Posted on 11/18/2009 3:23:26 AM PST by reaganaut1
...
Under the rules adopted by Philadelphia’s primary civil court, no owner-occupied house may be foreclosed on and sold by the sheriff’s office before a “conciliation conference,” a face-to-face meeting between the homeowner and the lender aimed at striking a workable compromise. Every homeowner facing a default filing is furnished with counseling, and sometimes legal representation.
...
When homeowners in Philadelphia receive legal default notices from their mortgage companies, the court system schedules a conciliation hearing. Canvassers working for local nonprofit agencies visit foreclosed homeowners, distributing fliers that inform them of their rights to a conference, and urging them to call a hot line that can direct them to free housing counselors.
...
The Philadelphia program forces an outcome by bringing together all the principals in one room. If the mortgage company proves intractable, the homeowner has the right to request mediation in front of a volunteer lawyer serving as a provisional judge, who relays recommendations to the program’s supervising judge. If the judge finds that the mortgage company is not acting in good faith, she can hold the house in limbo by denying permission for a sheriff’s sale.
While data is scant, a legal aid group, Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program, has complete information on 61 of the 309 cases it has resolved since October 2008 through the anti-foreclosure program. Only five resulted in sheriff’s sales, while 35 ended with loan modifications that lowered payments, the group says. The remaining 21 cases were divided among bankruptcies, loan forbearance and repayment arrangements, graceful exits and straightforward sales.
Some suggest the city’s program is plagued by the same basic defect as the Obama rescue plan: Nearly all the loans that have been modified have been altered on a trial basis ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The NYT has been editorializing in favor of coerced loan modifications nationwide.
This will make mortgages LESS available, since no rational bank will want to issue loans in a city like that.
This just might be the thing that brings the CMO/CDO pustule to a head by giving a huge number of borrowers in a single , easy to service location the tools they need to question the deed and it's assignments and permutations. I'm all for cleaning this particular "Agean Stable".
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Only 2 to 3 % of all loan mods are actually completed... The problem is that the ACTUAL lender cannot be found or when found the lender is actually a pool of hundreds of investors and it's impossible to get agreement ...
AND THE LENDERS HAVE INSURANCE (SOMETIMES OVER COVERAGE BY A FACTOR OF AS MUCH AS 30X) AGAINST DEFAULT AND JOE TAXPAYER (SUCKER!) HAS BEEN COVERING THOSE INSURANCE BETS THAT LENDERS MADE AGAINST THEIR OWN MORTGAGES THAT THEY KNEW WERE TIMEBOMBS WHEN THEY WROTE THEM.)
My state requires a pre-foreclosure notice be filed which sets a date with the court for the homeowner to plead a case against the execution of the foreclosure.
Does this not happen in other states?
I know it is fashionable to bash “evil lenders” these days, but I can give you first-hand knowledge of how it works.
I have been a volunteer loan officer for a small credit union for over ten years.
Not once have I held a gun to anyone’s head and MADE them apply for a loan. I can’t recall of anyone, anywhere ever doing such a thing.
“This will make mortgages LESS available, since no rational bank will want to issue loans in a city like that.”
Nah, maybe temporarily. There was once a time when no rational banks lent money to people with lousy credit and no income.
I must be missing something here, but if someone hasn't paid for it, how can that person be the "owner?" Occupier maybe, but not owner.
I have no problem with credit unions , they generally make good loans and hold the note.
So much for contracts. Egads.
Heres a link with your answer (I’m out of time and have to run). http://www.realtytrac.com/foreclosure-laws/foreclosure-laws-comparison.asp
I wonder if you can get a mortgage in Philly now?
We live outside Philadelphia, and I've attended a sheriff's sale and reviewed the public disclosures on a number of local properties. The foreclosure process in PA can drag on for several years. There are a variety of notices required, and there are a number of things that can delay the process. Re-assessing the property is one, bankruptcy filing is another. Sometimes homeowners are difficult to locate to serve paperwork, etc. etc. I've seen cases where people bought expensive new homes, made a handful of payments, and were still living in the houses 3-4 years later. Rather than pay their mortgages, they seem to be paying lawyers to drag out their foreclosure process. Even after the house is lost at sheriff's sale, the former homeowner has a period of time in which to vacate the premises. It simply isn't an overnight process.
There are lots of different foreclosure scenarios, and many sad stories. There are also users, scamsters, and a variety of cheats working the process.
Too cool. Need to buy a house here in Texas ASAP if this is going to happen here.
I don’t mind the part about requiring the parties to get together to discuss the situation. This might prevent some unnecessary foreclosures and end up being a win-win for the lenders and borrowers.
However, the requriment that the bank act in good faith is outrageous. A borrower who fails to pay his debts on a collateralized loan, forfeits the collateral. Unless the bank is refusing to accept payments, or lying about the deliquency, it is acting in good faith.
While it might be in its best interest to renegotiate some mortgages, the bank is under no obligation to do so.
The only reason banks lend such large sums of money to home buyers, at such low interest rates, is the fact that the debts are secured by the home.
If governments continue to strip mortgage lenders of their rights, mortgages will no longer be offered, or will be offered for much smaller amounts, at much higher interest rates. This will cause home prices to collapse even further.
most people pay more property taxes than principle on their mortgage
Is the city-landlord tearing up the tax bills?
We try. But this romantic media creation of the poor put-upon borrower is a bunch of bullsh!t. When I first started doing loans, I was of that opinion. I got disabused of that rather quickly.
Most deadbeats are just that. Deadbeats. They borrowed money to buy some toy they didn't need or to live in way more house than they could afford.
But the Charles Dickens picture all the newspapers and TV networks like to use sells so much better than the true picture of people who can't be trusted with money.
Lemme guess what this new way is....
Is it by chance “other people’s money?”
The big question is why would anyone want to live there?
; )
“He would sign over the deed to his house — his grandfather’s two-story row house; the only house in which he had ever lived; the house where he had raised three children.”
I would bet that his grandfather had paid off this house many years ago, and Christopher Hall was using grandfather’s equity to live a lifestyle he could not afford. I’m sorry, but it is hard to generate much sympathy for him. I bet this union worker voted for Barama thinking he would be bailed out of a mess of his own making. And it looks like he will.
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