Virginia puts homeowners on fast track to foreclosure

[n2doc]

By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 24, 2010; 12:00 AM
Since the meltdown in the housing market began more than three years ago, Maryland and the District have changed their foreclosure laws to give borrowers greater protection. Virginia has moved in the opposite direction.

Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law making it easier for lenders to defend themselves when accused of giving homeowners too little warning of impending foreclosures.

The process moves so quickly in Virginia - one of the fastest states in the nation - that homeowners can receive less than two weeks' notice that their house is about to be sold on the courthouse steps.

That confronts homeowners with an almost impossible deadline. To get a court to stop the sale in that narrow window, they must gather evidence, file a lawsuit and potentially post a bond with the court that could total thousands of dollars. Instead of trying to find a lawyer and prepare a suit, many borrowers run out the clock trying to deal with their lender.

more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/23/AR2010122305457.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. a temporary situation.

once this travesty happens often enough, the people will act and send a message to their pols. It will take time, it will involve pain and loss, perhaps even loss of life, but it will change.

[n2doc]

2. Will it?

There's a lot of deluded people out there who feel that the people being foreclosed upon "had it coming". And the folks losing their houses are unlikely to vote, or even stay, in Virginia, in my opinion. Time will tell.

[xor]

4. No shit. I looked up some keywords on FR the other day about some lady who had her home WRONGFULLY

foreclosed on, and there were people still defending the banks and attacking the lady. While some of it was just kneejerk not reading the story and basing their opinion on their screwed up assumptions and views of the world, but some of them fully understood the events and still attacked the people. I was tempted to create an account there to point out their idiocy, but I figured I'd just be banned and anything I said would just be dismissed without them giving it any thought.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. over time, yes. immediately? no.

It may actually take people taking "justice" in their own hands. When things get bad enough, especially under the current, demented AynRandism economic disaster, people will stand up and fight.

[Angry Dragon]

3. By deregulation the federal government has a hand in this

problem, it is nation wide. The tax-payers saved the banks and now the federal government sits back and does nothing to protect the people that they have taken oaths to protect. I do not remember any official taking an oath to protect corporations and their crimes.

[xchrom]

5. Sad. Nt

[KansDem]

7. "...homeowners can receive less than two weeks' notice..."

Less than two weeks' notice??!!!

When I was college student and renting one-bedroom apartments in the student ghetto, the contract always said we'd get 30 days if the landlord wanted us out.

But persons who own homes now get less than two weeks?

Seems rather draconian for a meltdown brought on by the bankers and mortgage companies themselves...

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Virginia is a non-judicial state. Like alabama.

In non-judicial states, there is normally no court involvement in foreclosures.
You get served ( or the bank 'says" you were served, which often is a lie, as have been proven)
an announcement in printed in the local paper ( often a weekly paper in small communities)
and the auction can take place very quickly.
If the foreclosure is wrong/illegal it is almost impossible to stop it, you really have no choice but to retro-actively sue.

Here in Alabama, ( one of Rove's fiefdoms) the state legislature very quietly changed the property laws so that courts are now REQUIRED to accept as valid any paperwork the banks give them.
No arguments about lack of notes, validity of robo-signed papers, etc. allowed.

Only in JUDICIAL states are district courts a remedy for wronged homeowners.

That is why, a few months ago, we read that BOA was ceasing foreclosures in 23 states.
those were the judicial states.

In short, they have usurped the validity and protection of property laws.
Our money, our jobs, and our homes are no longer secure.

[beac]

9. Yet another reason why I have vowed to never purchase another house.

We were very lucky and sold ours (in Virginia) rather quickly for our market, but after weighing the pros and cons, we've decided to be happy tentants from here on out. Playing around with this interactive graphic in the NYT really cemented our resolve:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html