It’s Payback Time
by
Laura Gottesdiener
AlterNet
ItÂ’s payback
time – literally. In Florida, hundreds of homeowner and neighborhood
associations are foreclosing on banks that have failed to upkeep
their repossessed properties, according to – of all things –
a
CNN Money report.
Florida is
one of the states hardest hit by foreclosures, and there are nearly
a half-million foreclosed houses now standing vacant and often slowly
deteriorating. When a bank forecloses on a house, evicts the family
and then repossesses the property, it also assumes responsibility
for maintaining the home and yard and paying homeowner or condo
association fees. Yet, some of the nationÂ’s largest and richest
banks have been unable or unwilling to upkeep their properties – prompting
neighbors across Florida to declare enough is enough.
One Miami lawyer,
Ben Solomon, has filed more than 1,000 liens against banks for failing
to maintain their properties or pay their homeowner association
fees. And when the recalcitrant banks donÂ’t comply, Solomon
slaps them with a foreclosure notice – 131 thus far.
December
29, 2012
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© 2012 AlterNet