Monday, January 7, 2008

Not So Fast!

Pretty interesting development.

A court in Buffalo is trying to make the banks responsible for the physical maintenance of foreclosed properties that revert back to the lender. There is noway a former owner of a now foreclosed property would be responsible with what happens to a house after he was forced out. But it does not surprise me that the banks are trying to change the rules.


Dirty deeds




As housing crisis deepens, cities fight lenders over abandoned homes

By Michael Orey

updated 8:21 a.m. CT, Mon., Jan. 7, 2008

On Dec. 17 in a windowless Buffalo courtroom, Cindy T. Cooper, a prosecutor for the city, buzzes among a dozen men in suits, cutting deals. "You've got to unboard [the house], go in, and clean it out," she tells one. "If all the repairs are done quickly, I wouldn't ask for any fines." To another, she says, "the gutters weren't done right," and asks to see receipts for the work. It's "Bank Day" in Judge Henry J. Nowak's housing courtroom, more typically a venue where landlords and tenants duke it out over evictions and back rent. Instead, Cooper is asking lawyers for CitiFinancial, JPMorgan Chase, and Countrywide Financial to fix problems like peeling paint, broken masonry, and overgrown or trash-filled yards at houses the city says the banks are responsible for maintaining. It may be surprising to find these financial-services giants hauled before this obscure local tribunal.



This next part REALLY scares me.



That opens up a dispute over who is responsible for taxes and maintenance. Even when lenders do complete the foreclosure, they may walk away from the property, leaving it to be taken by a city for unpaid taxes, a process that can take years.



Anyone who has personal dealing with the City of Chicago or Cook County bureaucracy knows that this would be a terrible disaster! I could not imagine trying to negotiate with some city or county pawn over the price of some run-down ranch. Ugh.

This is good too.



Those charged with violations by Cooper include participants all along the complex mortgage-industry food chain, from loan originators to servicers to the Wall Street trusts that buy up the vast majority of home loans and then securitize them. A similar initiative is under way in Cleveland, where Judge Raymond L. Pianka puts lenders on trial in absentia when they fail to respond to charges.



Do they want to totally destroy the MBS market?? Imagine that you are holding a MBS. You are hoping beyond all hope that the market will turn around next spring. Many of the investment vehic...er i mean homes go into foreclosure. And now the originating lender points its finger at YOU! Because YOU are the owner of the property now.

Wow, rough times ahead.

5 comments:

The North Coast said...

The owner of record is responsible for all expenses and maintenance, period.

If the house is REO, that means the bank is the owner and the bank is responsible.

Neighborhoods in Cleveland and Detroit are being destroyed by the lack of maintenance and oversight of foreclosed homes. Vandals and looters move on any property left vacant and unattended for more than 72 hours.

There's no sense even talking about making previous owners, those who were foreclosed, responsible past foreclosure.

We had better get this straight right now if only to establish that ownership still matters.

Anonymous said...

i was on the west side of the city last week and saw many houses boarded up. what supprised me was one that was not boarded up and appeared to have been looted.
i think the city is going to rapidly lose control of these foreclosed ghetto properties.
get ready for the detroit look.

stuckinthecity said...

There's no sense even talking about making previous owners, those who were foreclosed, responsible past foreclosure.




I agree. That person could careless what happens to the house after they are kicked out.

stuckinthecity said...

was one that was not boarded up and appeared to have been looted.



Looted how? Details?

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