Renters whose landlords are in foreclosure will get to stay in their homes at least a little longer, thanks to a partial moratorium on evictions by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Dart said Wednesday that deputies won't evict people who rent until banks can provide proof that the person living at the property has been notified of the eviction.

"When we're doing this, and we're destroying peoples' lives, we've got to make darn sure we've got the right people," Dart said.

The order does not affect most evictions, only those of people who rent and first learn that their landlord's building is being repossessed when deputies show up to move their furniture to the curb.

Dart said that his office receives 400 to 500 such eviction orders a month. All of them will be halted until affidavits from lenders are in hand.

The move comes, Dart said, in part because in about a third of the evictions, deputies went to properties only to find nobody there or people other than the mortgage holder, who were unaware of the eviction.

Although this is a significant problem, a sheriff's spokesman said far more apartment renters are evicted for nonpayment of rent than home and condominium occupants.

Steve Patterson, Dart's spokesman, said those evictions are unaffected by the moratorium.

The county projects that it will conduct 10,000 rental evictions this year, compared with 4,500 mortgage foreclosure evictions.

Dart said his deputies were doing the heavy lifting for banks. Banks need to find out who actually lives at a foreclosed property, he said. When the department informed banks that people other than the mortgage holder were at a foreclosed property, days later, Dart said, his office would get an eviction order with those new names added.

Some advocates for renters said that at least part of the impetus for Dart's move came after the Albany Park Neighborhood Council came to Dart's office to lobby for renters who didn't know their landlords were in foreclosure.

The council's Diane Limas told reporters her organization worked with several tenants whose landlord fled the country with $2 million in mortgage loans. Though the tenants had paid rent dutifully, Limas said, they discovered they were being evicted.