NLIHC joins other national organizations in signing an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief in support of a lawsuit filed by the Western Center on Law and Poverty and Bay Area Legal Aid against Deutsche Bank for violating the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA). Rosario Nativi and her son Jose Perez were evicted from the apartment they had rented since June 2007 after Deutsche Bank became the owner of the property through foreclosure. Although Rosario and Jose still had 10 months remaining on their lease, in their absence the family’s personal property was thrown out into the backyard and ruined. When the family returned, the police removed them from their home as if they were trespassers.

The PTFA provides bona fide tenants the right to occupy their homes until the end of the remaining term of the lease. The Nativis’ legal aid attorney contacted the bank to seek reinstatement of the property for the duration of the lease, but the bank refused. The Nativis brought suit, but lost in trial court because that court ignored the PTFA. Most states’ common law allows leases to be terminated by a foreclosure; the federal PTFA was passed to overturn such practice.

The National Housing Law Project drafted the brief, which was joined by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, the National Fair Housing Alliance, AARP and the California Reinvestment Coalition, in addition to NLIHC. 

PTFA sunsets in 2014: NLIHC advocates making PTFA permanent law and improving it by providing tenants a private right of action to file suit in civil court and seek relief for violations of PTFA. This would give tenants the ability to secure court orders enforcing their bona fide lease agreements, and to pursue money damages for financial losses such as the loss of their belongs following an illegal eviction.

The amicus curiae brief is attached.

Click here to learn more about NLIHC’s policy position on foreclosure intervention.