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This one's trippy.

http://economywatch.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/24/12861488-how-a-140-bill-snowballed-into-foreclosure?lite

Seems wrong on so many level

What does foreclosure mean?

Squigsquasher wrote:What does foreclosure mean?

If you owe money against your property and aren't paying it, whoever you owe money too can foreclose on you. That means that they come and kick you out and take it over.

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you.

I'm not sure how it is in NJ but here you have to inform someone before you foreclose on them about the debt. You cannot just walk up and say oh btw you have to move out. At the very least it is very low of the city to try that to make money.

Its ok, we're from the government and here to help. Oh wait, it says you owe $140. Looks like we're going to take your house. Don't like it? Too bad.

We're the government. We're here to help.

having said all that I don't believe him. There's more to this story.

Tax lien sales are sketchy to begin with and I know that there havw been accusations of collusion between vendors to basically get them for the absolute lowest price possible. It really sick to see it go from nigh predatory lending practices to predatory lien practices when the mortgage eventually falls through.

Could have gotten it with Imminent Domain

Land of the Free!

For some reason, I find a house being sold due to a $140 bill less offensive than the people who can't afford paying it building a giant house with the money they did not have.

Average per household debt in the U.S., not counting mortgage debt, is about $14,500 -- especially noteworthy because before the 1930s, most middle and working class people had no major debts. Banks would not lend to them; they rented their homes and if they did own a house, it was paid for as it was being built.
[...] Some 40 percent of American families annually spend more than they earn.
-- http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debtguide2004/debt-trivia1.asp

^-- one of the reasons why today's economy sucks. Why is it so hard for some people to keep track of their money?

Frazzled wrote:Its ok, we're from the government and here to help. Oh wait, it says you owe $140. Looks like we're going to take your house. Don't like it? Too bad.

We're the government. We're here to help.

We're from the government, and because of stupidly shortsided initiatives to restrict the ability of local governments to properly raise land rates, we have to ensure we get enough revenue to remain open any way possible.

If you don't want this kind of crap, let local governments raise funds properly. It's either that or continue to suffer this kind of waste.

having said all that I don't believe him. There's more to this story.

It's almost certain that the guy received overdue notices about this. That's really the big lesson - if you get a notice for an outstanding bill, if you don't remember the original or don't agree, then contact the person and protest the bill. Odds are they'll adjust the amount, or even remove from their records if its trivial and they'd like to do future business with you. But don't ever ignore it. Having an old, unpaid bill can feth over your credit rating, and get sold to debt collection agencies who really are the most exploitative kind of people.

I had a mate who didn't pay an overdue video fine, it was like $5 or something. It sat on the books for about five years, before the video was about to close it sent out all these please pay up notices. When the business closed it sold all the unpaid debt to a collections agency, who didn't care one bit about collecting all these piddly little debts, they just liked that every 'you owe us $5 notice' they sent out came with a collection fee of like $80. And now you have to pay both amounts.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jihadin wrote:Could have gotten it with Imminent Domain

Ah, Imminent Domain, that thing people just like to say, whenever there's a legal issue about a home mentioned.

But please do expand your point.

I had some friends that lost their house to imminent domain when the city widened the street a few years back and seized several homes at a fraction of their worth.
Obviously, they aren't fans of the notion.

Grakmar wrote:

Squigsquasher wrote:What does foreclosure mean?

If you owe money against your property and aren't paying it, whoever you owe money too can foreclose on you. That means that they come and kick you out and take it over.

Respectfully, that was a little too simplistic, although you do cover the beginning and end of it accurately. Let me expand upon that a little.

You owe a debt to whomever for services. To keep it simple, lets say you don't pay your $400 sewer bill. Your township holds the debt.

The township that you own the bill to can file a lien against your property. A lien is a legal device which prevents the property from being sold until it's satisfied. You still own your home, but you cannot sell or transfer it.

Townships can sell these liens to debt collectors, often made of partnerships of lawyers, and other assorted lowlifes (no offense, non-debt-collecting-lawyers). The township converts a $400 debt into like, $40 real, actual dollars. Since they had nothing, and now they have something, they consider it a win.

Now, the corporation owns the debt. They start to add fees, penalties, and interest. There are very little controls on they calculate this, so it quickl and it balloons wildly. They are legally bound to email you notices of the debt, but hey, the mail is totally unreliable, you know?

Eventually, you never responded to any of these bills, and they have spiraled out of control. They will now file suit against you, usually in some wildly hard to reach venue. At this point, they use sewer service to notify you that you have been sued. Sure, this is technically illegal, but so is, you know, forging your name on papers you never got so forth, but so what? Maybe corporations are people, but they certainly can't go to jail when they break the law! But, that's a different thread.

Since you didn't know you were sued, you don't show up in court. Since you didn't show up, they win a default judgement against you for whatever ridiculous amount it ballooned to, and lets not forget attorneys fees and so on. So, now they own your house.

The house gets sold at a tax sale. The house gets sold for $900. The corporation resells the home for $85,000.

Depending on state, either your story ends here, or you now get sued again - this time by the bank who held your mortgage. If they wound up holding the bag, they might come after you for the difference between what it sold for and how much you owed.

Ouze wrote:Since you didn't know you were sued, you don't show up in court. Since you didn't show up, they win a default judgement against you for whatever ridiculous amount it ballooned to, and lets not forget attorneys fees and so on. So, now they own your house.

The house gets sold at a tax sale. The house gets sold for $900. The corporation resells the home for $85,000.

Depending on state, either your story ends here, or you now get sued again - this time by the bank who held your mortgage. If they wound up holding the bag, they might come after you for the difference between what it sold for and how much you owed.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was started by the Obama administration to begin to put some kind of oversight and check onto all these dodgy practices. Time will tell how well they're able to do this, although they did score a nice win over Consumer One using manipulative techniques to charge people for credit checks and payment protection when activating new credit cards.

I'm sorry Sebster. I see your lips saying "consumer financial protection", but I'll I'm hearing is "more job-killing regulation from a president who doesn't understand how the free market works".

//doin' it right

Ouze wrote:I'm sorry Sebster. I see your lips saying "consumer financial protection", but I'll I'm hearing is "more job-killing regulation from a president who doesn't understand how the free market works".

//doin' it right

I bet it was a water bill fluke, he disputed with the city over it, and then told them to shove it up their hind ends. I would bet on that.