After Dealing With Homeowner's Multiple Bankruptcy Filings, Foreclosing Lender Winds Up With Trashed Home

In St. Petersburg, Florida, The St. Petersburg Times reports:

• Between 1999 and last January, [Rose] King filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection eight times — a move that kept lenders from forcing the sale of her St. Petersburg bungalow. And when she finally moved out in March, she took everything, including the kitchen sink. "She lived two years for free, I can tell you that,'' says Kelly Goff, who held the most recent mortgage and had to schedule foreclosure sales four times. "I've never had anything like it, and I've had hundreds of loans. It's luck of the draw that I happened to get somebody who knew how to abuse the system and used it.''

***

• Goff says he spent more than $20,000 in legal costs before the foreclosure auction was finally held on March 14. As typically happens when property is mortgaged for more than it's worth, he bought the house with a $100 bid. And was appalled by what he found.

• The place was filthy. Everything that could be removed had been, including appliances, electrical outlets, light fixtures, even the toilet and door jambs. "It was total destruction,'' Goff says.

For more, see Chapter 13 standoff thwarts foreclosure on St. Petersburg house for years.

For another Central Florida horror story in which the bankruptcy system was arguably abused to delay foreclosure, see Thirteen times for Chapter 13, where a Palm Harbor couple reportedly together filed Chapter 13 bankruptcies a total of 13 times.

Go here for other posts on serial bankruptcy filings. SerialBankruptcyFilings

Clearwater Couple File 13 Chapter 13s To Keep Home

WTVT Channel 13 in Tampa, Florida reports on the Joyce and Bryan Maryon of Clearwater and their odyssey in the Federal Bankruptcy Court. According to the story:

• "Court records show they’ve taken turns filing Chapter 13 and have skipped mortgage payments while living in a large two-story home in the upscale neighborhood of Coachman Ridge. FOX 13 first took a close look at the Maryons’ bankruptcy records back in 2004. Each time one of them filed Chapter 13, it automatically stopped the bank from foreclosing on their house. But records also show the couple never followed through on a plan to pay off their debts. In May of 2004, the Maryons owed $188,000 on their home [and] had together filed Chapter 13 a total of 10 times. According to the court trustee in May of 2004, they hadn't made a payment since 1999."

Reportedly, they have since refinanced their home and, according to the story, "they now owe more than $500,000 on that same house and together have filed chapter 13 a total of 13 times."

For more, watch investigative reporter Doug Smith's Fox 13 TV news report (click screen to activate video) or, to read the online report, see Thirteen times for Chapter 13.

Go here for other posts on serial bankruptcy filings. SerialBankruptcyFilings

Florida Couple, Adult Children Get Jail In Connection With Scheme To Avoid Home Foreclosure

In Clay County, Florida, My Clay Sun reports:

• An Orange Park couple and their adult children were sent to Clay County jail following a scheme to avoid foreclosure on their $1 million Orange Park riverfront home. In April 1996, Andrew and Ruth Crawford and their children, James and Kelli Patterson, bought a 5-bedroom, 7-bathroom home [...] but made only a few mortgage payments. To avoid foreclosure, they refinanced the home several times and filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy more than a dozen times.

• [A]ttorneys for [the mortgage lender] convinced a judge to dismiss the [most recent] bankruptcy and to ban them from filing bankruptcy yet again. Then Kelli Patterson, on three occasions, sent a phony fax from her workplace to the Clay Today newspaper to stop legal advertisements announcing the public sale of the home. Her faxes contained a forged signature of [the lender's] attorney.

For the story, see 4 jailed in foreclosure of Clay home.

Go here for other posts on serial bankruptcy filings. SerialBankruptcyFilings