I have a home, in NY, in the foreclosure process. A tenant is renting out the home. The auction is scheduled for this monday. A rep from Fannie Mae Bank visited the tenant today and alledgedly told him the bank has recently taken title and he must leave. I advised him not to leave unless he has an eviction notice from the sheriff to vacate premises.

So far, not too much out of the ordinary, person owns a home as a landlord with a tenant in the property and there is going to be a foreclosure auction on Monday 11/16/09. A rep from Fannie Mae visits the property and tell the tenant the lender has taken title and the tenant must leave. It’s not unusual for a lender representative to visit the property even before the transfer of title to ensure the property is secure and it isn’t being laid to waste. The issue about who actually holds title is pretty much third hand information, it’s likely title will not actually transfer until sometime shortly after the auction.

My goals:
- I at least want the tenant to be able to stay at the house through the holidays
- I would like to see the bank pay the tenant cash, I’ve heard $2500 has been given from the bank to the tenant to vacate premises. (Unfortunately, the bank may have paid my former tenant who left in Sept 2009, I have no way of knowing if this occurred)

First sentence seems admirable, the owner doesn’t want to inconvenience the tenant through the holidays. Next sentence is where things start to get a little frayed around the edges. Mr. Landlord wants the tenant to receive some “cash for keys” money which is common enough when a lender would prefer a clean vacant property rather than evicting. But wait, what’s that about “I’ve heard $2500 has been given from the bank to the tenant to vacate premises”? What tenant? It appears the lender may have paid $2,500 to the tenant who left in September, 2009. This is November, 2009, foreclosure auction is scheduled for November 16, 2009 and Mr. Landlord put a new tenant in the property sometime in the last month and a half? Mr. Landlord also wants the tenant to be able to stay through the holidays?

What can I do to help keep the tenant on the premises as long as possible?

The forum always gets posts about tenants who have this sort of thing happen to them, property owners rent the property out knowing it’s headed to foreclosure and it’s probably a fairly safe guess the rent isn’t being applied to the loan in foreclosure. Needless to say, the information was not provided to Mr. Landlord on how to extend a tenant’s stay and we can sympathize with the tenant’s plight. Hopefully they’ll get enough time out of the property to recover some of their move-in costs. What amazes me is the wanton disregard for the tenant’s time and trouble in not only moving into the property, but having to move back out after the bank forecloses.