Posted on 03/04/2012 5:37:46 PM PST by Theoria
David Englett walked around his front yard Wednesday afternoon picking up trash. He lives in Crowley, and understands that comes with being a homeowner.
But what he doesn’t understand is being responsible for something that’s no longer his. “I feel like I’m being punished for something I didn’t do,” said Englett. “It’s really frustrating and costing me a lot of time.”
The truck driver used to live in Arlington, but two years ago his house was foreclosed. Englett hasn’t lived there since.
Last July when he tried to renew his license he found out he had outstanding warrants. “I don’t want to go to jail over nothing – never been to jail – don’t want to go to jail.”
The warrants were for operating an alarm without a permit, another for an old fence and one for the grass not being cut. “I didn’t live there, so why would I worry about it the bank foreclosed on it,” explained Englett “Even when I lived there we never activated the alarm.”
According to the City of Arlington, if the title hasn’t changed then you’re still the owner and responsible for everything on the property.
CBS 11 Legal Expert Jerry Loftin says the city just wants someone to pay the fines. “If it’s foreclosed, it’s not his,”
“You have to remember cities are all about grabbing money from you I mean they try anyway they can,” said Loftin.
Clearing up the confusion is costing Englett money. He’s already paid the city $150 dollars to remove a hold on his license, and he says he owes the City of Arlington hundreds more.
Englett has a hearing on the issue on Friday morning. He’s hoping to clear things up. The City of Arlington says they’re looking into his case. “I don’t understand why the City of Arlington wants to keep on with something when I showed proof and the bank owned it and not me,” said Englett.
That sort of citation should go to the registered owner of the vehicle for this very reason. Then, you have radar cams and red light cams ticketing the owner, when they cannot prove that the owner committed the infraction.
It’s all a money grab.
This is exactly why lenders REFUSE to file courthouse ownership of property foreclosed. Its a paper foreclosure not a Courthouse Recorded foreclosure. The lender has 3 years to file courthouse ownership papers or the mortgage is legally assumed payoff.
“The story may be wrong” — quite a likely hypothesis for any news story. And often it happens in details that matter.
I frankly had not heard of a lot of banks foreclosing but then renting back to the former owner rather than kicking them out. Although if the former owner is in a position to be able to rent if not to refinance (maybe he got a contract job rather than a permanent one), maybe it’s better for the bank in this hideously depressed housing market.
Banks are really bad on following up on the paperwork. This often works to their benefit. If they take title to the property, they become responsible for the taxes and maintenance immediately. If they don’t take title now and decide that they want to in the future, the courts are favorable to letting them clean up the paperwork months or years down the road.
In states with court foreclosures, it can happen that the judge approves the foreclosure. Notice is given to the borrower that he must vacate the premises and a sheriff’s sale is scheduled for Monday morning at noon.
The borrower finds somewhere to stay and moves out over the weekend. Then Monday morning at 10 am the bank takes the property off the list of properties to be sold at noon. No notice is given to the owner. The sheriff’s sale on the property is never rescheduled and the title never changes hands.
Six months later the owner goes by and discovers that the property is still vacant. There’s no heat and no electricity but the bank hasn’t taken title to the property. If they move back they are in violation of the eviction order even though their name may still be on the title. Some of them have decided to camp out in their own homes knowing that any day they may come back and find the locks have been changed and the sheriff’s sale was finally held.
“I thought he lost title when the lender foreclosed?”
Only if it was recorded. If it wasn’t which appears to be the case then the city has no idea of the transfer.
JB
Title is the universal definition of ownership and thus responsibility. In each state the foreclosure process is different, but broadly classified they are either judicial (requiring a court process to foreclose - e.g., FL or WI) or non-judicial (not requiring a court process to get to foreclosure, e.g., GA.)
When a foreclosure auction is held and the property does not sell, it is deemed "knocked back" to the lender. That lender has a defined period in which to submit, and properly record a foreclosure deed, which, once recorded, is the universally acknowledged point of transfer from the former owner to the bank. In GA, for example the foreclosing party can submit the foreclosure deed up to 30 days after the sale date. This fellow is confusing the sale date and the date of transfer of title. These are different things. how different they can be (how much time can lapse between them) will depend on state law.
Given the no mans land one can find themselves in, its best to wait for SWAT teams tear canisters to come through the windows before leaving.
That’s absurd- in most jurisdictions that kind of issue is the responsibility of the owner.
He ought to just sue the city in small claims court and make em show up and explain to a judge why they’re hassling him.
Depends on what state you live in. Never let a bank foreclose, deed the property back to them.
In Texas they have to accept the deed first for conveyance.
“If your car got repossessed but the bank doesn’t take your name off the title who’s responsible for the parking ticket when they leave it on the street?”
I don’t know how it is where you live, but here in California it’s a requirement that you as the former owner file with the DMV paperwork that stipulates when you surrendered title. That protects you from this kind of government mischief. So even if the bank repossesses your car, you are wise to make sure that the DMV knows that they’ve taken it back.
Seems as though there should be a similar process when you give up your home to the bank. At least you should register a Quitclaim Deed to that effect.
“Banks are really bad on following up on the paperwork. This often works to their benefit. If they take title to the property, they become responsible for the taxes and maintenance immediately. If they don’t take title now and decide that they want to in the future, the courts are favorable to letting them clean up the paperwork months or years down the road.”
Beyond just being lazy, banks are not in a hurry to complete paperwork on foreclosed properties because when they do that, they have to list the asset on their books at it’s current value which is most likely a lot less than the loan they have against it. The more they clean up, the worse their balance sheet looks.
I have a neighbor who is renting across the street from me who had to threaten the bank on his foreclosed home with moving out and leaving it to the vagaries of vandals unless they completed the foreclosure transaction. And that was two years after he made the last loan payment.
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