Outrage: ‘Walkaways’ Can Hurt Homeowners

[question everything]

Facing foreclosure, Archie Stewart abandoned her Cleveland home of 25 years nearly two years ago feeling ashamed and defeated. But as bad as her situation was, it’s worse now: Stewart found out that her name remains on the house’s title because HSBC Bank, which started to foreclose, never followed through. That left Stewart, 62, a former home health care provider who lives on Social Security, liable for the debt and the property. She only learned that she remained the owner when she applied for subsidized senior housing and was rejected because she still owned a home.

Now the house is considered a public nuisance after being vandalized. And a lien remains on it for more than it’s worth. Stewart has no way to remove her name from the title, and no one else wants the property. “I want them to give me my name back,” she says.

Stewart’s situation is not unique. Homeowners in many cities are now victims of so-called walkaways, in which mortgage servicers begin the foreclosure process but don’t follow through, says Claudia Coulton, a professor of social work at Case Western Reserve University. “I don’t think anybody knows the magnitude of this problem,” she says.

Under current law in most states, homeowners stuck in a walkaway situation have little recourse, says Kermit Lind, a clinical law professor at Cleveland State University who is working to propose state-level legislation to change that.

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/yourhome/articles/what_an_outrage_walkaways_can_hurt_homeowners.html

[hfojvt]

1. simple answer to that

just stay in the house until they do foreclose, but dang, with 25 years of payments there should have been lots of equity unless she had borrowed against that.

[question everything]

2. I think that this is what happened to many foreclosures

they were enticed to borrow against their equity. Perhaps they had medical emergency, perhaps they needed to help a family member. And, no doubt, they did not have anyone to guide them on how to go about that.

Only several years ago a California real estate agent was quoted on the LA Times that if one owns one's house free and clear, that means that one does not know how to manage his money.

[question everything]

3. Oh, just a kick (nt)