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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Home foreclosure

So, we were 'served ' today with eviction papers. The owner of the home we have been living in has not been paying his mortgage, even though we have been paying our rent. We have 72 hours to vacate the premises. Get this! : by law, as renters in a foreclosure, we are merely squatters! The gentleman who delivered the notice to vacate came late in the day, had been delivering these papers all day long, and had 40 more to do before the end of the day. I guess this has become the newest way to cheat the rest of the world. Buy a home, rent it out and then rake in the rent without paying your mortgage until you get caught.
Actually we are lucky. We have a home to go back to, and were going to be moving home soon anyway. We knew this was coming for more than a week due to the diligence of my sweet husband. (When a detective came to research who was living in the house C. did a lot of searching, calling and pushing to find out what was going on.) Imagine if it came out of the blue! It has been hard enough to get everything packed and ready with a few days notice. What if I also had to find a place to live in 3 days time!
The honest thing to do would have been for the owner to let us know he was in trouble months ago, when he realized it himself. That way we would have been able to plan our lives a bit in advance.
There are houses in foreclosure all up and down the street I live on. The whole mess is ruining the economy. I am a big believer in owning your own home, and have often thought about ways that the community could help everyone to have a shot at doing that. On the other hand . . . . .

I believe most of this problem is due to greed.

The greed of people, feeling that they 'deserve' something they have not yet earned. (I know I am old, but it is wrong to think you can walk out of your parents house and immediately afford what took them 30 years to earn)
The greed of bankers willing to sell people on a mortgage that they cannot afford. (Oh, yes, they did encourage lying on the application)
The greed of home builders who sell houses for so much more than they actually cost to build. (and yes, I do believe a builder has a right to a reasonable profit)
The greed of 'investors' who believe they should be able to buy a home and in a year or less sell it and make $100,000 or more. And that they should be able to repeat and repeat the process.

Having an adjustable rate mortgage is not an excuse to walk away from a debt. (You) knew when you bought the house that your interest rate would go up, it is written into the contract. If you cannot afford the payments, don't buy the property.

2 comments:

Elle said...

This is shocking! I've heard of people doing this, but have never known anyone it was happening to. So sad your moving.

D/E G said...

Wow, what a mess! I can't believe people would continue to to rent out a place when they knew they would be losing it. Strange scam to keep taking rent when they're not even paying the mortgage. We're sad that that you won't be living as close to us but are happy that you have the stability of your other house. Good luck with your move. Give us a call if you need anything.