Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues. This blog will consist of information describing the various forms of Home Equity Theft and links to news reports & other informational sources from throughout the country about the victims of Home Equity Theft and what government authorities and others are doing about it.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Man Who Pledged Home As Loan Collateral To Help Friend Now Faces The Boot As Latter Stops Making Repayments
In Ridgefield, Connecticut, The Ridgefield Press reports:
Bob Simonson is known perhaps equally for riding his bicycle all year round for transport rather than sport, and for the mass of miscellany that’s grown around his Branchville Road house over the years. Now he’s at risk of losing that house that he’s called home for more than half a century and teeters on the verge of homelessness.
Over the years, debt has piled up on the property that two decades ago Mr. Simonson owned free and clear. In a letter to the editors last week, Mr. Simonson asked “Is there anyone here who can do anything to help me buy time enough to save my home?”
He inherited the property in 1989 with no mortgage, and in a fateful moment of what he calls “weakness,” Mr. Simonson said, he used his windfall to help a friend buy a house in Pennsylvania where he sought to start an antiques business.
“He was the grandson of a famous antiques dealer, so he knew his stuff,” Mr. Simonson said. “I figured he was a safe bet.”
He borrowed $50,000 — $25,000 for a “200-year-old colonial that was falling apart” and $25,000 to fix it up, and he used his Branchville Road house as collateral.
“I knew him for a number of years and I trusted him,” Mr. Simonson said. They had been roommates in town when Mr. Simonson’s parents were alive, he said. “I used to be more trusting.”
“For a couple of years he made payments,” he said. In the mid-1990s, the payments stopped and Mr. Simonson, who has worked retail jobs around town for decades, picked up the slack. “I could have foreclosed on him at any time,” he said.
Back taxes accrued and the debt swelled to around $70,000 ten years ago, Mr. Simonson said. A man Mr. Simonson describes as a venture capitalist offered him $30,000 for the house. He took it, but was left owing $40,000.
Then his indebtedness exploded up to around $200,000 today. “It just sort of snowballed over the years,” he said.
CBC News: Betrayal of Trust (A CBC investigation reveals how lawyers across Canada have misappropriated and mishandled clients money, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, or sometimes even charging vulnerable people top dollar for shoddy services)
Land Contract/Contract For Deed/Rent-To-Own Rackets
The New York Times: The Housing Trap (In the wake of the housing crisis, low-income families have turned to seller financing to buy homes but these deals can be a money trap)
Beware The Fine Print: Consumers Forced To Sign Away Their Rights To Use Court System
The NY Times: Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice(Part 1 in series examining how clauses buried in tens of millions of contracts have deprived Americans of one of their most fundamental constitutional rights: their day in court)
Foreclosure Mills' Abysmal Record In Complying With New NYS Foreclosure Requirements
Justice Deceived: How Large Foreclosure Firms Subvert State Regulations Protecting Homeowners
MFY Legal Services Report On Questionable Practices By Process Servers In Debt Collection Cases
Justice Disserved: A Preliminary Analysis of the Exceptionally
Low Appearance Rate by Defendants in Lawsuits Filed in the Civil Court of the City of New York
Mortgage Mess Redux: Robo-Signers Return (A Reuters investigation finds that many banks are still employing the controversial foreclosure practices that sparked a major outcry last year)
CNN Video: As Foreclosures Mount, Florida Court Turns To 'Rocket Docket'
The Wall Street Journal: A Florida Court's 'Rocket Docket' Blasts Through Foreclosure Cases (2 Questions, 15 Seconds, 45 Days to Get Out; 'What's to Talk About?' Says a Judge)
"Produce The Note" Strategy When Dealing With Missing Promissory Notes In Foreclosure Actions
ABC Video: Fighting Against Foreclosure (Some homeowners have found a new tactic to keep the banks at bay)
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