Notice on Door

[freakedout]

We still own our previous home since we were unable to sell when we bought a new one. We rented it out for awhile trying to do the right thing and stay current. Once we made the decision to file, we did not replace our tenant when she left. The house has been vacant since mid September. Today I drove over to check it out and make sure everything was ok and there was a notice on the door as follows:

"On 12/29/09 we found this property to be vacant/abandoned and will report same to your mortgage holder. The mortgage holder has the right and duty to protect this property and in all probability will have it secured and/or winterized within 3 days. If this property is not vacant, please call your mortgage holder immediately."

There is no company name or phone number just that text. I called our attorney and he was surprised. We filed mid december so anyone would need a court order to do anything. The only reason I care is we let our friends store their sea doos in there for the winter and I am worried we are going to be locked out. Has anyone ever had a notice like this. We had someone try to repossess our boat on new years eve and the repo company didn't know we had filed bankruptcy. I wonder if they left this.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I doubt a repo company left this. Now was this a hand written note? If not, was it written by your city codes department? That would be feasible. There should have been something on there like "if you have any questions call xxx-xxxx) Never heard of such a thing and I don't think it a legal issue. 'Hub

[Mi Bankruptcy]

My neighbor had a small red tag posted the door and it also said the same exact thing. It been sitting there vacant since Sept. However, he removed the tag and I have not seen anyone there since and all the doors are unlocked. I wrote down the phone number on the tag and called it. I told them I wanted the grass cut and the yard cleaned up. The said they would let the mortgage company know.

[freakedout]

This was preprinted except for a handwritten date on a 3" x 3" white sticky note. There is no number to call or any indication of who put it there. Like I said, even our attorney is puzzled.

[logansdad]

Code enforcement (city)

[Mi Bankruptcy]

The funny thing was my neighbor was scrambling to move all of his stuff out of the house. I figured it was foreclosure. He was out of the area and then someone came and put a sticker on the door saying it was abandoned. It was not like it was vacant for months then the city came and put a tag on it. So, I am curious about this. Then on the house down the road (my neighbors cousin) they put a white paper on the door saying the house would be winterized.

[DebtEnder]

When you get behind on payments, in or out of BK, the servicer will dispatch someone to inspect the house. This note was probally from that person. You will probally be getting a letter from the lender and/or insurance saying you need to get vacant house insurance. Being in BK you can basically ignore this, the lender will get it on it's own in time.

I don't know what state you are in but in my state, Georgia, they have to insure there is no private articles in the home at all before they can simply change the locks. They have to "evict" everything first. Which means a foreclosure action. And then the eviction of stuff can happen. However that just my understanding of the way Ga works. Other states I'm sure vary

It sounds like you still have stuff in the house so maybe you should check local laws regarding someone entering the home without proper notice/eviction.

Regarding the intent of the note the lender is simply wanting to insure there is no damage done to the house due to cold/other weather or other vandalism.

Been thru this several times with my rentals. Once I got notice when I got a month behind and my tenent went on vaction for 2 weeks. I called the bank and told them not to bother paying thier guy as he didn't bother to look out back as he missed the guys 4x4 in plain view.

[freakedout]

mi banruptcy - what happened with the two houses after the notices were posted??

[Mi Bankruptcy]

The two houses are still sitting their vacant. The doors are opened and my neighbor gutted the house when leaving. He used to keep his yard nice and was fixing up his house until he got divorced, remarried and then lost his job. The other house is around the corner for me and is a nicer house and is also still vacant. The guy that lost it said he lost it before and a guy bought hit and was renting it to them. The landlord field bankruptcy and let the house go back to the bank.

[bktmom28]

We surrendered our home when we filed in October. However, we have been out of it since the beginning of September. We tried modifying, etc...to no avail, never received any communication from our lender, until we contacted them and they told us our request had been denied. Anyway, very long story short, we ended up walking away, as our attorney advised us to do, in preparing for BK. Since we moved and filed, we have only received 2 documents from loss mitigation. One was a loan modification workout package since now we are filing BK they are willing to help us, and 2nd, a notice telling us that there is no longer insurance on our home as it is vacant. It says that if we don't get insurance on the house, we are responsible for the insurance they choose to put on it. I don't think so! We told them months ago that we were not living there, had filed BK and that we were surrendering it. We drive by weekly to make sure that there is no damage to the house and there still has not been any sign of anyone putting anything on our doors, or any notice of foreclosure in the paper, which we didn't think there would be as we were basically giving it back to GMAC. Anyway, I just think that there is such a flooding of empty homes right now that the companies don't know what to do. Our last day for objection to discharge is 1/8/10 and as long as we don't get too much of a refund, this whole thing should be done by the end of the month, early February. I just wonder, is there anything more that I should do regarding GMAC? They know we aren't living there, their attorney is being notified of every aspect of our BK case and so I just don't know what else there is for me to do! Thanks for letting me vent!

[frogger]

I don't know what state you are in but in my state, Georgia, they have to insure there is no private articles in the home at all before they can simply change the locks. They have to "evict" everything first. Which means a foreclosure action. And then the eviction of stuff can happen. However that just my understanding of the way Ga works. Other states I'm sure vary

This is true, however there is a way around that. If a property appears to be abandoned, and the utilities have been turned off, a GA landlord has the right to secure the property by changing the locks. The one thing that must be done in this case is that a notice must be posted stating that the locks have been changed and a tenant can access a key by contacting the person that holds them. The name, address, and phone number of the keyholder must be posted on the door.

This is a way that landlords and property owners can protect their property and can remain legal at the same time.