If pushing you to attain an unaffordable mortgage during the go-go heyday of the real estate housing market was not enough. Today, many banks, like Bank of America, are at it again by chasing depleted borrowers to pay for the deficiency to improve the bank’s bottom line, while further pushing the borrower to the brink of economic collapse.
The bank’s latest tactic seems to be pushing desperate homeowners to accept deficiency judgments voluntarily, or pursuing them in the court system. As reported by CNNMoney, because of the declining real estate market, and difficult times stemming from the Great Recession, many borrowers have run into tough times. Indeed, we recently detailed the many factors that typically give rise to a foreclosure.
As a result, many borrowers can no longer afford their homes. Worse yet, they can’t even sell their homes today for what the homes were worth at the time of purchase. Consequently, desperate borrowers are forced to either short sell their homes, or simply lose their homes outright in a foreclosure sale.
The new problem becomes what to do with the short fall, or deficiency, between what the home was sold for minus the amount of the original mortgage. With the precipitous drop in real estate values, it comes as no surprise that the amount of the deficiency is often tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rather than write that money off as a bad loan – a bad loan that often times was pushed onto the borrower by mortgage brokers and banks just looking to make a quick buck – many banks are aggressively pursuing the pennyless homeowner, the homeowner down on his luck, and who just sold his home at a loss, to cover the deficiency. This is often done by way of a deficiency judgment, but can also be accomplished by pushy debt collectors hired by the banks to further bolster their bottom line.
It should be emphasized that this situation could happen to individuals who secured bank approval to sell their home for less than what the home is worth by way of a short sale. Therefore, just because your short sale has been approved does not mean that the bank won’t still pursue you for the deficiency. Thus, it is important to contact our office to address your concerns regarding this issue.
Whether banks can and will pursue deficiency judgements often times depends on many factors. The factors include, but are not limited to, whether there’s a second mortgage or other liens on the property. But if the borrower ignores the problem, or ignores the prospect of a deficiency judgment being entered against them, such failure to act could haunt the borrower for many years. Indeed, a bank could have up to 20 years to collect on the deficiency judgment, plus interest.
Therefore, if you are confronted with this situation, it is important to contact our office today to discuss your options.