fines for over grown grass

[4redo]

A Little background...we surrendered our home in Bk7 in July and have been discharged already on Sept.12 2011. We didn't wait around for the foreclosure process to begin. We moved out in July.

Well just today i got a letter from the town charging us $50 for overgrown grass. We decided to just go back and mow the lawn today, hoping that it would be the last time. Actually called the town office and told them that we surrendered the home in bk, we sent a letter to the mortgage co. telling them that we are no longer in the home and to take back the property. (Lawyer said it would be good for us to write this letter but may not do anything as far as making them move quicker.

What concerns me is we can't keep going back to mow the lawn and I'm certainly not paying any penalty fees! It makes me so mad that these mortgage co. can take their good ol time. What should i do if it takes years for the bank to take the home back? What do other people do in this situation? My insurance is paid through til Dec. but I honestly do not want to keep paying for insurance and taking care of this house when we have surrendered it!!!!!

The mortgage co. will write me letters saying how they will do this or that to "protect their interest". Well....DO IT ALREADY!!!!! Can someone please advise me on this scenario. My lawyer said..."there really isn't a solution. This is unprecedented...mortg. companies years ago didn't use to take so long and now we are in uncharted waters" type of thing.

[justbroke]

Your attorney is right. You can't force them to foreclose! Unkept lawns are only a problem to the Bank (creditor) when there's an HOA since the HOA might levy fines and they also enjoy a "super" priority lien (in some States).

Even worse, municipal fines are the owner's obligation! That's right, you are responsible for them. So, don't get into any trouble for lawn and trash issues. The lenders are getting smart about this and trying to keep as much costs on the debtor as much as possible! Protecting "their" interests has nothing to do with mowing the lawn (unless it's an aggressive HOA).

The sad fact is that you own the home. You are responsible for any fines issued by a municipality, any HOA fees that could come due, and, even worse, responsible if someone is hurt on the property! This is the ugly side of home ownership. Just because you owe the bank money, doesn't mean they want that responsibility!

I know exactly how you feel since one of my surrendered properties -- in a non-judicial foreclosure State -- took over 12 months to actually foreclose!

[4redo]

Thanks for your reply. I found another thread that stated what you just said. Not the answer i wanted to hear but realize this is the reality. We don't have a hoa. The letter was from our town, enforcing an ordinance. The funny thing is...I called the town and spoke with someone about the letter. I told him our situation and of course it was nothing new to him. He said..."i hate to actually say this but since you no longer live in the home, just ignore the letters...eventually this will turn into a lien against the property and it will be the responsibility of the bank/new owner to take care of. My husband still went over and cut the grass today and hope that all this rain will stop!!!! I got the impression that the town is not being as aggressive in "going after" owners but I know that could change and I don't want a lawsuit. I just hope hope hope that the bank will start the foreclosure process on Oct. 2 like they said they would.

About insurance...incase someone trespasses and hurts themselves on the property...come Dec. what do I do? My insurance is part of my escrow in my mortg. payment which of course I am no longer paying. Do i call the insurance company and change the policy and just pay them without involving the mortg. co? How much will that be? Do people really do this??? It's a risk to not have this, I get it. But c'mon...what is the reality here...do people really keep paying insurance on a home they don't live in anymore? Also...we paid our water bill but wasn't planning on paying it when it comes due in the next quarter. It would be sewer and some other charge but obviously no water has been used. Do I have to pay this? Again...what do people do?
Thanks again for the help.

[Charlie777]

Thanks for your reply. I found another thread that stated what you just said. Not the answer i wanted to hear but realize this is the reality. We don't have a hoa. The letter was from our town, enforcing an ordinance. The funny thing is...I called the town and spoke with someone about the letter. I told him our situation and of course it was nothing new to him. He said..."i hate to actually say this but since you no longer live in the home, just ignore the letters...eventually this will turn into a lien against the property and it will be the responsibility of the bank/new owner to take care of. My husband still went over and cut the grass today and hope that all this rain will stop!!!! I got the impression that the town is not being as aggressive in "going after" owners but I know that could change and I don't want a lawsuit. I just hope hope hope that the bank will start the foreclosure process on Oct. 2 like they said they would.

About insurance...incase someone trespasses and hurts themselves on the property...come Dec. what do I do? My insurance is part of my escrow in my mortg. payment which of course I am no longer paying. Do i call the insurance company and change the policy and just pay them without involving the mortg. co? How much will that be? Do people really do this??? It's a risk to not have this, I get it. But c'mon...what is the reality here...do people really keep paying insurance on a home they don't live in anymore? Also...we paid our water bill but wasn't planning on paying it when it comes due in the next quarter. It would be sewer and some other charge but obviously no water has been used. Do I have to pay this? Again...what do people do?
Thanks again for the help.

This is speculative, but what happens if someone is this situation files and records a quitclaim deed to the lender?

[cory1848]

Could always sprinkle some grass killer over the lawn the next time you mow. Problem solved!

[IHateChase]

Then the weeds will just come up and need to be mowed...

[justbroke]

This is speculative, but what happens if someone is this situation files and records a quitclaim deed to the lender?

In most States, there must actually be "consideration" for a quitclaim to be "valid" and that the grantee must actually want it!

This is a real "murky" area of how this could work in a foreclosure situation in which a lender is not moving forward. The problem for a lender to accept a quitclaim (QC) is that the QC is not a warranty deed and does not extinguish other liens. IN other words, the grantee would get the property still encumbered by all other liens. This is not what a first position lienholder wants. It's "cleaner" and "better" for the first position lienholder to foreclose so that they get clear and marketable title to the property.

There are many people who tried this QC technique but the problem always comes down to what is the consideration, and did the grantee (lender) give the grantor (you) consideration (usually money) to get the deed? Otherwise the QC is a nullity. That's the hard part. You can't just write a QC and say "In consideration of $100 (one-hundred dollars), grantors hereby conveys... to grantee." since that would be false!

If you want to QC a property to a lender, the best is to arrange a deed-in-lieu (DIL). It's basically a QC, but the lender actually is willing to accept the quit claim. There are many things that a lender must consider before accepting the DIL

If you want to try the QC without consideration tactic, please consult an expert asset protection or real-estate attorney in your area. In the end, was the quit claim a "legally" executed document?

(As a side note: I think it's even worse when someone tries this without legal help. Let's say you QC the property back to the Servicer, because that's the name on the monthly statement. The servicer doesn't own the property and you may have just given it to the wrong entity.)

[cory1848]

Then the weeds will just come up and need to be mowed...

Mix in weed killer too!

[LookingFrwrd]

About insurance...incase someone trespasses and hurts themselves on the property...come Dec. what do I do? My insurance is part of my escrow in my mortg. payment which of course I am no longer paying. Do i call the insurance company and change the policy and just pay them without involving the mortg. co? How much will that be? Do people really do this???

We are in foreclosure limbo hell with BofA -- we've been gone (out of state) for 2-1/2 years and our Sheriff's sales has been rescheduled 10 times already. We ended up having to pay a former neighbor to keep our grass cut because we do have an HOA in our former community - and have been continuing to pay our HOA fees during the last 2-1/2 years to avoid any issues there. Our solution to the insurance problem was to take out a very affordable personal liability umbrella policy that will cover us for personal liability should someone slip and fall on our former property. It's less than $14 a month and gives me piece of mind that if someone does hurt themselves there, at least we have insurance to protect us. I confirmed with our agent that it would cover any injuries that occurred at that property, even though it is vacant, and they said yes.

[panda]

Lookingfrwd, who is the personal liability insurance with, if you don't mind saying. I need to find something like this for us as our vacant home has insurance that will be canceled soon. Thanks for any info.

[adviceplease]

Interesting. We were told that once the foreclosure started we are to keep the yard up if we want a chance at Cash for Keys. As you stated in your 2nd post our town puts the fee on the taxes for the house and the bank gets that bill once we stop living here. I also went and put renters insurance on because the insurance company said that since homeowners was part of our contract to be rolled into our mortgage, and we defaulted on the contract the bank is responsible to insure the dwelling. I refuse to do anything the help the lender. They have been trying to get us out of here since we filed BK and did not reaffirm so now they can deal with it.

[LookingFrwrd]

Lookingfrwd, who is the personal liability insurance with, if you don't mind saying. I need to find something like this for us as our vacant home has insurance that will be canceled soon. Thanks for any info.

Sure thing -- our insurance is with State Farm. We have our car insurance with them as well and we had to have a little higher coverage on our cars to supplement the umbrella policy but our total monthly insurance bill is still way affordable AND we have the piece of mind of the umbrella coverage.