Hardship withdrawal

[Guest Amy Marie]

A participant applied for a hardship withdrawal siting foreclosure/eviction. They provided a completed hardship application along with a foreclosure notice and a lease agreement. The participant signed a lease for a house. The landlord is behind on mortgage payments and now the house is being foreclosed on. Does this qualify as a hardship? To prevent your landlord from foreclosure?

I understand the thought process behind the request: "If the property is foreclosed on, then I'll be evicted" but it's not as though the participant is behind on rent and being evicted. Furthermore, the hardship application lists a different address than the leased property. The lease is month to month and the agreement was signed 8 months ago. For all I know the participant could have moved out.

Any thoughts?

[masteff]

Because of the "Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009", the eviction of the participant is far from being certain. Considering the complicated legal issues, I would deny the hardship request.