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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
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I'd think the banks that are taking the property might want to keep the tenants there--at least the ones who could prove they've been paying their rent in a timely manner.
If Dart doesn't like his responsiblities as Sheriff, he needs to find another job (which he probably will try to do, next election cycle), or work to change the law.
This is either (1) political grandstanding to lay the groundwork for future higher office, or (2) misguided "charity" using SOCIETY'S money, not his, and hurting the efforts toward a recovery.
If he really was going to help, he would foreclose on all those buyers who purchased homes they could not afford and on all those buyers who grabbed lower closing rates for an adjustable-rate mortgage while the rest of us paid higher closing rates for fixed mortgages.
Dart's strategy is only digging a bigger hole for banks and a bigger hole for the taxpayer. All taxpayers will subsidize the irresponsible buyers to stay in their homes. That prevents the market from recovering.
The most laughable part is that Dart says that he isn't going to do the banks job for them any more. Enforcing these foreclosures isn't something you are doing on behalf of the banks, Sherrif Dart. It's something you should be doing on behalf of all citizens.
Oh, but wait. Liberals are unable to think beyond one level. "Give and you're nice," they think. "Take and you're mean."
I actually agree with Dart's sentiment. That there's no requirement for a building owner to even send a certified letter to tenants notifying them of imminent foreclosure is utter bullshit.
But Dart deciding which laws are just and to pick and choose the ones to enforce, well that's "above his pay grade."
I feel sorry for the tenants that are evicted through a foreclosure, but really, what can you do? That's an inherent threat in renting.
It's not the bank's responsibility to make sure that the mortgagee is using the rent money to pay off the mortgage. It is, however, the sheriff's responsibility to evict those whose dwelling has been seized by the bank.
Banks will never lend to rental properties again if this keeps up. This idiot Dart is going to drive rental prices through the roof.
Eviction is not an inherent threat in renting. A lease is a contract, and so long as the tenant complies with the lease, the tenant is entitled to occupy the house or apartment for the duration of the lease. Furthermore, under Illinois law, a tenant is entitled to notice of foreclosure, and should the bank fail to notify the tenant of the foreclosure, the tenancy continues and the eviction notice for the tenant is invalid. That's my reading of the law, correct me if I'm wrong.
However, on a moral note, how can you people be so callous as to think it's ok to throw a person out of their apartment with almost no notice, when that person has fully complied with his or her lease?
Sheesh, wsgy01, don't you understand? Renters are nothing but opportunists! At least according to
Steve Chapman. As far as Chapman is concerned, being summarily kicked out of your residence is "one of the consequences that go with the convenience of renting. If you want to avoid the perils of irresponsible landlords, you're advised to take out a mortgage yourself."
Guess I was wrong for thinking I was being responsible, renting rather than taking out a loan for a home I knew I couldn't afford.
>Banks will never lend to rental properties again if this keeps up. This idiot Dart is going to drive rental prices through the roof.
Ding! We have a winner. It isn't about being nice. It is about making sure the incentives line up right. If you can't enforce a contract, you won't make such a contract in the future. Today especially, banks can pick and choose among opportunities for loans.
Now, why are the banks evicting tenants in the first place? Why not just hire a management company and have them collect the rent checks while the place is up for sale.
I've had buildings I've rented from sold out from under me and turned into condos, so I lost my lease. Its what happens.
Ding! We have a winner. It isn't about being nice. It is about making sure the incentives line up right. If you can't enforce a contract, you won't make such a contract in the future. Today especially, banks can pick and choose among opportunities for loans.
Haha,
You mean contracts like LEASES to?
You guys are hilarious, a bunch of fantastically rich people combined with the bloated banking lobby have basically deliberately crashed the economy and walked away with bonuses and you complain about renters. Retards, you deserve your hell.
Did any of your hard-liners actually read Dart's statement? Here, a smaller piece for the short bus crowd
That's right kids, he's holding the BANKS to task for not following the law. Let's put Sheriff's deputies in harm's way, shock people into homelessness and leave empty properties, where of course no crime will occur.
Don't tell me that rental properties will cease to be, or that rents will double your libertarian fantasy-land scenario is pure bunkum. Banks will have to carry out some due diligence and work with renters.
The Sheriff doesn't work for the banks, he works for the people, good on him.
>That's right kids, he's holding the BANKS to task for not following the law.
Bullshit. He's not holding the BANKS to task, he's holding a PRESS CONFERENCE.
Actually, today he is meeting with two judges to clarify that whole "I won't carry out your orders" thing.
So when is he filing his next election papers? Publicity stunt through and through.
Ward- Let them eat cake on the street -Up has spoken
He's not holding the BANKS to task, he's holding a PRESS CONFERENCE.
He's likely doing both at the same time--doing what he considers the best or least-worst thing, and making sure he gets credit and attention for it. I have known a fair number of politicians over the years at various levels, and that seems to be the general way to operate, even when one takes into account the hopeless cynics and naive idealists.
Bullshit. He's not holding the BANKS to task, he's holding a PRESS CONFERENCE.
Perhaps it would suit you better if he did this without warning? Perhaps under cover of darkness.
This isn't Blago talking about "the children", this is a perfectly valid thing to have a damn press conference about.
Sorry, I don't see people who pay their rent on time and follow the terms of their lease deserving to be tossed out of their homes without notice as 'capitalism at work'. They deserve notification and time to relocate. There is a higher public good here and if you can't see that join your libertarian friends on a desert compound already. The rest of us like a civil society, thanks.
There is a higher public good here and if you can't see that join your libertarian friends on a desert compound already. The rest of us like a civil society, thanks.
Christ, Albany, all the person did was offer a different, more cynical view, not declare war on you personally.
The past couple weeks these free-market types have gotten too much time and taken up too much oxygen. "Let the market work it out" is rich person talk for "fuck you poor people, I got mine"
"Let the market work it out" is rich person talk for "fuck you poor people, I got mine"
Indeed it is. But all of us must guard against counterproductive us vs them crap when debating policies, or thinking everything is a personal declaration of war. Doing against people who do it to you makes you just as bad. We must avoid tossing out cheap labels--racist, homophobic-simply to smear other people, and without offering any hard evidence to back up such serious charges. Again, strong ideas tend to stand on their own. I don't know why that is so hard for people to understand.
Or, we just just all crawl along in the gutter, fighting for scraps, or something like that. I'd rather walk a wiser path.