To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Stop Incomplete "Zombie" Foreclosures
Sometimes, when banks foreclose upon people's homes, they decide it isn't even worth their while to finish the foreclosure process. This means that the homeowners are evicted from the property, but unbeknownst to them, the property is never transferred out of their name. The property continues to accrue taxes and fees and becomes run-down and abandoned.
Eventually, these incomplete or "zombie" foreclosures are seized by the government because of the taxes, and the government (and sometimes the former homeowner) is then stuck with the problem of cleaning up the dilapidated property.
The idea of a bank kicking people out of a property that the bank didn't even want back seems reminiscent of a cartoon movie villain, especially since the bank may have used some of the homeowner's tax bailout money to do it.
This is not a petition about restricting a bank's ability to foreclose (although such petitions would certainly be justified). The only thing I request here is a law stating that if a bank BEGINS a foreclosure, it MUST finish it. If it fails to do so, it should face a penalty severe enough to make this law worth following - for example, take an amount equal to the total value of the original loan, and force the bank to pay this amount to the homeowner AND to the local government.
Eventually, these incomplete or "zombie" foreclosures are seized by the government because of the taxes, and the government (and sometimes the former homeowner) is then stuck with the problem of cleaning up the dilapidated property.
The idea of a bank kicking people out of a property that the bank didn't even want back seems reminiscent of a cartoon movie villain, especially since the bank may have used some of the homeowner's tax bailout money to do it.
This is not a petition about restricting a bank's ability to foreclose (although such petitions would certainly be justified). The only thing I request here is a law stating that if a bank BEGINS a foreclosure, it MUST finish it. If it fails to do so, it should face a penalty severe enough to make this law worth following - for example, take an amount equal to the total value of the original loan, and force the bank to pay this amount to the homeowner AND to the local government.
Why is this important?
This is not even an issue that I have encountered personally, and in spite of that I am still outraged that banks have found yet another way to steal from hard-working Americans. Banks are making people homeless practically "for sport," and it needs to stop.