Nov. 8--WEST HAVEN -- Robert Boyd has had a lot of bad news this year.

A driver for a charter bus company, he has been unable to work since his prostate cancer metastasized to Stage 4 bone cancer.

The only good news was the location of the new apartment he and his wife moved into in May, which is about a block from the Veterans Affairs medical center, where he is being treated.

Then, in July, a bright orange sticker slapped on his door told him a bank owned his apartment. A follow-up letter implied he had three months to find another place to live, even though his lease didn't expire until May 2010.

Boyd, 61, and the other tenants had done nothing wrong. His landlord, the owner of the multifamily house at 9 Abner St., had defaulted on the mortgage and the bank had begun foreclosure proceedings, unbeknownst to the tenants.

The Boyds and the residents of two other floors were about to experience the deteriorating housing market up close. Though a federal law adopted in May gives them new protections, misleading communications had them all preparing to move out early.

"The tenants are the innocent victims in the foreclosure crisis," said Amy Marx, a New Haven Legal Assistance Association housing lawyer who contacted the three families at 9 Abner St. after she found the property listed in foreclosure filings in New Haven housing court.

The federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which was adopted in May, "was a complete game changer for renters," Marx said. Before this, a foreclosure discontinued the lease and tenants lost the right to stay in their homes.

With foreclosures estimated to reach 3.5 million this year in the country and towns in Greater New Haven hit hard, Marx said the protections are more important than ever, but instead "it's as if nothing has changed."

In July, the orange sticker Boyd found on his front door only said an unnamed band was the new owner and tenants should contact a local Realtor.

It turns out that the owner is Deutsche Bank, the German financial giant which has taken $11.8 billion in U.S. bailout money through payments from AIG. Under investigation in Florida for alleged illegal foreclosures, it has been sued by several communities for failing to maintain properties and contributing to blight.

BAD FAITH

"It's really hard for me to relocate now," Boyd said in an interview in his apartment as he negotiated the small rooms with crutches, his ankle in a cast after multiple falls.

The East Greenwich, R.I., law firm of Marinosci, Ceritto and Shapiro is handling the property for Deutsche Bank.