Central Maine Blog

A federal law enacted this year offers renters more protection from eviction if their landlord loses the property through foreclosure. The law has some fuzzy requirements, but should be a boon to renters who otherwise might have been evicted with little or no notice.

"The fundamental purpose of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act is to ensure that tenants facing eviction from a foreclosed property have adequate time to find alternative housing. To that end, the law establishes a minimum time period that the tenant can remain in a foreclosed property before eviction," a Federal Reserve memorandum states.

The national foreclosure crisis has not been kind to renters, despite their seeming bystander status. Indeed, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has estimated that some 40 percent of households that have lost their homes due to foreclosure have been renters.

Source: http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=22789901

By Marcie Geffner of Bankrate.com