How surprised do you guy think I was after returning to my town home just to find the locks changed?
Recently, there have been an increase in reports of lenders entering homes pending foreclosure, changing the locks and removing personal property.
Often, the justification provided by the lenders is that they received a report that the property was vacant and unsecured and that they were simply securing the property by changing the locks and boarding up the property to safeguard the home from property damage, vandalism and theft. In reality, it is often a ruse to secure possession of the property prior to the foreclosure sale.
ActiveRain
My town home is currently in pre-foreclosure(Miami, FL). This isn't because I cant pay my mortgage(barely) but because my home is literally worth a fifth of what I paid for it. So now I'm trying to renegotiate my payments. Currently I am not living at the home but I happen to work 2 blocks away from the home and my sister lives in the EXACT SAME complex, so someone checks up on it almost daily. About one month ago after leaving work I stopped by the property and found the gate to the backyard ajar. Upon closer inspection I discover that someone actually broke a piece of the wooden fence to gain entrance into the yard and nothing was taken. That same day I repaired the fence and put a lock on it. This whole event was very strange because the property is on fairly busy street and the blinds were slightly open, so as to reveal NOTHING to steal within the home. Less than one week later I received a letter from my lender informing me that the property was "Vacant & Unsecured". This was also very strange to me because of how quickly it was "reported" to the lender that the home was "unsecured". Once again I emphasize that this property is checked on a daily basis, so the amount of time it was "unsecured" could not have been longer than 24 hours(best case scenario). In any case I disregarded the letter because I had since secured the property. Today(April 13) I arrived at the home to find the deadbolt changed and a lock box on the door handle. I have since setup an appointment with my lawyer tomorrow(April 14) and will have locksmith re-key the home.
Now in my opinion someone broke into my backyard and purposely left it "unsecured"(so to speak) so as to expedite the foreclosure process and deny me access to the property.
Now some of you might say: "Hey, that sounds pretty fukkin ILLEGAL!"
Well guess what? You are RIGHT!
Accept there appears to be one teeny weeny problem...the police don't seem to know what to do about it!
Hello All:
I have received several phone calls from different real estate agents reporting activity that I find hard to believe. If I had heard this story from one agent, I would have discounted it as them misunderstanding the facts. But, I have now heard it from a variety of agents . . . so, of course, now I am wondering if I have missed something. Apparently lenders (xxxx is the only name I have heard) are going into some properties that are pending foreclosure and changing the locks, removing personal property, removing listing signs and keyboxes, etc. All of this is happening prior to the trustee's sale. There has been no receivership or any other court proceeding. These are non-judicial foreclosures and lender is simply taking possession of the property prior to the trustee's sale. In at least one case, a homeowner called the police who came to the home and said that it was a civil matter and did not stop the lender's rep from then taking the homeowner's personal property (or so the story goes).
Oh ladies and gentlemen, it gets better! How about goons and thugs hired to gently "persuade" homeowners to vacate their homes?
At a recent office meeting an agent was talking about a listing that was still being lived in by the owners during the eviction period. One day a couple of thugs showed up and told them they had to vacate. The owners called the sheriff's dept who came out and gave the men hell, telling them they better not ever be caught doing this in our area again. Apparently some lenders are sending these bouncer types out from Detroit to expedite getting the homes back. I've heard tales that this has happened more than once around here.
All of this is particularly upsetting after we the taxpayer have dumped hundreds of billions of dollars into their coffers over the past 6 months just for them to turn around and act in bad faith. At this point I say screw the "torches and pitch-forks", its time to start erecting the gallows and sharpening the guillotine!!!
P.S.
Can a brother get a REC?!
UPDATE:
A few people are wondering why I dont live at the property currently. Well I am currently staying with my parents in an attempt to save money on utilities.
Secondly I do plan on KEEPING the house, I just want a lower rate.
Third, yes I have stopped making payments
Fourth, the bank cannot take possession of a home prior to a foreclosure judgment in court, unless they can prove it is abandoned. Abandoned and VACANT are 2 totally different things. If they were the same, then what would stop the county/state from taking over vacant homes for sale under blight and abandonment codes?
UPDATE x2: THIS IS NOT AN INVESTMENT PROPERTY!!!!!!!!
UPDATE x3: A representative of the lender has just called my lawyer and APOLOGIZED, they will send someone to replace the locks before the end of the day!!!
UPDATE x4:
Well I just finished a meeting with my lawyer and things are even crazier than first expected. I turns out that there are "maintenance companies" that roam around high foreclosure neighborhoods looking for homes that appear vacant. They then check public record to find out who the lender is and whether the home is in foreclosure proceedings. If the home is in foreclosure proceedings they then contact the lender and tell them that the home is "Unsecured or no being Maintained". They then offer to secure/maintain the property for a monthly fee for the lender. In essence this is what happened to me and you can be sure there will be some legal action to follow! Beware people!
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Many people do not understand why this is an unlawful foreclosure and why Im upset, so I will attempt to break it down:
1)Once a home is put into pre-foreclosure the lender cannot take possession or block access to the property. Once the Judge says that the home can be foreclosed then the home can change possession.
- The bank did not send anyone to the property to assess whether the property was unsecured on un-maintained(which would indicate abandonment)
- Instead they relied on an unsolicited 3rd party (with nothing but incentive to encourage action on the banks part) contacted my lender and falsely claimed the property was unsecured.
- Regardless of whether or not you approve of my tactics to get my loan adjusted, this should be very disturbing. The fact that an unsolicited third party business can set this in motion, with nothing more than a call is scary. Imagine if they get the wrong house? Or imagine if the tenant is home and armed? I can see this getting ugly in many many ways