COMMENTARY

LYNNE LARKIN

“How does it feel?”  Dylan asked back in 1964.  “To be without a home?”

Millions of former homeowners now know how it feels, to be broken by the economy that was broken by the mortgage lenders – to have your tax money used to bail out those lenders and then to be turned on by those same lenders.  The big banks that created the recession are once again making millions, with the friendly help of our Florida courts, in taking foreclosures to new heights.

The stories are endless:  “I paid what they told me, then they told me it wasn’t enough, but I couldn’t catch up because they added on thousands in penalties and interest and then refused any more payments.  They foreclosed, even though I always paid what they told me to pay, sent in the documents they wanted 50 or more times, nothing mattered.”

One clever trick after another was pulled out of the Big Banking hat.  “How does it feel?  To be on your own?  Like a complete unknown.”

You saved your paperwork, took notes of the phone calls, you have all the proof that they lied to you, misled you, “lost” all your submissions, so you think justice will help you out.  They lied, you have proof, what more does it take?

Much more, it turns out.

Here in Indian River County, especially, you need to be a specialized attorney BEFORE all this happens, or you won’t know that the courts will rule none of what the bank said mattered.  Their lies?  Unimportant, since they were just trying to “settle” with you.  Settle what, their mistakes and lies?  You were paying what they told you to pay, they put it in writing, the bank happily taking it directly from your bank account so no payments would be missed.  What you didn’t know was when you asked them for the paperwork to sign, and they didn’t send it, you lost.  Yep, again, they were way ahead.  If they didn’t send you the paperwork, aside from their letters offering you a deal, the courts will say you didn’t have a contract.

Most of the time, mind you, a contract for less than a year’s time does not have to be in writing.  But there is a special law, about which nobody knows until they become victim to it, that says with a mortgage it has to be in writing no matter how long it is.  Huh?    The banks know this law, but even most lawyers don’t know it.  How does that feel?

So those people who tried to sign something, who tried to do it all right, who had the money to pay, they found out that justice doesn’t apply when the judge says “I’m only here to find out how much you owe to the bank, the rest of your story doesn’t matter to me.”  Some banks even sent money BACK to their borrowers, then said that those borrowers were delinquent.  Is that justice?  Here in Indian River County, among others, it is.  It’s okay, as long as you are a bank, you can lie, you can steal homes, you can misdirect and mislead, you can fail to follow legal agreements that are in writing – in short, you can do whatever you like.  The courts here will say, “Okay, bank wins, you lose.  Next.”  One judge, impatient that the homeowner was trying to explain, said, “You’re keeping us all from lunch.”  How does that feel?

If this has happened to you, don’t be ashamed and don’t feel you are alone.  It isn’t a fair playing field with the banks, nobody can stand up to the judges, the legal system, the corporate “people” who get away with whatever they want.  What they want is your home.  And “you’re on your own, with no direction known . . . like a rolling stone.”