Foreclosed in 9/06 and we are still listed as owners

[paula61]

Hi All:
One more question. Lately it seems like we have a lot of them. We lived in New York State but moved to Arizona in 2004. We filed Chapter 13 in August 2005. We did not want the house in NYS and our attorney suggested we surrender the house. On our credit report it says that foreclosure occurred in September 2006 and the mortgage company wrote off the balance owed. However, on the tax roles for the county where we lived, we are still listed as the owners of the property and taxes are now behind for 2006 and 2007. Shouldn't the ownership of the house have been transferred to the mortgage company since they foreclosed on the house?
Thanks,
Paula61

[Minnymouth]

I'm thinking that since the mortgage company now owns the property back they are now responsible for the taxes. The home will remain in your name until the mortgage company sells it, then the property taxes should be paid by the mortgage company as part of the sale......

Others may know more about this.....

I know when mine was seized by the Trustee/Mortgage they were responsible from then on for insurance, taxes, etc.....
It all came out of the proceeds of the sale of the house/land.

[SinkingFast]

New York is a Judicial Foreclosure State. "Right to Sale" clauses do exist, but almost every Foreclosure in NY goes thru the Courts. Because of that, the process takes, on average, about 18 months or so to complete.

When you filed BK, you came under the protection of the Automatic Stay. In order for the Lender to Foreclose, the Lender would have to file a Motion to Lift Stay with the BK Court.

The Lender may not have moved immediately to Foreclose. Could be, Foreclosure process began in September 2006 and the property hasn't actually been sold at Auction yet.

If you don't have a PACER acct, you might wanna register and check the Status there of your case. See if and when the Lender filed a Motion to Lift Stay. That might give you some answers.

Here's a link to a thread with info about PACER:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=1011

[paula61]

Foreclosed in 9/06 and we are still listed as owners

The mortgage company requested a Lift of the Stay in December 2005 which was granted by the Bankruptcy Court since we agreed to surrender the property.

[demismom]

That is odd, when our house foreclosed and sold at Tax sale on September 20th, 2007, our Mortgage Company filed a Quit Claim Deed (I believe) 8 days later, the house is no longer in our name as far as the county is concerned.

[SinkingFast]

It can take 12-18 months to move thru the Court system before the Auction can be set. Then, there's 4 weeks of advertising and then the Sale.

There is no "Right of Redemption" in NY, so once the Auction is held, the Deed/Title should change hands fairly quickly.

Only thing I can suggest is to call the Court House. Tell them you're looking for info on the status of your Foreclosure. They should direct you to the correct office to call or give you the name of the person you need to speak with.