Lawmakers aim to protect tenants feeling foreclosure pinch

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Lawmakers are working to help tenants through the foreclosure crisis.

Washington Mutual hired RE/MAX to inform renters in 17 apartment buildings on Diamond Avenue on Monday that they had to vacate their homes by July 16, after the buildings went into foreclosure in January.

NEWSCHANNEL 3 attempted to contact both Washington Mutual and RE/MAX for comment but got no response.

But instead of trying to find someone to blame, some are looking for a solution.

State representative Michael Sak has drafted a resolution to get renters more rights including: requiring the bank to notify renters by mail of any impending foreclosure, publicly posting foreclosures, allowing renters to stay in their apartments through the rent cycle and possibly allowing an additional 30 days to move out.

Sak stated that "if we've got tenants and renters across West Michigan that have paid their rent and through no fault of their own are being evicted because of a foreclosed property then we have to seek some resolution at the state level."

Unfortunately such a resolution comes to late for the residents who have lost their homes on Diamond Avenue.

Representative Sak is hoping to have the final draft of his resolution completed by September so it can be signed into law by next year, and that what happened to these people won't happen to anyone else.

Michigan ranks fifth for the number of foreclosure filings, there were more than 12,000 last month alone.