| Homeowners Who Lose a Home to Foreclosure but Do Not Move Out |
Some homeowners facing foreclosure find a solution and are able to save their homes. Some of them just give up on the house and find somewhere else to live until their financial condition has repaired and they can attempt qualifying for a new mortgage. This article is not about either of these groups of homeowners, though. This article is about the ones who neither find a way to avoid foreclosure nor leave their home, remaining in the property and living rent and mortgage free for as long as possible.
With such high foreclosure rates across the country, it should not be surprising at all that some homeowners are taking advantage of the backlog in county courts. The Big Picture website showcases an article about such homeowners living in multi-million dollar homes who have not made a payment for nearly two years while their houses are listed on the market and in foreclosure.
This phenomena is not all that surprising, as we have always run across homeowners who are looking for foreclosure advice only so that they know how long they can stay in the house. Some of them have already planned where they will go once the house is scheduled for eviction, but they want to continue living in the foreclosed house for free until the last second.
It seems it is usually the owners of higher-valued property that engage in this activity, as well. These are not the owners of an $80,000 house that try to stay for as long as possible; they move out quickly to avoid being taken by surprise by the sheriff who has come to remove them. Property owners whose houses are worth several hundred thousand or more were most often the people who contacted us to learn about the foreclosure process and how long they would be able to live mortgage free.
The homeowners may have their plans to live without the worry of a mortgage payment for as long as possible, but the mortgage companies are seemingly at a loss as to how to deal with these properties. The article suggests that these may be properties whose losses have not even been declared by the banks yet. Further compounding the problem for the banks is that they are waiting more than half a year in some states and counties just to get a court date to have a foreclosure lawsuit heard by a judge.
Of course, this just leaves the opportunity open for homeowners to contest the lawsuit or request more information that they are due under the various laws regarding debt. Especially if the loan has been sold numerous times and there is some question about ownership of the mortgage, the case may be extended for several more months before the house is ordered to be sold at sheriff sale. Over the last decade, mortgage debt, subprime or not, has seen a large increase in how it is bundled, securitized, and sold off to investors. A bank that collects the payments may not own the actual loan, and homeowners should not assume that their mortgage company has any grounds to sue them for foreclosure.
I have written before about when homeowners should consider walking away from their home and some of the considerations when doing so. Most of the rest of this blog provides information on how foreclosure victims can save a home through various methods to stop foreclosure. But the third option may be catching on in popularity as banks and local governments fall further behind the foreclosure crisis and the value of properties falls far lower than the amounts that homeowner owe to their mortgage companies.
About the Author: Nick writes for the ForeclosureFish website and blog, which provide foreclosure help to homeowners in danger of losing their homes. The site examines various ways to defend against foreclosure, including legal information, stopping a sheriff sale, and working with the lender. Visit the site to read more about how foreclosure works and how the process may be ended: http://www.foreclosurefish.com/
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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