Postponing foreclosure evictions

“Chalk up a win for the little guys in the mortgage foreclosure crisis,” said Mark Brown in the Chicago Sun-Times. Cook County, Ill., Sheriff Tom Dart this week said he would stop carrying out evictions stemming from foreclosures until banks start providing proof that they’re kicking out owners, and not “innocent tenants.”

Sure, it’s unfair if renters get kicked out when their landlords go bust, said Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune. But that’s “one of the consequences that go with the convenience of renting.” If no one pays the mortgage, no one has the right to live in the bank’s house. If Dart won't stand up for property rights, he should “get another job.”

Nobody’s arguing—at least not compellingly—for a “complete suspension of foreclosure evictions,” said Jesse Walker in Reason online. But it does seem fair for banks and landlords to keep renters informed so they don’t come home one day and find “their homes locked and half their possessions stolen.”

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