“The banks never want to take ownership,” he said. “They have to pay the fees going forward. The costs are considerable.”
Even McGrady, the Pinellas-Pasco judge, believes money is behind the canceled sales.
“After a while, you begin to question their motives,” the judge said.
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Canceled foreclosure sales saddle neighbors, HOAs with expenses
The foreclosure crisis has littered the region with thousands of abandoned homes. The houses sit idle as banks have been slow to seize them in the final stage of the foreclosure process, the public auction.
Although recent headlines proclaim the worst of the housing crisis is over, the decrepit homes are a constant reminder that cleaning up the foreclosure mess remains a work in progress.
The house on Lane’s street in Lithia went into foreclosure in 2008 and has been vacant for more than a year. Aurora Loan Services had set an auction for February but canceled it.
It’s an oft-repeated pattern.
In the last 12 months, lenders have canceled auctions on 4,204 properties in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Sales have been canceled two, three, even nine times on some homes.
In many cases, banks delay seizures to avoid having to pay maintenance bills or homeowner association fees. Meanwhile, neighbors fend off vandals and thieves and worry about property values falling because of the deteriorating houses.
The repeated cancellations burden the court system.
“These never seem to go away,” said Thomas McGrady, chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit. “It’s a nuisance.”
Taxpayers also pay for the delays.
Be sure to check this one in full here…
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I just want to relate a phone call I received from the OCC yesterday. I wrote a letter to the White House about my problems and they got back to me. They are looking into my case. I have been forced by haressment to short sale my home ie break ins and robbery. water and heat truned off. Wells Fargo lost my note from 2006 and took my money. They said they are going to look into it and see if they can help me regain the money that Wells stole from me selling my home. Write letters to everyone!!!!!
There motives are easy to figure out. As soon as the sell the house they can’t claim the bubble price on their books. In plain english their capital reserves go down when they sell less than what the promissory note is.
Its the gamble.
Most of these bankers have never seen thing like this and are rolling the dice that housing will start to increase in value and they will get a landfall profit from all these houses they hold.
Same with investors buying all they can.
Problem is if the economy tanks even more, but then banks can count on another bailout. They can’t loose but for a while and they know it.
there also is another problem. Many of the homes don’t have clean title. They cannot be sold.
The question is why the banks won’t negotiate with the families, living there? Time will give us the answer. But the agony of watching a family being forced to leave. and then for what? why? just because of something on the documents that the Bank has?
The foreclosure process is tracked by “milestones”. The notice of default, completion of service, time to answer, final judgment, eviction, etc. These dates are carefully monitored by LPS, foreclosure mills, and other outsourced default specialists. These “milestones” are front and center on loan activity reports. There is a foreclosure mill that has even named their company newsletter “The Timeline”. In my opinion, the eviction must trigger a payoff of some sort because suddenly the full on assault to get the house stops and the house no longer matters. As they say….follow the money. Throwing families to the curb is just another “milestone”. It’s all very sad and frustrating.