Have you faced a deficiency judgement on a home you lost to foreclosure?
A global cable TV network is looking for Seattle-area borrowers who have been through the process of a deficiency judgment for a story they’re working on. If that’s you and you’re willing to talk about it for a television business show, contact me or leave a comment below using your email address and I’ll put you in touch with them.
Here’s a recent Reuters story on the subject of deficiency judgments, which are relatively uncommon here in Washington State due to the way our state foreclosure laws are structured.
Many thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the housing bust, but have since begun to rebuild their finances, are suddenly facing a new foreclosure nightmare: debt collectors are chasing them down for the money they still owe by freezing their bank accounts, garnishing their wages and seizing their assets.
By now, banks have usually sold the houses. But the proceeds of those sales were often not enough to cover the amount of the loan, plus penalties, legal bills and fees. The two big government-controlled housing finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other mortgage players, are increasingly pressing borrowers to pay whatever they still owe on mortgages they defaulted on years ago.
Using a legal tool known as a “deficiency judgment,” lenders can ensure that borrowers are haunted by these zombie-like debts for years, and sometimes decades, to come.
It turns out when you take on debt and sign papers saying that you will pay it back, the lender may actually want you to, you know… pay it back. Who knew?