Deficiency judgments let creditors haunt borrowers for up to 20 years

St. Pete Times ^ | March 28, 2011 | Kris Hundley, Times Staff Writer

[dawn53]

Think of it as Act 2 of Florida's foreclosure crisis.

In the first act, borrowers lose their homes.

In the next, lenders come after them for the debt still owed.

Unlike a foreclosure, which homeowners dread but expect once they stop making payments, deficiency actions can sneak up on people who thought their problems were behind them when they handed over the house keys.

"People have no idea of all the trouble that's coming," said Margery Golant, a lawyer in Broward County who is handling a growing number of deficiency defense cases.

[org.whodat]

Telling someone to go see a lawyers is bad advise, well you may be correct but for the wrong reason.

[org.whodat]

And where did you get your degree in real estate????

[org.whodat]

Banks were not forced to do one thing, as long as they sold them to fanny and Freddie, you would take the majority of the hit, and with off setting bets they thought there was no way they could lose, the value of real estate would go up forever.

[PENANCE]

Sorry. Thought you were complaining about banks, and that quote from “It’s a Wonderful Life” just sprang to mind.

[PENANCE]

"They didn’t force the banks to do anything the banksn didn’t want them too." Three words: Community Reinvestment Act And a fourth: ACORN Mr.K @67 is right.

[driftdiver]

“Community Reinvestment Act And a fourth: ACORN Mr.K @67 is right.”

And WHO pushed that through? People who worked for the banks.

I know MANY people who got loan after loan after loan with nothing down on any of em and nothing but rental income to cover the mortgages. CRA didn’t force those loans.

[HereInTheHeartland]

” it wasn’t the homeowner who made the value fall.”

Yes but the homeowners made the decision to buy the home. They had the opportunity to do all the due diligence they wanted. Many cases they didn't want to do the due diligence. The response in the mid 2000’s would have been; “just get the darn loan closed”.

This story I stumbled across perfectly illustrates some of what the mindset was in the bubble:
Any of us who worked in the industry could vouch for this:

http://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/buying_a_house_in_san_francisco.html

[PENANCE]

People want to blame the govt, but the govt was only doing what the banks paid them to do. Even if this were true -- and it isn't -- you'd be saying that banks bribed government officials to be allowed to make loans that they knew could not be repaid. Why would a bank do this? Pay money to the government so that they could LOSE money on bad loans? Really? And even IF what you say were true, the more unethical behavior would be the behavior of the politician TAKING the bribe more than the bank making it. I'm sorry you feel you were screwed by some bank or another. I surely can't say that that doesn't happen, either through incompetence, stupidity, or greedy design. But that doesn't make true what you say about the reasons for the housing collapse, financial crisis, or recession.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Take a look at this story and tell me who was responsible here:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011103230346

[PENANCE]

that’s nice.

ciao.

[BobL]

“Of nine deficiency motions filed in Hillsborough County in the past six months, the most active plaintiff was Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, with one-third of the actions.”

Looks like our nice, friendly, credit unions are behaving WORSE than the big, bad, banks...that we always bash here.

[driftdiver]

The banks put people tied to govt officials on their Board. They paid those people. They all lobbied the govt to get laws passed which allowed them to make loads with little oversight.

They made huge profits during the boom time. That is all they cared about. Look at Countrywide, once they collapsed the guys moved on to the next fraud. Meanwhile the govt hires some of the other leaders of the fraud and make them Sec of Treasury or executives in the Fed.

[Lancey Howard]

Well I would take offense to that as I am a Realtor. But after the things I’ve witnessed in this field, I’m truly sorry that I went into the field. I’m a very good Realtor because I put the client first and do everything in my power to make sure that the client is satisified and I’m not the only one but overall, it is the greediest, most political (as in ‘office type politics’) of any industry I’ve been in.

I've been in nearly every aspect of the business since 1976. Broker, appraiser, underwriter, auditor, secondary sales, mortgage servicing, collections, mortgage company owner, etc., and do you know when the real estate sales business went downhill into the sleazy cat fight you see today? The clue is in the phrase "cat fight".

FRegards,
LH

[Outlaw Woman]

No...I’ve been in only since ‘99. Please elaborate

[PENANCE]

ok, I understand where you’re coming from now. Sorry ‘bout my last comment, I had an emergency, had to take mother to hospital (she’s fine).

I still think CRA had a very large initial effect, especially on the housing bubble. But I also realize that there was more to it — i.e., shady, too-close relations between the gov’t and some of the larger banks that pushed things to a head. I just don’t know (can’t know?) exactly what all of the shady dealings were, or exactly what effect they had. The effects of the CRA and pressuring banks to make Federally guaranteed loans to bad risks, is something I understand. Something I can get my head around.

I always believed there was more to it; it’s simply that I don’t know/ don’t understand what that “more” was. And that’s the stuff you’re speaking of.