Visit From Bank Courier

[nioka]

I am waiting for foreclosure to file chapter 7. About two weeks ago I got a visit from a gal who claimed to be a Bank Currier who told me she was to place a door hanger and take a picture of the house. I am a trusting person and so I believed her. We had an informative conversation and she even suggested I do some things to make my house looked lived in. I didn't give it a second thought until I came across this article. Now I wonder if I were away what might have happened to my house.

The alleged "Bank Currier" suggested I leave and outside light on. I am following her advice and placed a note over the lock on my door stating the house is owner occupied. I also will leave a radio or tv playing when I need to go shopping and also leave my dog at home. I will also video record my efforts should I need to proof of occupancy in the future.

If you are waiting for foreclosure as I am I urge you to read the article in this link.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/foreclosure-bank-fraud-abuse_n_2999790.html

[AngelinaCat]

That is scarey. Did your 'courier' have any form of ID with her?

[nioka]

AngelinaCat,

As I said, I am a very trusting person and tend to take people at their face value. In hindsight I should have asked for an ID and since reading this article I will in the future. She did present me with a door hanger envelope that contained a letter asking me to call the bank. She could have been a bank employee as well as an agent for a sub-contractor as described in the posted link.

[PANSYFACE]

Don't trust anyone!!! We had all kinds of scummy people leaving things on our doorknob. You also could be setting yourself up for a robbery.

The one guy we caught "inspecting" our property didn't even have a business card, fake or otherwise. Please be careful!!

[nioka]

PANSYFACE,

Oddly the "Bank Currier" warned me of the same thing that you mentioned. However she said it would happen once the foreclosure begins and the notices are posted in the newspaper.
I guess posting in the newspaper is an invitation for criminals to come an get it.

BTW, the "Bank Currier" also told me that heat pumps are a prime target for thieves.

[nioka]

OP update

I had a second visit from the same Bank Currier. She assured me that my bank, Chase, is at least a year behind in foreclosures in my area. This was not what I wanted to hear. I guess my real hope here may be the HOA foreclosing. However, the house is upside down. The only reason for the HOA to foreclose would be to evict me and rent the property until the bank forecloses. The Bank Currier told me she doubted that would happened.


I am very concerned about this after reading some of the BK forum posts on the subject and finding some people in their homes for five years plus waiting for foreclosure.

[tobee43]

chase is running approx 5.5 years behind on our old property. good thing we had lived in a state that has the ONLY law in this country that once the bank takes it over they are fully responsible for upkeep, safety, all insurance and taxes.while i understand the banks are suppose to maintain they never do, so at least that state has 'state" watchdogs. i don't know how quickly chase is moving in tennessee, but i can say on the bad side for us, the bank has 20 years in our old state to transfer deed, so the house is still in our names, no matter what.

down here in florida there have been a few cases where someone said they were the realtor, sold abandoned property to unsuspecting families, owner would come back to find entire families moving in. crazy times.

[nioka]

tobee43

Your case was one of the ones I was referring to and one other was about a HO who had been in the house since 2008. That is downright frightening.

I want a foreclosure so I can file chapter 7. I think an HOA foreclosure might be the best thing I can hope for.

I have been here three years and very seldom see the HOA police and never in my area. Lately they are patrolling my street every day. One day while walking my dog I had one of their police follow behind me in a patrol car. Every time me and the dog stopped so did the patrol car. I was followed all the way home.
I have also been getting drive-bys by vehicles with the HOA logo.
I am hoping this is a sign they are about to take some kind of action.
They did threaten legal action in thirty days which I think is around March 15-20.

If they don't take any action in March I am thinking about trying to negotiate a settlement with the HOA on past due assessments and continuing to pay the HOA fees going forward so as I can rent the property and leave.
However, I don't think I could rent this property without informing a potential tenant that it could be foreclosed at any time.
If that were the case what kind of people would rent the place?

[tobee43]

well, we didn't wait for the foreclosure before we left. we were right in the middle of our loan modification with chase when we got served! the loan mod dept. says that can't do that. the lawyer for chase did. as usual with chase one hand didn't know what the other was doing. the loan mod officer begged me to stay. i said NO WAY i have to answer this summons within 30 days and i'm not going through this. our atty advised us to lock it and leave it. we did. mainly because the utilities were alone close to 3k in the summer months (usually costs was approx 1600 monthly) just to run that large home (of 30 plus years) was running us over 8k per month. i do however want you to know, we never lived beyond our means, we both had excellent high paying jobs and expected to retire in 5 years, when illness hit hard and one of the HUGE pharmaceuticals bought out one of our employers and placed all their own people with less pay in.

we could have rented the place no problem, except the ponds and pool i would worry to death. and, also you need to claim that rental as income on your taxes. i wanted no part of that picture. we had no HOA i lived way up in the mountains, shoot our first house i use to have to bring the groceries up by sled in the winter and if you stopped over for a visit and wanted a cup of tea i would grab my axe and go to the old sassafras tree to grab a piece of root. LOL!! now those were the days!

if i were you, tho, i would attempt to settle with the HOA so you don't have any thing following you forward. also, i would if i could have stayed as long as possible to save money, we just couldn't since even without the mortgage payment we were in over 200k alone with medical bills. it was not good. we took off in the middle of night and told each neighbor a different state as to where we were going. we actually stayed off the grid for just over 2 years to meet florida's residency limit to file state bk. our monthly expenses in florida for everything wasn't even as much as utilities in our old place, and all that time paying our atty $50-$100 a month to file, which we hired that firm before we even left nj. so our exit was well planned and executed.

i just don't quite get why you feel you need to foreclose before filing. i'm telling you truthfully, if it's discharged in the bk it's discharged period even if they foreclose on you years later and you get issued a 1099A or C or both, they cannot go after you for a deficiency judgment since the mortgage was included in your bk filings. so even if chase now decides to foreclose on us, it makes no difference in anyway, although i heard some get them put on their credit reports they immediately get removed once you provide the reporting agency that the mortgage and home was and is IIB.

i work now with 6 HOAs and the ONLY time we move for a foreclosure is when the home is vacant. i have heard of horror stories about many HOAs, i'm just trying to change their mindset and try to see who we really can collect from. no one is foreclosing on anyone's family if i can help it. lucky they listen to me and i say go after the new owners for the liens and the banks, which now exactly what we do. if the new owners did not make certain the title was cleared that's their problem not the previous owner, so what i'm doing is NOT putting the liens on the families but on the homes AFTER the banks get them or just as the family leaves. they when the bank goes to resale the house the lien is there and these foreclosures close on the courthouse steps, not my fault the buyers never did a title search so before they can get a CO to rent them, or occupy them , then and only then do we move on the liens.

[nioka]

"i just don't quite get why you feel you need to foreclose before filing. i'm telling you truthfully, if it's discharged in the bk it's discharged period even if they foreclose on you years later and you get issued a 1099A or C or both, they cannot go after you for a deficiency judgment since the mortgage was included in your bk filings."

Tobee43,

It seems that Chase is dragging their feet and I can hope the HOA will foreclose or it least get the process underway. There is also a fine involved with the HOA and I would like as much debt discharged as possible.
However, I have another issue in that the Tennessee exemption is $10k and my car comprises almost half of that. I have SS and small pension coming in every month. Once I approach the $10k I believe I will need to file otherwise a trustee can take the excess and there is little point in that. While I see and agree with holding out to file as long as possible I think I will need to file and take my chances with the HOA.

[tobee43]

i got it. i see now what you would like the proceedings to begin with the HOA. it's hard for a while it's not difficult for the HOA to begin the process, many times they do not because of their position in the pay line order and the costs involved. unless they are quite certain they will be getting paid and have already included in the and filed the lien. although, still if the house doesn't resale the bank is SUPPOSE to clear the lien and the title BEFORE the bank sells it, which is not happening. at least not here, the excuse we are getting from the county is it's the buyers responsibility to do the title search and if they failed to do so that HOA lien is inherited and carries over to the new owner.

i would see if you could work out payments with the HOA. also we were worried about our car as well, the worst, the VERY worst that can happen is that the trustee will allow you to buy back what is over exempted with your car. we thought for certain that was what we were going to have to do, but as it worked out there was something technical about filing with a spouse that allowed us not to have to buy back anything. again i don't know how it works in tenn., when we filed it was over a few plus years back and personally i believe the courts were just jammed up to tight with the filings that we didn't face much of what many face now that the courts are cleared up a bit.

i agree with you, file and take the changes with the HOA.

[nioka]

tobee43,

In a few months I will hit the $10k and file if the HOA or bank does not foreclose in the meantime. If I don't bring the HOA up to date the HOA has already warned me that they will convert my monthly dues to annual dues. If I file chapter 7 the current HOA assessments will be discharged. (I understand the HOA will get a lien to cover that amount which will be charged to the new or next owner). The HOA will then charge me the annual fees that will amount to about $1200 and cover my HOA obligations for the next year.

I asked one attorney about the HOA fees going forward after filing chapter 7. He said that I had bullet proof income and no assets therefore there was no way for the HOA to collect a dime from me whether the house was occupied or not. He was aware I wanted to surrender the house.

At age 70 I will never buy another home. I talked to a few senior communities in the area I want to move to and was told by all that they would be happy to rent to me after my bankruptcy was discharged.
(BTW, they told me they could not rent to me while I was in bankruptcy).

[tobee43]

as i can relate to your position, we too as an older group only had exempt income and we were safe as well. no one can touch our SS or pensions. if you atty told you this in Tenn., i would trust what has been said to you and go with that.

we secured a rental prior to our filing, so that no bk showed up.

don't EVER say NEVER nioka LOL!! we said the same as you and now own two homes. thankfully free and clear, with no worries other than keeping up with medical situations financially.