Talia Whyte
Bay State Banner
June 12, 2008
The number of foreclosures continues to rise in Massachusetts, and the troubling tide is affecting not only homeowners, but renters as well.
There were 1,334 foreclosure deeds in April, a higher number than ever previously recorded in any single month, and the number of deeds through the first four months of 2008 outpaced those in the same period of 2005 by nearly 1,200 percent, according to The Warren Group, a Boston-based publisher of local real estate data and the Banker & Tradesman newspaper.
“The Massachusetts foreclosure mess is just not getting better,” said Warren Group CEO Timothy Warren Jr. in a late May statement accompanying the release of the new data. “Thousands of homeowners are entering the foreclosure process every month, and about one-third of them are losing their homes. It’s staggering to see how the numbers have exploded in the past three years.”
Some housing advocates argue that the explosion has unfairly victimized tenants, many of whom don’t know what rights they have when the buildings that they live in go into foreclosure.
In an effort to help tenants navigate the frightening uncertainty that can surround a building foreclosure, two Harvard Law School professors have compiled a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide on what to do if they find themselves in that unfortunate situation.
The guide, entitled “Tenants Facing Foreclosure,” is available for free online at MassLegalHelp (www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/foreclosures), a Web site created by the Bay State’s civil legal aid community. It will also be included as a chapter in an upcoming edition of “Legal Tactics,” a publication of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, slated for release in the early fall.
“There is a high percentage of multi-family foreclosures in Suffolk County,” said Rafael Mares, one of the report’s authors. “The new ‘Legal Tactics’ chapter describes the problems in layman’s terms. The chapter also has endnotes that cite real cases and statutes to allow lawyers and social service providers to better help their clients.”
Mares and co-author Esme Caramello are experts in housing law at the Harvard Law School’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain, where they work with
Harvard students to protect the rights of low-income tenants and homeowners.
“In order to get families out quickly, some real estate agents try to intimidate [them], and others take shortcuts in the hope that tenants don’t know their rights,” Mares said. “Just because the bank [foreclosing on the property] wants you out doesn’t mean you have to leave. You can enforce your rights against the banks.”
Banks that take over buildings after foreclosure often don’t pay the water bills and other utilities, Mares said, and tenants should be informed by the bank if any of their utilities are being shut off so the bank will pay the outstanding bills. Tenants should also know that utility companies generally will not shut off utilities if they are informed that the tenant’s building was foreclosed.
Mattapan resident Virginia Gray came to Mares in October when she learned that her building was in foreclosure. Because U.S. Bank National Association failed to pay the building’s water bill, Gray’s water service was scheduled to be terminated. Mares and his colleagues at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center were able to help Gray avoid having her water shut off.
The center also helped Gray fill out the necessary answer and discovery forms and a motion to dismiss so that she could defend herself in the case the bank brought to force her out of her home. The bank eventually dismissed the case because they realized that her tenancy was not properly terminated.
“I am not well, and the case caused a lot of stress for me,” said Gray. “I am comfortable where I live, and I am glad I didn’t have to move.”
In the guide, the authors recommend that tenants take part in grassroots organizing efforts with others also going through foreclosure, saying that solidarity and a “strength in numbers” approach can create more victories in saving homes.
One anecdote in the guide tells of a Dorchester homeowner who was able to avoid eviction earlier this year, even after her bank had foreclosed on her home and she was making plans to move out. A local tenant association she joined threatened to block the entrance to her home to prevent a bank representative from evicting her, and the bad publicity from the threat led the bank to back off its eviction plans.
While there are many reasons for properties to enter foreclosure, some of which are beyond homeowners’ and renters’ control, Gray says there are ways for some to become advocates on their own behalf and work on the factors they can control.
“If more people knew their rights, a lot of them could save their homes,” said Gray.
The free online guide is available at www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/foreclosures.
