WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- County sheriffs across the United States are finding themselves caught in an economic cross fire, serving evictions on tenants who have kept up with their rent.
"We're never happy about kicking people out of their homes," Prince William County, Va., Deputy Sheriff John Zampino told The Washington Post.
Where the rubber meets the road in the foreclosure process looks like paper work and about $40,000 to $50,000 in costs at a bank. On Main Street, however, the foreclosure process includes landlords who continue to collect rent after they've given up on making mortgage payments, squatters trying to keep a roof over their heads and even appliance thieves, the Post reported.
Forced evictions are generally carried out through increasingly harsher threats taped to the door but some banks have taken to paying occupants to leave the premises, the Post reported.
The system, referred to as "cash for keys," includes payments of "$5,000 to $9,000 … depending on the location and value of the homes," Steve Whetzel, whose company KNK Home Preservation helps banks with the grittier end of foreclosure process, told the Post.
The company provides clean up services, repair work and installs new locks on doors, the Post reported.
