Mortgage Lender Refuses To Foreclose On Upstate NY 'Bat House'

In Conklin, New York, the Binghampton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports:

• No one wants the house at 36 Stillwater Road. Steven Barker, whose name is on the mailbox, walked away from the house two years ago, thinking it was the bank's problem. It was an understandable assumption, considering The First American Corp. started foreclosure proceedings in 2005 and Barker's bankruptcy filing was discharged in March 2006.

• In September 2006, Broome County Court issued a judgment of foreclosure against Barker. "I wasn't trying to contest that in any way," Barker said. But for reasons unknown to town officials, First American never sold the house following the foreclosure, and the house remains in Barker's name.

• Now, as the foreclosure hangs in limbo, the town's attorney is trying to sort out who is responsible for the building known to neighbors as the "bat house" for the growing population of winged vermin that now call it home. "This is an unusual occurrence," said Mark S. Gorgos, Conklin's attorney. "Usually you have the (foreclosure) judgment, you have the sale and everybody moves on from there." As long as the property tax bills are paid, the county can't foreclose on it. According to the Broome County Office of Real Property, tax bills are sent to the bank and they are being paid.

For more, see Who owns Conklin's 'bat house'? (Foreclosure in limbo as house decays).