No
Protection for the Elderly, Disabled, or Illiterate
There is nothing in
SB 1299 and HB 1920
that would assure that the elderly, the disabled, and the illiterate
would be made aware that their homes were about to be taken in a matter
of days. The bills appear to allow the banks to monitor themselves and
enhances the potential for fraud and deception. In a society where most
of our mail is junk mail, a single written notice, even if certified,
may in many cases not impart to a homeowner what is about to happen to
them. There is no requirement for a special envelope, large fonts,
emphasis, or explanation as to what is happening or any kind of
protection for the homeowners. Under the bills as written, if someone is
on vacation for a month, and a notice is sent by mail, and published one
time in the newspaper, when they could get back from their vacation
their home could be in the hands of a bank. Rather than making it easier
for the banks to foreclose on people’s homes, Tennessee should, as in
other states, be introducing bills to protect homeowners and extend the
time for them to attempt to save their homes.
Most of the $787 Billion
TARP bailout money went to banks that wouldn’t loan the people money.
Now, they seek greater profits at the expense of the people, when their
profits are already obscene. For Example, in 2010 JP Morgan Chase
announced $11.7 billion in profits and $26.9 billion in compensation,
including bonuses that will run in the multimillions for the top
executives. Goldman Sachs reported record profits of $13.4 billion, and
is set to dole out a staggering $16.2 billion in compensation and
bonuses, which could provide an average of nearly $500,000 per employee.
And Morgan Stanley, even having sustained a loss in 2009, has set aside
$14.4 billion for compensation and bonuses.
First Horizon National
Corp.
posted a first-quarter profit of $40 million on revenue of $370 million
in 2011.
Most states across the country seek legislation which provides greater
protection for consumers and creates protections to help homeowners keep
their homes. For example, in
Indiana a bill to reduce the number of residential foreclosures has
received final approval by the General Assembly and will be sent to the
governor for his signature. The bill would increase notice to homeowners
of their right to a settlement conference with their lender. In Indiana
they have foreclosure prevention programs and must notify homeowners
two times of their right to a settlement package. Under SB 582, a third
notice would come directly from the court, informing homeowners of their
right to a face-to-face negotiation with their lender. The bill would
also allow a judge to make a determination of modified mortgage
payments, not exceeding the homeowner’s monthly rate and based upon
ability to pay, for the homeowner to yield to a special fund as a means
for avoiding foreclosure. Although Tennessee is one of five states that
doesn’t have judicial oversight of foreclosures,
SB 1299
and
HB 1920
would place Tennessee squarely on the side of banks and against the
people
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TENNESSEE LEGISLATION TO HELP BANKS TAKE PEOPLES HOMES
____
Full
PDF Opposition to
SB 1299 and HB 1920
Press Release
____
Tennessee House and Senate members are attempting to rush through two
bills - SB 1299 and HB 1920 - which will make it easier for banks to
foreclose on people’s homes; reducing the number of notices to
homeowners from three (3) to one (1), permitting sale of homes after
only twenty (20) days from that single notice, streamlining property
description requirements and by preventing any challenge to the notice
of foreclosure even where the lender makes mistakes or errors.
Eight Republican House members have signed on as co-sponsors. The
sponsors also include House Democratic leader Craig Fitzhugh, a West
Tennessee bank executive who serves as the Bankers Association’s
President.
While states across this nation establishing programs to protect
consumers and help people save their homes with programs to mediate with
lenders, and extend the time for foreclosures to as much as 150 days,
Tennessee permits homes to be taken within 20 days after the first
notice.
Tennessee is going against national trends to protect consumers and
homeowners. While many other states are acting to protect consumers and
are particularly concerned about helping them keep their homes, SB 1299
and HB 1920 take Tennessee in the opposite directions granting special
favor to banks.
Seniors, the disabled, the illiterate, and the weakest members of
society will be the most likely victims of the proposed bills since
there is no “notice accommodation” for those most susceptible to not
being informed that their homes were about to be taken by the bank.
Despite what some term as “outrageous” bills expressed in papers from
Memphis, to Nashville, to Knoxville, to Chattanooga and other papers
around the State of Tennessee, the sponsors and supporters of SB 1299
and HB 1920 appear undeterred setting hearings on SB 1299 and HB 1920 on
Tuesday April 26, 2011 in the Judiciary Committees of the Tennessee
House and Senate in Nashville, Tennessee.
Despite what some term as “outrageous” bills and outrage expressed in
papers from Memphis, to Nashville, to Knoxville, to Chattanooga and
other papers around this state, the sponsors and supporters of SB 1299
and HB 1920 Tennessee republicans go against national trends to protect
consumers and homeowners. While many other states are acting to protect
consumers and are particularly concerned about helping them keep their
homes, SB 1299 and HB 1920 take Tennessee in the opposite directions
granting special favor to banks.
Those wishing to oppose SB 1299 and HB 1920 should contact their State
Congressman and Senator as well as the Tennessee Press Association.
The
cost of a foreclosure is pretty staggering especially when compared to
the cost of public notice advertising which amount to no more than a few
hundred dollars for three (3) weekly notices in a newspaper of general
circulation.
According the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the average
foreclosure costs $77,935.
First of all, the cost
does not accrue totally to the lender. The homeowner has a typical loss
of $7,200 which includes loss of equity in the property, moving
expenses, and perhaps some legal fees. Those neighbors living in close
proximity to the foreclosed house suffer $1,508 in losses from the
decrease in the value of their own home as the neighborhood begins to
deteriorate .The local government loses $19,227 through diminished taxes
and
fees and a shrinking tax base as home prices decrease. That leaves us
with total costs of $50,000 for the lender under the numbers produced by
the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. The Committee does not break
out these figures but a new study from Standard & Poor's (S&P) does.
While there is not a total match between the two sets of data, they are
close enough.
The Committee includes the following in its list of pre-and
post-foreclosure expenses:
Loss on property/loan
Property maintenance
Appraisal
Legal fees
Lost revenue
Insurance
Marketing
Clean-up
And S&P breaks them down as follows: S&P assigns a staggering 26 percent
of the loan amount for the costs of foreclosure. This category wraps up
the remainder of the list above and include paying property taxes (3
percent, although many ignore this obligation, hoping to pass accrued
taxes on to the eventual buyer), maintaining hazard insurance, legal
fees (1 percent), an appraisal (although most lenders are choosing the
far less expensive alternative of a brokers price opinion or windshield
appraisal,) lost revenue (an estimated 13.6 percent of the loan amount)
6 percent marketing fees (broker's commission) and 3 percent spent on
home maintenance.
Balancing the burdens upon
unsuspecting homeowners such as the elderly, the disabled, the
illiterate, and even the stronger healthier members of our
society against the burdens upon banks in not increasing their
profits, fairness in justice tips heavily in favor of people
been given as much latitude as possible to keep their homes as
against bankers being able to increase their bottom line.
Balancing the benefits to homeowners in maximizing their
opportunity to be made aware that their home is being foreclosed
upon and being given the opportunity to keep their homes against
the benefit of more profits for the banks, again, justice tips
heavily in favor of the people keeping their homes.
Balancing the benefits to
the banks of greater profits against the burdens upon smaller
and weekly newspapers in being deprived of legal newspaper
advertising, fairness, justice and the Constitution favor the
newspapers. Freedom of press and freedom of speech will be
burdened, if not eliminated, should SB 1299 and HB 1920 pass
since it would eliminate two thirds of the income from legal
notice advertising which some smaller and weekly papers of
general circulation rely on for their survival.
In
balancing whether to proceed or not, the Tennessee House and
Senate should place great weight upon freedom of speech and
freedom of the press and should be concerned about helping
spread the monopoly by Scripps-Howard and The Knoxville News
Sentinel at the expense of smaller papers with alternative
views.
In
view of the consequences and the amount of savings the Tennessee
House and Senate may think that Knox County gets, the burdens
set forth herein far outweigh any benefits of the bill.
Other states tenants are protected when there is a
foreclosure. The bills make no provision to protection
for tenants in foreclosed buildings. In Massachusetts a
tenant can only be evicted for just cause. A lender
cannot evict a tenant for failure to pay rent unless a
written notice with proper contact information has been
posted and delivered. It does not prohibit a lender from
evicting tenants for valid reasons, such as using a unit
for illegal purposes or not allowing the lender to enter
the unit to make repairs.
The bills appear to allow the banks to monitor
themselves and enhances the potential for fraud and
deception. In a society where most of our mail is junk
mail, a single written notice, even if certified, may in
many cases not impart to a homeowner what is about to
happen to them. There is no requirement for a special
envelope, large fonts, emphasis, or explanation as to
what is happening or any kind of protection for the
homeowners. Under the bills as written, if someone is on
vacation for a month, and a notice is sent by mail, and
published one time in the newspaper, when they could get
back from their vacation their home could be in the
hands of a bank. Rather than making it easier for the
banks to foreclose on people’s homes, Tennessee should,
as in other states, be introducing bills to protect
homeowners and extend the time for them to attempt to
save their homes.
See more
|
GOP
to people: we hear you
The GOP’s new House
majority leader speaker-designate John Boehner, R-Ohio, shortly after the
dust settled from the mid-term elections Boehner and the republican party
thanked the voters for a second opportunity to serve them and pledged to
bring reforms to Congress. Boehner made clear that he got the message from
Americans that they want a Congress that “focuses on the people’s
priorities,” which Bohner specified as “cutting spending, creating jobs,
and reforming the way Congress does its work.”
To many creating
jobs, cutting spending, and reforming the way Congress does business
sounds like Democratic party issues. The word for it is “triangulation”.
It involves adopting for one’s self some of the idea of one’s political
opponent. The logic behind it is that it takes both credit for the
opponent’s ideas and insulates the triangulator from attacks on that
particular issue.
There are those that
believe for the Republican party to become a true party of the people
which has a chance of long term dominance, the Republican party has to
shake its image as being for the big corporation and has to reach out to
the people as economic populist. That is exactly what appears to be
happening.
Among the first signs
that the Republican party was going in the direction of shaking that “only
for the corporations” image and showing concern for the plight of the
people began with components of the Tea Party. In addition to wanting
lower taxes, spending cuts, and reduction in the deficit a component of
the Tea Party was very critical of the huge corporate bonuses and Wall
Street abuses at the expense of the people. Moreover, some members of the
Tea Party are advocating an economic populist message that was echoed in
the Boehner promises set forth above.
Now, we will see
whether the GOP is truly expanding its direction, reaching out to the
people, trying to create jobs, reduce spending, and reduce the deficit.
Words don’t have a lot of meaning unless they are backed with action.
Barak Obama has proven that as his failure to do virtually anything he
promised, except jam healthcare down the throats of the American people,
has made him what some would call the incredible shrinking President.
In addition to jobs,
spending, and the deficit, the American people are also concerned about
many other issues – illegal immigration, healthcare revocation or reform,
national defense, terrorism, decline of the dollar, the rise of China,
many other issues.
However, the most
important issue to most people anywhere in the world is putting food on
the table and supporting their families. This is what it’s all really
about. Let’s hope that the Republicans do more than talk the talk. America
can and will change if the GOP walks the walk.
As far as bi-partisan
cooperation for the benefit of the people, both parties have to stop
accusing the other party of being the party of being the party of “No”.
Both parties have to at least be open to the ideas of the other party and
place their loyalties with the people, not with their parties. Both
parties have good ideas and neither party should have to sacrifice their
principles in order to work with others for
the best interests of this country.
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