[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

Originally Posted by mango23

I would believe like with a bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid debts, you could be found to be committing a fraud. Many of the walkers just don't want to pay even though they have the means to. Not all properties are homesteads with people being left in the streets. Many maybe most were made as an investment with little down using OP money that went south and they want to walk away Scott free like, "Heads I win tails you lose", I don't think so. A court may see it differently with those kinds of cases.

On one of the financial forums I post on many file bankruptcy only if the lender comes after them for the balance due.
In many cases the previous home owner has beat the lender for fraudulent appraisals and bad loans.

Filing BK is not fraud at all, it is someones legal right to do so. Filing BK cannot be fraud in any way that I think of.

In fact, many banks just give up on trying to collect because they know they cannot pay out the bucks for going after 20-30k.

They also know that most borrowers will see the lawsuit coming and before the court date is set they file BK and the court cannot do a thing.

If you look at some recent court cases on Pace or other sites you will be shocked how many borrowers beat the lender.

I never realized for a long time that banks rigged appraisals to get the homeowner buried in the home and then want to go after the borrower who was scammed.

This entire process is a total mess. There are very good people who just lost there jobs and cannot pay, there are people who have the money and wont pay and walk, there are people who just have had enough and walk.

But in the end, you will like I did find out with one of my renters that they are good people who just could not make it without the good paying jobs they had.

So please do not clump everyone into one basket.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by ognend

If it was your homestead and you lived in it for more than two years, they do not consider it taxable income.

Not taxable income, but it could definitely be looked at as a capital gain.

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

Originally Posted by ognend

I am so sick of that holier than thou attitude of some of us doing the right thing while others are just walking away. I have a house that I am $100K under water on - bought it to be my first home, when I bought it I had positive equity in it, now it is under water. On top of that it is smack dab in the middle of the Acreage cancer cluster. Nobody wants to buy in here and maybe I don't feel comfortable risking getting sick to "do the right thing". But, the lender doesn't give a damn. All they see is $$$. Even if it wasn't for the cancer cluster, how does it make sense to hang onto something that will take 6-10 years to just get back to zero equity?

Wake up, businesses do this all the time. They walk away on investments they have taken and later realized will not produce profit. Nobody judges them when they dispose of a bad investment. Also please do not preach the theory how it is a home we are talking about here. American culture has long abandoned the concept of a permanent dwelling, as witnessed by the ongoing crisis. Everything with a pulse was buying and selling homes. The whole building industry is built around the fact that Americans are mobile and that the homes are going to change hands withing a few years. That is why they are all built to look the same and have the same orientation of internal rooms. Finally, the banks/lenders barely ever hang on to your mortgage for longer than 15 minutes nowadays. My mortgage got sold three times in the last two years of its existence.

Everyone's case is different. Anyone thinking of walking on their mortgage should consult an attorney and be ready to go to court. Most likely there will be no court but it could happen. Marital assets are protected from creditors in Florida, as I understand it. A smart guy once told me: keep your assets together and your debts separate. You can read in between the lines of the last sentence and how it would affect your situation if you had the mortgage note only in one of the spouses' names. At least this is my understanding of the laws, I might be wrong, but, anyone can find out within one hour and a few hundred bucks for a consult with a bankruptcy attorney, They will tell you what your outlook is regarding any possible litigation regarding your mortgage. I also heard that in FL the lender has only five years to pursue any deficiency judgment - again, check with your attorney.

Your mileage might vary, isn't that what they say?

I just read the Florida statute and posted a link to it and other info.

Unless I am wrong the Florida law is 10 years for a home loan and can be stretched to 20 years if the lender re-news the judgement ( If they win ) after the 10 year period is up.

Like I said above many people are now just filing BK on the balance left IF the lender decides to come after them.

The banks are having a hard time keeping up with foreclosures because of the record number of them across the country.

Banks are hurting because it cost them tons of money to take care of the home, clean it up and maintain it, hire a real estate firm to try and sell it and if they take the borrower to court and lose they are out a ton of more money.

Something is going to have to happen as this country and this current admin is NOT addressing this issue that has become an epidemic.

We either have to find a way to create good jobs so people can keep their homes or banks will start getting nailed for wrongful loans or something.

This cannot continue at this pace.

[Lilybeans]

The solution is to get the government out of it entirely. Let things happen. Let the foreclosures happen. The government is not the solution, it is the problem. We aren't solving the problem now, we are just spreading it out over a long time.

We need to let everything happen. It will be painful, but it will be over and then we can move forward. Remember, 90% of the people are paying their bills. It won't be the end of the world.

[mango23]

Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90

On one of the financial forums I post on many file bankruptcy only if the lender comes after them for the balance due.
In many cases the previous home owner has beat the lender for fraudulent appraisals and bad loans.

Filing BK is not fraud at all, it is someones legal right to do so. Filing BK cannot be fraud in any way that I think of.

In fact, many banks just give up on trying to collect because they know they cannot pay out the bucks for going after 20-30k.

They also know that most borrowers will see the lawsuit coming and before the court date is set they file BK and the court cannot do a thing.

If you look at some recent court cases on Pace or other sites you will be shocked how many borrowers beat the lender.

I never realized for a long time that banks rigged appraisals to get the homeowner buried in the home and then want to go after the borrower who was scammed.

This entire process is a total mess. There are very good people who just lost there jobs and cannot pay, there are people who have the money and wont pay and walk, there are people who just have had enough and walk.

But in the end, you will like I did find out with one of my renters that they are good people who just could not make it without the good paying jobs they had.

So please do not clump everyone into one basket.

I am not putting everyone in one basket each case must stand on it's own merits. And yes, bad things happen to good people. Life is often not fair or it can be a matter of perspective. Criminals always paint themselves as the victim.

[ognend]

Originally Posted by Lilybeans

What do you want them to do? Say it's ok for you to walk? The money you are talking about is my mom's 401K. You want to tell her she has to eat cat food because you don't want to pay back the money you were lent?

Not us. We did not run out and buy another home or refinance. We just continued to pay down our mortgage.

You would be wrong.

They can get a deficiency judgment right after the sale. Good for 20 years.[/quote]

They can pursue you for the next five years, that;s it.

[ognend]

Originally Posted by Lilybeans

The solution is to get the government out of it entirely. Let things happen. Let the foreclosures happen. The government is not the solution, it is the problem. We aren't solving the problem now, we are just spreading it out over a long time.

We need to let everything happen. It will be painful, but it will be over and then we can move forward. Remember, 90% of the people are paying their bills. It won't be the end of the world.

No kidding. Well, the govt went in there and bailed out the banks. If this were true capitalism, they would have let them fail. Someone here complained about his/her mom's 401K and me walking out on my house hurting that. Didn't hear them whine about it when the banks were getting bailed out. I am willing to bet that the bank stocks were a much larger share of their Mom's 401K than the commoditised (sp?) mortgages. Didn't hear them complain about me as a good tax payer bailing out their Mom indirectly.

[Lilybeans]

Originally Posted by ognend

They can pursue you for the next five years, that;s it.

A judgment is good for twenty years. Why would you say otherwise.

[Lilybeans]

Originally Posted by ognend

No kidding. Well, the govt went in there and bailed out the banks. If this were true capitalism, they would have let them fail.

There should have been no bailouts.

[ognend]

Lilybeans,

My understanding is that if you have a mortgage note in your name and everything else you own is jointly owned with your spouse, the mortgage company can come after you (rightfully so). However, if you declare bankruptcy, they cannot touch the marital jointly owned assets. There is also something called tennancy by entireties - a bank account jointly owned with your spouse would be protected from creditors as well. I am not a lawyer so all this info is something that anyone could ask their own attorney.

Read here:
Tenants By Entireties Does Not Depend Upon Florida Residency : Florida Asset Protection