I expect many homeowners will just walk away from their property, default on their mortgage and leave the mortgage holder with a scorched piece of land..
They should probably go to Joe Pedo and beg for forgiveness. I imagine Jo Jo will still be granting “forgiveness” and issuing EOs for the next 20 years.
the true homeowners, the banks, will get back every penny because they require the borrower to pay for insurance that will more than cover what they lent. And the taxes are paid along with the mortgage and insurance.
Do the people the write this garbage understand anything about bank loans?
Yeah. ...home owners signed a legal contract to pay mortgage payments. There was no clause in that legal contract that mortgage payments not required if house is destroyed. We have to believe in law and order.
At the end of the 12-month period, the homeowner will be required to repay the 12 months of missed payments along with any accrued interest. To avoid this, the homeowner would need to set up a repayment plan or refinance the mortgage.
For homeowners without fire insurance, bankruptcy may become their only option. While it is an unfortunate situation, bankruptcy exists as a legal tool to provide financial relief in such dire circumstances.
Of course they should. Just like a worthless student loan you bought it you own it.
Doh... You just bought a $20 million dollar home, made your first payment and now that it’s burned down you get it all for free???
Everybody’s got to pay the piper... That’s life. I would assume most of those with mortgages had insurance... Those who used cash and didn’t bother insuring... Well... Hopefully there’s a lot more cash in your bank account. There will be plenty of people taking advantage of this disaster to fill their pockets with ill gotten cash... It happens during every disaster.
Making it easier for these shysters shouldn’t be the governments job.
All Part of Their Plan™
Developers are salivating at the chance to get their hands on the land for pennies on the dollar.
Newsom already has plans:
“As we start rebuilding, starting to relax some of the zoning laws, especially in a more working class neighborhood like Altadena. So that rather than putting up single-family residences, we could allow developers to build duplexes and apartments.”
You can bet those developers who will receive special favors are all major donors to Newsom’s campaigns.
Just watched a video a few days ago about how the COVID forbearance is about to tank the real estate industry nationwide because it is expiring. Forbearance mitigates late fees and foreclosures, but it does NOT stop interest from being accrued. A 10 year forbearance sounds great as you work to get the insurance company to rebuild your house, but once it is rebuilt, it is as if you still had the old house and had not been making payments for years. You probably owe more than when you first bought it, even if you started with equity.
What a conundrum for those poor people. In high-price places like Pacific Palisades, most of your equity is in the land, not the structure. The land didn’t burn is still there, and is still owned by the mortgagee. But the landscape is now a dreadful moonscape, so the value of the land has diminished. And who are the buyers that would buoy the value of the land? Unscrupulous speculators who will pay you 25% of what the land used to be worth?
Will the land once again be valuable? Will the government swoop in and take it all to erect hideous, brutalist 30 story low-income towers?
If I were a Pacific Palisades “homeowner” wiped out by the fire, I honestly don’t know what I’d do. There are no good options:
1. Keep paying the mortgage in the hope the land will retain its value?
2. Walk away?
3. Cut and run by selling out to speculators?
4. Wait for the government to condemn all of it and offer me a Fifth Amendment Takings Clause buy-so so they house the poor, the homeless, and the illegals?
How can you continue to pay the mortgage AND your new housing costs elsewhere? Whose budget can afford that?
What to do?
Actually, they can sell the property for $10 or allow the mortgage companies to repo it. As to taxes, what assessor will be able to assign a value to a chimney surrounded by ashes. Can you say “negative valuation”?
The house have to be insured don’t they? I don’t think banks give out mortgage loans without any homeowners insurance. In the mean time they should give some grace period until he owners get on their feet. I think that if some insurance company demanded a payment right after my place burned to the ground, I would send the mortgage company an envelope of ashes.
Why don’t people who have a mortgage on a house have home insurance?? That is a requirement- by the mortgage company. If they can’t get it or don’t have it the mortgage company forces it on them.
BTW- shouldn’t the property taxes drop like a rock now that the value of these homes have dropped?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Democrats tried to impeach President Elect Trump for the fires.
GA resident here: If you have a mortgage, you have home owners insurance. If you put down less than 20% on your home, you also pay for private mortgage insurance. I fail to understand the point of this article. Of course you are responsible for your mortgage. The government burning it down does not absolve you of your debt.
Oh well, no more house, no more debt, right? Nope.
Some or all insurance companies have been canceling policies. James Woods said his was cancelled 4 months ago. Why he did nothing is his problem. But when that happened the company was in effect stating that he property was un-inhabitable, as I believe is much of California. I
In this corner, you have the Democrats claiming Climate Change was responsible for the Disaster in LA.
1. Climate change caused by CO2 release.
2. Blamed on pro-petroleum/pro-energy Donald Trump
In this corner, you have Conservatives claiming the following:
1. Climate change is eternal, and has been going on long before humans.
2. Even IF it’s CO2 accelerated, the US doesn’t lead CO2 production, China does (Biden enhanced China)
3. The Forests were mismanaged and Donald Trump warned them in 2016...they ignored it.
4. The reservoirs were empty because of California water policy via the Democrats.
5. The fire hydrants were empty, yet to be explained.
6. The Fire Department spent tons of money on Harvard Business grads, but it’s fire engines were not repaired in the shop do to money shortages.
7. The Fire Department budgets were drastically reduced making them incapable of proactive planning.
8. Money for upkeep and repair of fire equipment had been diverted by LA to DEI and Gender art.
9. The mayor of LA was out of the country during fire season, and was speechless upon return.
The reality is that more than 50% of California persons polled blame ‘Climate Change’ and not the misuse of funds, the misuse of water resources, the misuse of the forest. That kind of DENIAL (and I don’t mean a river in Egypt) is pathological and cannot be overcome with logic. In other words, you can’t fix that. Unless people come to terms with the ‘preventable’ causes, these types of catastrophic problems will become more common and cyclic....like Climate change. The change that must be made is a Political Climate Change.
Trump is just a scapegoat for failed, fraudulent, and ineffectively expensive government that has saddled the public with tax burden, but does not deliver services.