Cook County Sheriff Refuses To Evict Tenants

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Oct 9, 2008 10:15PM

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that he would stop enforcing evictions of rent-paying tenants when the order is actually aimed at a landlord who are being foreclosed on for not paying their mortgage. In a column published in the Sun-Times, Dart wrote:

What isn't part of our job, however, is to carry out work on behalf of the multi-billion-dollar banks and mortgage industries.

Too many times, our deputies arrive at a home to carry out a mortgage foreclosure eviction, only to find a tenant -- dutifully paying their rent each month -- who is unaware their landlord stopped using that rent money to pay the mortgage. They had no fair warning that they were about to be thrown out of their home.

That's because, in many cases, the banks have done nothing to determine, in advance, who's living in the building -- even though it's required by state law. Instead, those banks expect taxpayers to pay for that investigative work for them.

That stops today.

We won't be doing the banks' work for them anymore.

We won't surprise tenants with an eviction order intended for their landlord.

I may be held in contempt of court over this. If that's the case, I'm willing to accept it though I believe most judges in Cook County share my desire to find a solution for this mess.

Photo of Sheriff Dart from the Cook County Sheriff Home Page