Foreclosure Radar founder and CEO Sean O’Toole is alerting readers on his site of new requirements for those who foreclose next year on a property with tenants.

He writes:
Commencing January 1, 2011, a notice to terminate a residential tenant who remains in the property after a foreclosure sale must include a statutory notice of the tenant’s rights under newly added California Code of Civil Procedure section 1161c passed pursuant to Senate Bill 1149.

The sample notice O’Toole posted caught my attention because of the news it gives those tenants. Among other things, it states:

“You may have the right to stay in your home for 90 days or longer, regardless of any deadlines stated on any attached papers. In some cases and in some cities with a “just cause for eviction law,” you may not have to move at all. But you must take the proper legal steps in order to protect your rights.”

Not surprisingly, the notice recommends tenants talk immediately with a lawyer.

The new law sounds like it is responding to the tales I’ve heard of tenants who pay their rent to the homeowner, and then get notice that they have to move out immediately because the property has been sold in foreclosure.

Here is the link to O’Toole’s post.
— Robert Digitale