Lenders Are Trying to Avoid the Responsibility of Maintaining Foreclosed Units
The local governments are concerned about steps being taken by a bankers group in Florida in trying to avoid the responsibility of maintaining foreclosed units. This will mean passing on the buck to the taxpayers while at the same time these derelict houses will continue to pull down property values of the localities.
Thousands and thousands of residential houses across Florida have been left deserted with boarded windows, stagnant pools and overgrown gardens. With the worsening of the foreclosure crisis the situation is deteriorating.
The local administration from Miami to Winter Garden have started sending teams to trim the lawns, clear the pools and see to other basic chores. The liens are being transferred to the lenders – mainly the banks.
The banking industry wants to stop this. They have acted with stealth and drafted a step in the Florida Legislature that would stop the cities as well as the counties from compelling the banks holding the mortgages on the estates to look after the units until they actually come to possess the title deed. The process is time consuming and can take up to six months or more. The language of the bill would also prevent the municipalities from setting up registries to track all the foreclosed houses in the locality.
The bankers want to tack on this language to another law during the last days of the current session of the legislature. This way focus will be avoided and it will get the go ahead signal without fuss. Anothy DiMarco representing the bankers said that the issue was a big one.
Local ordinances are being passed to enforce banks to maintain the units while in foreclosure. It will allow cities to impose liens and other penalties on the land. DiMarco said it was great but until they formally took over the property it was not their duty to see to the house because till then the property was not theirs.
However the move by the banks has not gone unnoticed and it has raised a hue and cry among the cities as well as the counties. It is they who are the direct sufferers of this housing crisis.
Gary Bruhn the mayor of Windermere said, “We’ve got a lot of people thanking us for going in and cleaning up the lots, cleaning up the pools, getting the house halfway decent so you don’t live next to a health hazard.” In Windermere a law has been passed to tag on the maintenance charges to the future tax bills.”
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