Posted on 03/30/2015 9:14:54 AM PDT by Theoria
In September, Susan Rodolfi celebrated an unusual anniversary: five years of missed mortgage payments.
She is like a ghost of the housing markets painful past, one of thousands of Americans who have skipped years of mortgage payments and are still living in their homes.
Now a legal quirk could bring a surreal ending to her foreclosure case and many others around the country: They may get to keep their homes without ever having to pay another dime.
The reason, lawyers for homeowners argue, is that the cases have dragged on too long.
There are tens of thousands of homeowners who have missed more than five years of mortgage payments, many of them clustered in states like Florida, New Jersey and New York, where lenders must get judges to sign off on foreclosures.
However, in a growing number of foreclosure cases filed when home prices collapsed during the financial crisis, lenders may never be able to seize the homes because the state statutes of limitations have been exceeded, according to interviews with housing lawyers and a review of state and federal court decisions.
No one gets a free house, Judge Michael B. Kaplan of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Trenton wrote in an opinion late last year, reflecting what he characterized as a longstanding admonition he and others made during the foreclosure crisis. But after effectively ending a New Jersey homeowners foreclosure case in November because the states six-year statute of limitations had expired, he wrote in his opinion, With a proper measure of disquiet and chagrin, the court now must retreat from this position.
It is difficult to know for sure how many foreclosure cases are still grinding through the court systems since the financial crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If that is the case I hope she dies in a house fire.
lol how Christian of you.
Too bad you don’t feel as strongly for the criminals who created the problem.
Nope, the originating lender sold the loan. In most cases it was sold multiple times. It was then packaged with thousands of others without doing the proper paperwork.
Those who had a legitimate interest not only failed to protect their investment but they did it intentionally because it maximized profit on the fraud they were committing. Screw em
You think it is fine that she steels a home because some bank sold its’ loan to a mortgage servicing company?
You are championing theft.
Who should she pay? Someone who doesn’t own the loan?
The banks made this bed and they can sleep in it.
She knows who she should pay, they have been trying to collect for years.She lawyered up and slowed the process down with the intent to keep from paying for as long as possible.She refused to sign the agreement that she worked out to save her home, at a much reduced rate and principal.
There is no question as to whom the loan is owned to, or who owes the money. It is a matter of paperwork being mishandled.
It may be legal, but it is highly immoral and you seem to think that all the banks investors and customers should have to pay .
The banker doesn’t own the money leant, the depositors and investors do and the future creditors pay higher fees and rates because of thieves like her. They are being robbed and you are cheering the theft.
So if their isn’t a God, Karmic revenge would have her be seriously injured in her stolen home perhaps burnt up there.
After all moral God fearing people, even half way decent people, pay their debts. They don’t hide from their creditors, they don’t dodge them and they don’t use theft by deception and lawyer.
So those of us who paid for our homes are supposed to what ... be happy that some jackwagon who probably couldn't afford their house in the first place, now gets a "free" home?
Yeah, that's exactly what's wrong with this country: those of us who play by the rules and pay our bills like we're OBLIGATED TO are simply aghast that these losers are getting a "free home" because they managed to squat in a house so long without paying their mortgage THAT THEY AGREED TO PAY yet failed to do.
Let's continue rewarding bad behavior and punishing good behavior. That's the Obama way!
You seem to think the laws don’t apply to banks. Ironic that they think the same thing.
Yes let’s allow Banks to get breaks from the law because you think its unfair. Yokay.
They were being greedy, and that shouldn't be rewarded.
You on the other hand sure look like Obama voter. Sure you're on the right forum? DU is missing their idiot.
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