Condo Investments, said many tenants simply were not paying. Residents refute that.



• Either way, the low rents that attracted them now left them open to immediate eviction. Ninety-day move-out notices under the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act do not apply when rents are substantially less than fair-market.



• WFTV tried to ask Nick Apostolou why he, with a pending foreclosure, leased to the tenants, but we were told he left when we approached.

For the story, see Mass evictions of Kissimmee renters.