Water Taps Runs Dry after Landlord Runs from Foreclosure

The foreclosure crisis has caught tenants on the wrong foot. When the landlord runs away from foreclosure the water supply too runs off; there is very little that tenants can do about it.

Annette Bell is one of the victims. With hardly any funds she does not know what to do. A resident of West Jordan she is finding out that the foreclosure crisis is impacting not only on the house owners but also on the renters.

She found out that her landlord was in foreclosure after her water supply was cut off. A neighbour allows her to fill cans so that she can manually operate her toilets and do the washing. Moving elsewhere is not an option right now because of funds crunch.

Last August she had moved in with her boyfriend paying per month $1,100 as rent. In November a notice was posted on the door of the garage stating that the house was in foreclosure. When the landlord was contacted he assured her that things would be fixed up and so she went on paying her rent.

But another notice popped up in January 2011 and with it the taps went dry. She found that her absentee landlord had not cleared water bills for about a year. The city would allow the water to flow again if she paid $1,200. Her landlord is now not responding to her calls.

The officials of West Jordan said they do not contact the renters but only the owners of residential properties. They also observed that this has become a common feature now with increasing foreclosures. The house owners in most of the cases are not informing their renters about the foreclosure status.

Ken Bresin (Utah Legal Services) pointed out that the problem is not confined to Utah only. The tenants across the country are facing similar problems because of the financial woes of landlords. The renters hardly have any legal tools at their disposal.

Bresin said about this particular case that Bell "could always sue the current owner who is being foreclosed". She added, "If the current owner is not paying the mortgage and not paying the water bill, the current owner is not going to have money to pay off the judgment".

According to Rental Protection Agency (based in Salt Lake City) four years previously there had hardly been any complaints coming from tenants regarding foreclosure related problems. As per federal law after the foreclosure the tenant is given 90 days to exit.