The 25-Year 'Foreclosure From Hell'

[Old Fart]

Patsy Campbell hasn’t made a mortgage payment on her house since 1985.

Patsy Campbell could tell you a thing or two about fighting foreclosure.
She's been fighting hers for 25 years.

The 71-year-old retired insurance saleswoman has been living in her house,
a two-story on a half acre in a tidy middle-class neighborhood here in
central Florida, since 1978. The last time she made a mortgage payment
was October 1985.


And yet Ms. Campbell has been able to keep her house, protected by a
105-pound pit bull named Dodger and a locked, rusty gate advising visitors
to beware of the dog.


http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/111500/the-25-year-foreclosure-from-hell

 

[BadgeBunny]

How does this happen??!?!?!??!

If I tried that I would be on the curb with my stuff in a cardboard box on day 91 ...

 

[spamby]

One more reason that shows U.S.A. is dying.

 

[RETOKSQUID]

Well she knows how to play the court system very well.

 

[Old Fart]

'The story of how Ms. Campbell has managed to avoid both paying her mortgage and losing her home, which is currently assessed at more than $203,000, is a cautionary tale for lenders that cut corners and followed sloppy practices when originating, processing and servicing mortgages. Lenders are especially vulnerable in the 23 states, including Florida, that require foreclosures to be approved by a judge.

Ms. Campbell has challenged her foreclosure on the grounds that her mortgage was improperly transferred between banks and federal agencies, that lawyers for the bank had waited too long to prosecute the case, that a Florida law shields her from all her creditors, and for dozens of other reasons. Once, she questioned whether there really was a debt at all, saying the lender improperly separated the note from the mortgage contract.'

'She offers no apologies for not paying her mortgage for 25 years, saying that when a foreclosure is in dispute, borrowers are entitled to stop making payments until the courts resolve the matter.

"This is every lender's nightmare," says Robert Summers, a Stuart, Fla., real-estate lawyer who represents Commercial Services of Perry, an Iowa-based buyer of distressed debt that currently owns Ms. Campbell's mortgage and has been trying to foreclose. "Someone defending a foreclosure action can raise defenses that are baseless, but are obstacles for the foreclosing lender," he says, calling the system "an unfair burden" for lenders.'

 

[ez bake]

'The story of how Ms. Campbell has managed to avoid both paying her mortgage and losing her home, which is currently assessed at more than $203,000, is a cautionary tale for lenders that cut corners and followed sloppy practices when originating, processing and servicing mortgages. Lenders are especially vulnerable in the 23 states, including Florida, that require foreclosures to be approved by a judge.

Ms. Campbell has challenged her foreclosure on the grounds that her mortgage was improperly transferred between banks and federal agencies, that lawyers for the bank had waited too long to prosecute the case, that a Florida law shields her from all her creditors, and for dozens of other reasons. Once, she questioned whether there really was a debt at all, saying the lender improperly separated the note from the mortgage contract.'

'She offers no apologies for not paying her mortgage for 25 years, saying that when a foreclosure is in dispute, borrowers are entitled to stop making payments until the courts resolve the matter.

"This is every lender's nightmare," says Robert Summers, a Stuart, Fla., real-estate lawyer who represents Commercial Services of Perry, an Iowa-based buyer of distressed debt that currently owns Ms. Campbell's mortgage and has been trying to foreclose. "Someone defending a foreclosure action can raise defenses that are baseless, but are obstacles for the foreclosing lender," he says, calling the system "an unfair burden" for lenders.'

I don't think what she's doing is right, but you'll have a hard time getting me to shed a tear for the lenders of today seeing as how they're responsible for one of the dirtiest industries in the US today (and that several "lenders" got bail-out money).

Its like watching your enemy get pounced on by a mutual enemy - you sort of feel good about the bad-guy taking it in the shorts, but sad that your mutual enemy got by with something.

 

[BadgeBunny]

I am so torn over this. On one hand she knows she owes the debt, she should pay it. On the other hand, those danged banks don't exactly try to work with us little folks.

Can you imagine the interest that has accrued on that note over the years though!

Seems to me even if she has a problem with the way the bank foreclosed she should be making a good faith effort to take care of what she knows she is responsible for.

I dunno ... maybe I am just weird that way.

 

[jbarnett]

I don't think what she's doing is right, but you'll have a hard time getting me to shed a tear for the lenders of today.

This.

 

[HMFIC]

If the laws and judicial system were not so convoluted, this wouldn't be able to happen.

Just more evidence that the legal system can be contorted to suit almost anything.

 

[oklaccer]

Just keep on remembering... we have a legal system, not a justice system.