Ailing lender's checks bounce (Paying Property Taxes)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Baltimore Sun

Checks sent out by the troubled American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. to pay the property taxes of more than 70 homeowners in the Baltimore metropolitan area have bounced, local officials said yesterday.

Baltimore City received bad checks for 53 properties - a total of about $63,500. Baltimore County said American Home Mortgage checks bounced for 21 properties, totaling $41,000. Taxes are due at the end of the month.

Finance officials in the rest of the region - Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties - reported no similar problems.

"This is just another chapter in what is a very difficult time for the mortgage industry," said Donald I. Mohler III, a spokesman for Baltimore County, which no longer accepts checks from American Home Mortgage.



Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.taxbill15sep15,0,4511686.story

[rusty quoin]

1. My God, deregulation works.

[InkAddict]

2. Isn't that worth at least a $35 charge for bad check plus a

$35 bank charge for ISF? Wonder if they can get 'em on a daily (-)negative balance fee until the end of the month too? Oh, wait, corporations only have personhood when they say they do.

[InkAddict]

5. I feel for the homeowners -

My ex-employer's 401 administrator screwed up and, contrary to what my official paperwork stated, apparently they sent my distribution to the boss's home instead of to the office where the Office Manager could get his sig and send it on to me at my new address. Since my boss was way too busy to open his mail, it just laid around whereever his mail collects. When I called to say I had not received the check on the appointed day stated in the paperwork, I called, and the office manager told me to check with the Administrator. (Oh, so helpful--my time/my dime--I wasn't working there anymore afterall and glad of it.) I called; they checked and called, not me, but the office manager who had to get an OK to ask for a brand new check and another week's wait. (Yeah, sure I believe that-perhaps the fund wasn't really funded????). You know what they said, Oops! That oops probably cost us saving our home from foreclosure - but then I had no more funds for living expenses or attorneys nor more energy for a fight. With all the "nothing personal-just business" RIFs, one on top of the other, and Dad's final illness and passing,(we foiled their land grab via unemployment twice before) it was probably better Countrywide just take it back. That was the plan anyway, no? -- massive predatory theft, massive churn, mass destruction of community. A spiralled hurricane of catastrophe. Like the folks in NOLA, we've got it pretty good--attributable to Babs' oh-so-elegant mouth. Corporate bullies, George Orwell, and Animal Farm yet reign in the USofA in spite of Nancy's gavel.

[susanna]

3. I hope they notify the homeowners.

Our bank neglected to pay our summer tax check during a routine refinancing, and due to an inept city/county address system (they both had the old homeowner's name on our property - goodness knows how), we almost went into foreclosure. It's not pretty.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Now they've stolen the property tax payments made by the borrowers .

Is there any end to the dishonesty of these bastards?

[SoCalDem]

6. How very Enronish of them

:grr:

[truth2power]

9. Exactly what I thought. They stole it. Why isn't someone

being held accountable?

[City Lights]

13. Someone is being held accountable - the homeowners!

:mad: Ultimately, though, property owners are on the hook for those payments - even though the bad checks were not their fault. :mad:

If they want to keep their homes, they get to pay their property taxes twice! :grr:

[truth2power]

14. Yep...privatize the profits. Socialize the costs. You'd think

Americans would have caught on by now.

[Up2Late]

7. Oh this is NOT good!

I just wish the article had a better, less stealthy headline.

[trof]

8. NEVER let escrow/mortgage company pay your taxes.

Not if you can possibly avoid it.
The only time my tax wasn't paid on time was when the mortgage company INSISTED that part of my monthly payment go into an escrow account which THEY would use to pay my annual R.E. taxes.

Of course the bill was sent to them.
And they somehow 'neglected' to pay.
The first I knew about it was when I received the delinquency notice.
It took quite a while to clear it up and get the penalty rescinded.

If I were going for a mortgage now, an escrow for taxes would be a deal breaker.
Never. Again.

[truth2power]

10. A question, Trof..

Does a mortgage company have the use of the money in their escrow accounts (to invest etc.) over the course of the year, or is that against the law? I don't know anything about this, but it seems that would be a sweet deal for them, no?

[trof]

12. I don't think so.

But I cannot find an answer on the web.

[Zenlitened]

11. Check out the letter they sent when they declared bankruptcy:

Comments in bold are mine, BTW...

... The Chapter 11 process is intended to help preserve and protect the value of the Company’s assets for its creditors. We are now fully focused on this objective. (In fact, money that was never truly a company asset -- say, your property taxes! -- might be fair game for the top-feeders, too.)

... You should see no immediate changes on the servicing of your loan and you must continue to make the monthly payments required by your note and mortgage. (On the other hand, the payments WE must make -- as required by that very same contract -- suddenly got a little less mandatory, heh heh.)

If you have an application or commitment in process, we sincerely regret that we will no longer
be able to provide you with that funding or provide for a refund of any fees paid. (In other words, if you put money on the table simply for the privilege of having us get the paperwork started... well, so long and thanks for not reading the fine print!)

Link (pdf):
https://www.americanhm.com/Customer%20Letter%20and%20FAQ.PDF