Tag Archives: Foreclosures

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Ron Deutsch of Maryland-based Cohn, Goldberg & Deutsch.

Banks and lenders that have suffered huge losses in some cases when HOAs have extinguished mortgages where the delinquent HOA dues amounted to a fraction of the balance on the mortgage claim that the super-priority lien law gives the HOAs too much power.

Delinquency rates improved overall in the first quarter of 2015, according to the New York Fed. At the end of Q1, about $679 billion of household debt was in some stage of delinquency (representing about 5.7 percent of outstanding debt), a decline from 6.0 percent reported at the end of the previous quarter.

A bill to expedite the lengthy foreclosure process and eliminate blight in Ohio neighborhoods that has national implications has been re-introduced and has passed by a unanimous vote in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Linda Finley from the Atlanta office of Baker Donelson.

Nevada was one of the states affected most by the crisis. In response to the housing crash, back in 2009 the Nevada legislature created a Foreclosure Mediation Program. The members of a subcommittee of the Nevada Legislature recently voted to recommend the elimination of the program, however, after determining that the housing market has sufficiently recovered.

A similar bill was re-introduced in the Ohio State House of Representatives last month by Cheryl Grossman, a Republican, and Michael Curtin, a Democrat. Among other provisions, Ohio HB 134 allows the mortgagee to bring a summary foreclosure action against a vacant and abandoned residential property.

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Kristin Schuler-Hintz from the Nevada office of McCarthy Holthus.

Several states currently allow HOAs to enforce the super-priority lien status and foreclose on a home non-judicially when the owner falls behind on his or her HOA dues—thus extinguishing the note held by the mortgagee, which in many cases suffers losses totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result.

The expanded bill requires mortgagees to provide homeowners with early notice that they are legally entitled to remain in their homes until the foreclosure process is complete (until a court orders them to leave), since many homeowners are unaware that they do not have to leave the house immediately when the foreclosure process begins.