Judge Wipes Out Couple's Mortgage Debt

[Southern Belle]

Judge Wipes Out Couple's Mortgage Debt

Suffolk Judge Jeffrey Spinner Cancels Couple's Mortgage Debt
(posted on AOL news...this site will not let me post the link till I get 15 posts or more)

(Nov. 27) -- A New York couple has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend after a judge canceled the half-million dollar debt they owed on their Long Island home.

Diane Yano-Horoski and her husband, Greg Horoski, were at risk of being thrown out on the street as their California bank pursued foreclosure actions, news reports said.

Suffolk Judge Jeffrey Spinner erased $525,000 in mortgage payments that OneWest Bank was demanding from the couple. That includes $291,000 in principal and $235,000 in interest and penalties, WABC-TV New York reported.

The decision leaves the couple completely debt-free on their home. The Horoskis were only paying interest on their mortgage after falling behind due to health problems and a change in their interest rate, WABC said. They said they asked OneWest to refinance the loan but the bank refused.[/i]

Remainder here.

[sarcasm on] Oh, cool...now I know that when my mortgage company refuses to refinance my home I can go to the courts and end up owning my home and cheat the bank out of every penny they loaned me. [/sarcasm off]

I am sorry these people had some health issues, but that wasn't the banks problem or responsibility. They signed a contract and owed the debt. If they are having problems that caused them to not be able to meet their obligations they should have sold the home and moved to something they could afford. If there is any justice left in this country the judgement will be overturned on appeal.

 

[Oddball]

Link, please.

 

[Southern Belle]

Link, please.

I put this in my 1st post.....

(posted on AOL news...this site will not let me post the link till I get 15 posts or more)

 

[Oddball]

Fair enough...Gotcha covered.

Also, please don't copy-n-paste entire pieces. It's violates copyright and fair use.

 

[goldcatt]

Here's a link for you, SB:

Judge Helps Couple Avoid Foreclosure - ABC News

Not good news for me. I already jumped one sinking ship in the middle of the credit crunch. If it tightens up again before the field fully recovers there won't be anywhere left to land.

 

[Southern Belle]

Thank you goldcatt....

I hope you make it through without any more problems.

 

[chanel]

Its b.s. They bought a home they couldn't afford and then cried ignorance. How many people living in houses half that size have been foreclosed upon for the same thing? They must have a pretty damn good lawyer. Prob the judges brother in law. Lol

 

[goldcatt]

Thank you goldcatt....

I hope you make it through without any more problems.

Anytime! And thanks for the good wishes.

The real estate market has been picking back up since about June where I am, but most of the businesses in my particular field (title) that survived the fall, winter and spring are still on thin ice with another slow season coming up. We're thinking about survival. If there are too many of these lousy decisions and the lenders start balking again like they were last year this time, it's going to mean even more shops closing and even more people out of work. I might be one of them.

 

[goldcatt]

Its b.s. They bought a home they couldn't afford and then cried ignorance. How many people living in houses half that size have been foreclosed upon for the same thing? They must have a pretty damn good lawyer. Prob the judges brother in law. Lol

That may or may not be the situation. In most cases it's true, but in others there really were at best total apathy and/or incompetence, at worst predatory or even outright fraudulent practices by brokers, lenders, crooked attorneys, fly by night abstractors, title agents that should never have been licensed, and on and on.

Most of these have gone under by now but in 2004 they were piling on and riding the easy money wave. You have no idea how many hours I spend every week cleaning up those idiots' messes so my clients (and I) don't get burned.

I've been on the lender side before, I see where OWB is coming from, but these people were with (insert obscenity of choice) IndyMac. It's not always as simple as it seems on the surface.

 

[Foxfyre]

A long time ago, the government got on a kick of letting folks take over FHA and VA repo houses for as little as $100 down. There was one neighborhood where almost all the breadwinners worked for one manufacturing firm, and almost all the houses were financed with FHA loans. When the business closed (to escape an attempted union takeover), a great many of those houses went into default. Almost all the folks who subsequently bought them bought them with almost no down payment as FHA repos.

When the next recession hit, almost all those houses were foreclosed on. With nothing invested in the house, the people had little incentive to keep up payments and it felt, to them, like walking away from a rental property. This time the properties sat empty long enough for the properties to seriously deteriorate. I think eventually the entire neighborhood was bulldozed to make room for other stuff.

That didn't happen anyplace else in town.

When we finally get back to the point that you have to put down a substantial amount--at least 10% of value of a property--AND demonstrate ability to repay plus a track record of paying your bills in order to get a loan, it will always ultimately be the responsible taxpayer who absorbs the consequences of irresponsible lending and behavior.

Can't we all demand that our elected representatives return to responsible policies and pass laws and regulations that the irresponsible courts can't get around?

 

[chanel]

The judge could have ordered the bank to renegotiate the terms right? That would have been a fairer outcome in my opinion. You're right goldcatt. We don't know all the facts. But I know too many people who bought McMansions that are crying the blues right now. Long before this recession, I thought they were living on the edge. I passed no judgment, but expect people to accept responsibility when they take a huge financial risk,That's what risk means.

 

[goldcatt]

The judge could have ordered the bank to renegotiate the terms right? That would have been a fairer outcome in my opinion. You're right goldcatt. We don't know all the facts. But I know too many people who bought McMansions that are crying the blues right now. Long before this recession, I thought they were living on the edge. I passed no judgment, but expect people to accept responsibility when they take a huge financial risk,That's what risk means.

You're right, the judge could have and probably should have ordered a change in terms. Knowing what I do about Indymac, these people also more than likely went through a broker and were herded into a fully owned or at least affiliated one-stop shop for title and settlement

If you look at the full story, the owners asked for court intervention in doing just that and the lender stands accused of failing to cooperate. Who knows if that's true, but it's always better for both the homeowner and the lender to come to terms than have a family homeless, a vacant property and a bank stuck taking pennies on the dollar for a foreclosure.

But I'm never, ever in favor of reducing principal unless there is a showing of fraud in the valuation of the home. If that had happened in this case, the story would probably have mentioned it.