A story that recently ran in a banking industry newsletter should make it onto the front page of every newspaper in America. On June 8, 2011, Bankrate ran a story with the headline,
“Fannie To Inspect Delinquent Homes”
The story details new Fannie policies that will have agents of the banks “inspecting” homes when the loan is a mere 45 days later. Now I know some folks might object when I say, “Lender Breakins Now Official Government Policy”, but the fact of the matter is Fannie and Freddie, as GSE’s are effectively agents of the government….and increasingly all of the servicers might as well be agents of the federal government.
There are so many things that are disturbing about this new policy and not enough people are talking about it. Now arguably a simple drive by inspection may not be all that intrusive, but here’s where things get real frightening….
If the servicer determines that the property is abandoned “the servicer must perform an interior inspection upon confirmation of abandonment.”
The mortgagee, upon learning that a property subject to a mortgage insured under this part is vacant or abandoned, shall be responsible for the inspection of such property at least monthly, if the loan thereon is in default. When a mortgage is in default and a payment thereon is not received within 45 days of the due date, and efforts to reach the mortgagor by telephone within that period have been unsuccessful, the mortgagee shall be responsible for a visual inspection of the security property to determine whether the property is vacant. The mortgagee shall take reasonable action to protect and preserve such security property when it is determined or should have been determined to be vacant or abandoned until its conveyance to the Secretary, if such action does not constitute an illegal trespass. Reasonable action includes the commencement of foreclosure within the time required by 203.355(b) of this part.
Keep in mind these agents are unregulated, unsupervised and unchecked. They are out there making determinations about whether your home is vacant or abandoned. They are making decisions to violate the private property rights of Americans. Privacy rights are being violated and most disturbing in far too many cases, real substantive crimes are occurring when the jack booted thugs steal property from homeowners….remember that word….HOMEOWNER.
Until a judge signs an order the homeowner owns the home and no one has any legal right to trash any American’s Constitutional rights….at least in the country formally known as AMERICA.
