People probably know that ACORN registered people to vote, but that’s about all they know about the former community organization. Registering voters was never more than a sideline. They actually contracted the whole thing out to PROJECT VOTE. The main thing ACORN did was fight back against this. When you walked into an ACORN office, the people at the desks manning the phones and meeting with people were spending 95% of their time trying to help people avoid losing their homes or advising them how to navigate all the predators in the housing market. What’s been going on in Washington DC is only a particularly nasty form of something that was rampant in the 2000’s.
Buying liens is a really awful practice, particularly when it is coupled with an intent to pile legal costs on the homeowner to the point that they just have to hand over their house to you rather than just the tax money they owed to the government.
How does that work?
In some municipalities, you can buy ownership of unpaid debt (property taxes) and then receive whatever interest accrues. However, if the homeowner doesn’t pay the debt off in a timely manner, you can start charging them for any legal fees you rack up trying to get the debt repaid. And, then, when the homeowner has too much debt to ever pay you back, you can foreclose on their home. People have lost their homes this way when they initially owed less than two hundred dollars.
You’d be amazed what is legal in this country. ACORN fought on this battlefield. But they got smooshed like a bug.
ACORN fought on this battlefield. But they got smooshed like a bug.
I see all sorts of O-bots whining about stabbing Obama in the back re: Syria and stuff. Just remember who stabbed whom in the back re: ACORN. The Democrats in Washington DC stabbed their base in the back on ACORN. Democrats controlled both the House and Senate at the time of O’Keefe’s ratf–king. That means Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, among others stabbed their base in the back.
And the Shirley Sherrod fiasco was the icing on the cake for Democratic spinelessness.
I find it hard to believe that a homeowner couldn’t scrape up $200 for a tax bill, at least by borrowing from friends or relatives. How did they get possession in the first place? I’m sure you can find and instance or you wouldn’t have posted it, but it must be as rare as hen’s teeth.
People frequently have circumstances change from when they buy houses. Not everyone’s lives are middle-class nice and predictable. Unemployment. Criminal losses. Health catastrophe. Bad choices leading to poorer and poorer credit entrapment.
The “personal responsibility” angle of how did it happen is much over-rated. Because once it happens there are flocks of vultures out there waiting to make money from it. Legally, quasi-legally, and illegally.
Groups like ACORN made an effort to help folks navigate away from the vultures.
Either they owned the house outright, in which case they had collateral for a loan, or they had a mortgage lender responsible for paying the taxes. If they didn’t pay the lender, they would be foreclosed before any tax sale. At least that’s how it goes in civilized states. In Illinois, it is very hard to lose your property for taxes. I know, for four years I waited for a tax sale on bare lots owned by a bankrupt construction company that wasn’t paying taxes of only $300 per lot. no one in the County Assessor’s office could explain why these properties kept getting yanked from the tax sale list. Of course, I was willing to make a reasonable offer to the court appointed receiver, but he kept ignoring letters, phone calls, and e-mails inquiring how much he wanted for one lot. That taught me that one needs to be plugged into an old boy network.
I suspect that the owners had diminished capacity and were unable to handle their affairs which makes the state’s action doubly cruel.
There you go. That’s the root issue. The way some particular old-boy networks work when it comes to certain geographies or ethnicities or economic classes or age groups. It amounts to theft under the color of law, and the differences in jurisdiction don’t seem to have as much to do with state laws as local politicians. Although, some states make it a lot easier to do.
not every mortgage includes taxes and insurance, mine for example doesn’t I pay each myself
It must be very small. Banks usually demand it. That way they get free deposits.
nope, normal size at least at the time and it’s with CitiMortgage so not some small time joint
Well, the way it works is that your Dad gets into his eighties and he starts getting a little confused and misses a tax payment. The city doesn’t want to spend the money chasing down every little delinquent payment, so they sell the debt to a third-party who is allowed to collect interest on the outstanding debt while they try to collect it. The trick is that these third parties are allowed to do two additional things. First, they are allowed to add their legal fees to the debt. Second, after six months, they are allowed to foreclose on the house (like a bank) and take ownership of it.
So, maybe your Dad cut a check that was $200 short.
Then he got a bunch of legal bills, maybe $4,000 worth.
Then he doesn’t know what to do, or the mail just confuses him.
Finally, he gets dragged into court, and the only way he can pay is with the equity in his house.
The beauty of the thing is that you can invest $200, get a little interest payment if the money is paid off, or get a house worth $200,000 if the old bugger doesn’t pay. The key is to use really expensive lawyers because they’re free to you, and they might win you a house.
Exactly – for example:
Scumbag vultures.
Diminished capacity. No longer able to handle his affairs. He needed a financial secretary. In working families that role is usually played by an eldest son or daughter.
sure, in Norman Rockwell’s America where all families are happy and they all live in the same neighborhood.
Financial administrators, including family members, very often cheat that confused old person and cause such problems.
since you spoke of ACORN, this story has an indirect link (slight just because it features a quote from Bertha Lewis).
Alongside His Family, Bill de Blasio Denounces Bloomberg Comments
Of course he used them as a prop. So did Romney. So did Obama. They ALL use their families as props. What a dumb question from that reporter, akin to asking a grieving widow, “How do you feel about your husband’s death?”
Bill and Hillary’s problem was that Hillary acted more than just a prop.
Yes, and some people (mostly Republicans) just couldn’t stand the thought of a woman as an equal partner.
On a kinda related subject, it appears the world is spinning backwards. As jumbo mortgage interest rates are lower than Federally guaranteed mortgages.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/a-mortgage-market-out-of-balance/?_r=0
My in-laws lost a home that was free and clear in this way. This was years before I met my wife. She was in high school at the time. They were kicked out into the street and it changed their lives forever. It was a beautiful home. They never had such a nice place to live again.
My father-in-law isn’t good with money. He was no doubt negligent but he didn’t think it possible that they could take his house over a small debt.
When my wife and I purchased the home we’re in, it was hard for her. First, it was a foreclosure. This brought up a flood of painful memories. Second, it’s a very beautiful place that reminded her of her childhood home. She got through it and loves the place now. But it wasn’t easy.
My in-laws live in a tiny attached home now. They’re still heart broken over the loss.
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