Well, here’s a little more info for the tenants caught in the Apex/Anchor Bank fight . . . at least for 4 of the properties.
ROUND ONE
Ok, to get you caught up. Last May, tenants got a letter from Anchor Bank telling them to pay their rent to Anchor in a check made out to Apex. I can’t really explain. And any attempts to find out information were met with “confidentiality agreement” comments. So, as far as I could figure out, absent any agreement or lease clauses or court orders Apex was still the landlord and that is probably where the tenants were supposed to pay their rent. Probably. I know the tenants did it every which way, and as far as I know, no one got evicted for non-payment of rent, but there were two evictions by Apex, one which was the subject of on of the foreclosures filed recently. None by Anchor Bank.
ROUND TWO
Some tenants are starting to get a letter that a foreclosure has been filed on their property. To the best of my knowledge, the properties with foreclosures filed are ones owned by:
Apex Hawthorne Hills LLC 2010CV003290
Apex Hometown Grove LLC 2010CV003290
(No info found)
Apex Mayflower LLC 2010CV003301
(No info found)
Market Square Associates LLC 2010CV003307
Shopping Center at 6550 Odana Rd
$8,671,000
Theatre
$310,000
Chandler 222 LLC 2010CV003319
22 apartment units at 222 Merry St. (Sound Familiar!?)
$1,149,000
Chandler 222A LLC 2010CV003319
Parking Lot at 230 Merry St
$45,000
The letter again instructs them to make the payment to Doug Mitcheson, Anchor Bank. I have no idea what authority they have to say that. Until the court orders the payments be made to someone other than the person the tenant signed the lease with, or one of the parties produces an agreement that somehow modifies the lease, I’m not sure they the bank has authority to collect the rent – or evict. The eviction process is the same for the commercial and residential tenants, since it is outlined in Wis. Stat. 704. And if they don’t know the tenant’s name, its going to be hard to evict them for non-payment! Especially if the property is still in the LLCs name.
This whole thing is one of the odder things I’ve seen in my 19 years at the Tenant Resource Center. For more on tenant’s rights in foreclosure actions, see here. And stay tuned. I’ll let you know if I figure anything else out.
One positive thing about the federal Financial Reform bill conference report is that it would extend the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act another 2 yrs — to 2014 and clarify that notice of foreclosure for purposes of the act is the date title is transferred (in Wisconsin this does not happen until the Sheriff’s sale is confirmed at the Confirmation of Sale hearing).
This isn’t my area, but it looks like maybe Anchor was trying to avoid foreclosing on Apex properties because among other things in foreclosure, tenants generally have a right to cancel the lease. Anchor obviously has no interest in telling the tenants that they may be able to cancel their leases, and lose out on all that rent. If I were a tenant getting one of these letters, I’d try to talk to an attorney about it. The last thing the tenants need is to start paying rent to Anchor, then face a claim by Apex for unpaid rent, or some such nonsense.
So I was thinking of renting at 222 merry St. The building itself is really nice and a hard offer to pass up. Any suggestions? Should I be looking elsewhere?
Sorry I didn’t reply right away. The answer is, it is kind of hard to say. If you sign a lease and it goes into foreclosure, you have the right to stay until the end of your lease. I have no idea what will happen with Apex and Anchor in the meantime, but its probably no bigger risk than elsewhere. But, like I said, its hard to say. I’m a bad one to ask about landlords, cuz I only know the worst ones and the worst stories.
I just received a letter today from Anchor Bank pretty much detailing the same info as above. I’m a college student living on Gorham St by James Madison Park. Had I known Apex was having issues with Anchor, I wouldn’t have signed the lease. At first I thought the letter might be a scam, but now I know it’s legit after doing a little research via Google 🙂 Not sure how things are going to pan out, but until I’m told otherwise, I’m paying rent to Apex.
Clearly, it says that having not settle your accounts may affect one another. The tenants have the right to stay for the span they signed with apex, but rent must be payed for anchor in order not to be foreclosed.