Foreclosures Move In Hand In Hand With Vandals And Squatters

Posted on June 2, 2008
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes | Leave a Comment

Vandals and squatters are having a ball – they are moving in hand in hand with advancing repossessions. The story in Brockton, Massachusetts is being repeated across the county. The culprits enter by breaking in windows to sleep the nights out in an abandoned four family foreclosed unit on Main Street. This is a new generation of squatters emboldened by the foreclosure crisis with which the authorities are failing to cope with – socially, economically as well as law enforcing bodies.

Real estate agent Marc Charney comments that these repo houses left to rot, are like free camping grounds to the squatters. He enters houses and flashes light to find mattresses strewn around with signs of occupancy. Squatting is increasing, keeping in step with surging tide of foreclosures right across the length and breadth of USA. The judicial process of foreclosure takes a long time – especially now with increasing numbers pressurizing the courts. This leads to houses lying vacant for long periods of time. The situation is so grim with mounting public pressure that the lenders have to appoint agencies to maintain the units. This is done simultaneously with efforts to quickly sell of the houses at discount prices.

The squatting phenomenon is taking on many forms that are taking on the colour of scams. Thieves are renting out houses that they do not own. Professional squatters shift from one vacant house to another pretending to be tenants who ask banks to pay cash for keys. They are experts and know exactly what to say when, says detective Erin Camphouse of Los Angeles police department (Real Estate Fraud Unit). The banks are willing because it is cheaper than going to court to get the house free. The result is that squatters are turning these abandoned units in to money spinning banks of their own.

A Los Angeles man leased out three such vacant houses to renters who did not know his background. It was all done in order through classified lists on the net. The renters pay their advance rents and deposits and move in for many months. In one instance there was an understanding that repairs would be done but the crooks backed out. His tenants did the necessary cosmetic repairing and adjusted it with the rent. After having replaced the tiles and done such sundry works they suddenly saw the Sheriff putting up a foreclosure notice.

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