Tenants

You're paying your bills, but your landlord isn't. And you're the one holding the eviction notice. This is becoming an all-too-familiar scenario for thousands of renters nationwide who have become the unintended victims of foreclosures. Banks are booting good tenants onto the streets with little to no notice after seizing a property from a delinquent owner, ignoring tenant leases.

A judge has ruled in favor of five mobile home park residents near Canoga Park who alleged that the park owner failed to make repairs and allowed dangerous conditions to persist for years, including a faulty electrical system that had been cited more than 100 times by state inspectors. Based on an eight-day trial held in April, Judge Gregory C.

As you get ready to move out of Mom and Dad's, some upfront leg work could save you many a headache. In many cities around the country, especially in California, Florida and Arizona, it's a renter's market. Renters have more choices -- from traditional apartments to single-family homes -- and more bargaining power. But they should also be prepared to deal with first-time landlords, who have decided to lease a property they can't sell in the current downturn.

Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said Tuesday that it had adopted a policy allowing renters to remain in their homes even if their landlords entered foreclosure. The policy would allow residents of about 4,000 properties to sign new leases with Fannie Mae while the properties are up for sale. Michael Williams, Fannie Mae's chief operating officer, said the change should "help bring a measure of stability to communities impacted by high foreclosure rates."

Michael B. Bennett used to own his home in Chesapeake, Va. Now he rents it, which is taking some getting used to. There are advantages. "If something goes bad -- the hot water heater or the air conditioner -- the people that own the house pay for it," said Bennett, who lost the home to foreclosure. On the other hand, "I don't like saying I'm renting." Bennett and his wife, Candace, are among millions of Americans who have become renters again after foreclosure.

There's always been a bit of mythology behind the gates of the place they call Villa Valentino. The 18 cozy apartments tucked between the Hollywood Bowl and Hollywood Boulevard are said to have been where silent screen star Rudolph Valentino sneaked away for romantic trysts -- never mind that the legendary "Latin Lover" was already dead by the time the dwellings were finished 80 years ago.

With the lease winding down on his law firm's Universal City offices last year, Ray Hamrick figured that he was going to have to move because his rent would be rising beyond what he could reasonably pay. Reluctantly, he started looking for space in buildings that weren't as desirable as the sleek, 35-story high-rise on Universal Hollywood Drive that his firm had called home since the 1980s. Then the global recession took hold, and his building, the tallest in the San Fernando Valley, went into foreclosure.

It was, like the letters that started it all, hard to believe. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stood in the courtyard of a Monrovia apartment complex Friday and spoke to the developmentally and physically disabled residents who had worried that they were going to lose their homes: "Your eviction notice is being terminated." He was addressing nearly two dozen disabled residents, some of whom had lived there more than a decade before receiving notices last month that Regency Court Apartments was always meant to be a senior apartment community.

Overheard on the Chelsea Hotel stairway one recent Sunday: Question: "Is Rita still here?" Reply: "Rita's dead." A pause between footsteps. "Rita was a sweetheart." Only in this hotel could such an exchange take place as calmly as if two people were discussing the weather. But most people don't check out of the Chelsea if they can help it.