If they don’t pay their rent, why give them a mortgage?
They rented from me for almost 2 years and signed a second lease extension in February, 2007 for the coming year. In May, 2007, they notified me they had purchased a home and had moved. I had already served them with the pro-forma pay or quit and filed against them in Albemarle General District court for the non-payment of their May, 2007 rent AND a companion suit in Small Claims for the max amount allowed for the accelerated rent under the new lease extension.
When I knew they were out, I had the locks changed, had the property cleaned and proceeded to re-rent it with only the loss of 2.5 months rent.
Both court cases were heard at the same time and I received a judgement for the unpaid rent, my late/notice fees, my re-leasing fee, ad costs, utilitity costs and yard maintenance costs - approximately $4,000 once their deposit was applied.
Once the appeal period of 10 days had expired, I recorded the judgement in both Albemarle and Greene counties - their new home purchase was in Greene.
This is where my getting their foreclosure notices comes in. As a lienholder against their property, I am entitled to notification that my lien position is about to be wiped out by the foreclosure by the first mortgage holder. The first mortgage holder probably wants ME to buy the property at auction to preserve my position - sorry, no dice.
During the time they rented from me, he lost his job twice, she did not work for a year as their newest child had health issues. They struggled to pay $1,395 per month in rent YET a mortgage company gave them a mortgage for over $213,000 * WHY?
Over the last 5 years, approximately 25% of my tenants bought homes either in the Charlottesville area or whereever they moved. RARELY did I receive a request for rent verification for their mortgage company - RARELY. Why would this not be the FIRST piece of paper requested by the mortgage underwriters? Why were loans closed without verifying that the purchasers were capable of paying their current rent?
At the end of September, a family of 6 will be homeless unless they move in with friends or family. They will have a foreclosure AND eviction on their credit report and little monies to pay the move-in monies on a new rental home.
Yes, I blame them for not making good choices and budgeting their finances AND I blame the mortgage company that loaned them money without checking to determine if they could make the payments.
I suspect this has happened often in our current housing meltdown…..
