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A Goleta family has been evicted from their home of ten year...

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 325314P	2012-09-28 11:21 AM
Hopefully, what will happen to them is what happened to another illegally foreclosed home - the judge was so incensed that the home was given back to the evicted owner, free.
COMMENT 325317	2012-09-28 11:24 AM
Please explain to me an illegal foreclosure. Did they pay their mortgage and still get evicted? Then I would totally agree that it's illegal.
COMMENT 325318	2012-09-28 11:26 AM
Seems like paying your bills would have helped avoid this.
COMMENT 325322	2012-09-28 11:35 AM
Illegal means that the bank was negotiating with them for loan modification and continued the foreclosure process behind their backs. Illegal means the bank sold the loan and so was not the owner of their loan and did not have legal standing to initiate the foreclosure process. Illegal means the papers were robo-signed and so the foreclosure was illegal. All things the banks have been penalized for in recent years. I hope they are successful in their fight.
COMMENT 325324	2012-09-28 11:36 AM
Did "every legal possibility to save it" include making your mortgage payments?
COMMENT 325326	2012-09-28 11:42 AM
@318 & @324 if you have no idea about the pervasive use of illegal foreclosure see Calculated Risk blog for years and years of commentary, documentation, more commentary, more documentation of these practices in California and numerous other states. Real estate attorneys and bankers post on that site.
COMMENT 325328	2012-09-28 11:45 AM
I have been through this. Showed up to get some of my stuff and there were locks on my doors. I cut them off and called the cops. Then they tried it again. Cop finally showed up, The cop dialed the security companies number and they put me on the phone with some security company in Florida that had been contracted. They LIED to the cop and said I signed some papers saying I vacated. They were never ever able to produce these papers. What a joke. Feeling a little jaded these days. I had a short sale complete, but they thought that wouldn't be acceptable and accused me of taking a kick back! WTH!!! After all said and done, it sat there vacant for another 6 months and they sold it for $50K less. Brilliant!
COMMENT 325330	2012-09-28 11:47 AM
Living within one's means remains good advice. After 10 years, this home should have been almost halfway paid off. Speculation here, but did they gamble with their own home by refinancing it? And then spending the equity money on depreciating assets. If so, then they themselves set this up for and therefore in fact "lost" nothing. Except betting against their own house. Did they expect to refinance their mortgage later with expected appreciating home values, which in this economy never came? Again, betting against their own house. Time perhaps to get a membership card for the 47% Victim Club that now comes with a free cell phone. Important facts are missing. Judge not.
COMMENT 325331	2012-09-28 11:48 AM
People knowingly overspent on their homes, their lives, their cars and vacations... all on the hope that the home value would rise eternally. Those who did the right thing and either saved their money or lived within their means were punished while those who made poor decisions and used their home as a ATM get preferred treatment. I have zero sympathy for anyone who purchased a home they could not afford and complete and utter disdain towards those who spent every last penny of their equity and refinanced with interest only loans. I have no idea if that is this family but there is no right to home ownership and certainly no right to remain in a home and not pay the mortgage or the taxes.
COMMENT 325334	2012-09-28 11:51 AM
I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you want to get rich without having to work for it, don't rob banks. Become a banker.
COMMENT 325339P	2012-09-28 11:57 AM
It is very simple. You sign a contract to purchase the home and make payments. You stop making the agreed upon payments and you get evicted. This is not rocket science.
COMMENT 325317	2012-09-28 12:01 PM
@322- My initial question was sarcasm. Sorry, if you didn't pay your mortgage then the house is no longer yours.
COMMENT 325343	2012-09-28 12:04 PM
Sad reality but i doubt there was any illegal activity here. The former owners should have kept current on the loan and if they coould not, they should have done a short sale or let the bank have it back, or sold it, or rented it out, but most important, the family shoudl have changed to live within their means. Why is that a bad thing? I'm sorry for the family that lost the home, however there were many solutions here and they were not taken.
COMMENT 325345	2012-09-28 12:06 PM
I don't get how this is news. No pay bills, no play house!
COMMENT 325314P	2012-09-28 12:13 PM
There is a lot of speculation about what these people have been through --- and is just that --- speculation. Until the facts are known, do not judge. There is more illegal activity by banks than homeowners. And banks have even been known to lie to homeowners, and in court, upsetting judges.
COMMENT 325354	2012-09-28 12:18 PM
Love all the judgmental people here. Really great. I hope some of you end up wronged in your life so you can experience what it's like to have people tell you that you weren't wronged and that it was, in fact, your fault.
COMMENT 325356	2012-09-28 12:22 PM
What the banks are doing in some cases is wrong and illegal, at the same time people buying houses they knew they couldn't afford is bad as well. Everyone else is paying for the banks actions and homeowners who bought and couldn't pay.
COMMENT 325328	2012-09-28 12:27 PM
Anyone ever see that Disney movie where all the lemmings run off the cliff at the same time? Well I would draw that analogy to the whole real-estate mortgage meltdown thing. Everyone got these great loans all thought we were all living the high life with owning a home, here or wherever. And others thought maybe if they didn't jump in, they might be left behind. Sad truth is that it would almost seem to be a setup. The powers that be had to know at some point there was a bottom and it would fall out. Sooner or later, that bank is gonna come and get what is theirs if you don't pay your mortgage. I have RARELY heard of a bank writing down the value of a house. So you either end up under water for 10 years, or you walk away after 18 months of living there for free. Pretty much how it works. While this may be a sad story, It would seem the story has been watched and told an awful lot of times to be considered "breaking news!"
COMMENT 325365	2012-09-28 12:28 PM
This is a good example of a post/story we all should not be commenting directly about. Foreclosures yes, shady to criminal bank practices, yes, and irresponsible credit and spending practices by mortgage holders, yes. But we don't know these folks, and we can't rely on a 2 minute KEYT story to give us the whole story, so it's not fair to impugn their character with missing information. How would it feel if anonymous strangers judged us publicly at the toughest time our lives?
COMMENT 325370	2012-09-28 12:30 PM
All legal means? Did that include, you know, actually paying the mortgage? Because I think that would probably stopped the foreclosure process. So I assume they did NOT try all legal means.
COMMENT 325373	2012-09-28 12:38 PM
I just bought a house. I assume that if I don't make the agreed upon monthly payment, that the Bank will want their investment back. This is the risk I am taking entering into a 30 year contract. Like another poster said, this ain't rocket science people!! Bank's are generally GOOD for our economy. How else would most of us afford to live in a home?? Also, a note about affordability. Just because I can currently afford my monthly payment, if I lose my job and can't find another, obviously the situation has changed and I can no longer "afford" it. So maybe we should say that if you have to get a mortgage at all, that you truly can't "afford" the house. If in fact this family was making their monthly payment as they agreed upon ten years ago and the Bank still decided to evict them, then yes, I agree, the Bank is in the wrong.
COMMENT 325376	2012-09-28 12:42 PM
I'm wondering why they were not packed and prepared to move before the sheriff got there. The eviction notice is posted well in advance. It is not a surprise or a secret. Banks do not make loan modifications easy because a large amount of them end up in default again anyway. They also do not want to lose money of course. This whole mess is big enough to spread the blame around to everyone involved. The banks for loose lending practices, consumers for borrowing beyond their means, and government for allowing regulations to get to a point where all of it could happen. Truth be told education is the only cure to keep this from happening in the future. The citizens of this country need some serious financial literacy education. Imagine if each person understood how the financial system worked. There could be no predatory lending because nobody would have to rely on someone else to explain the contracts they are signing. Never, ever enter into a contract for anything that you do not understand. If you do the fault really is your own when things do not work out.
COMMENT 325378	2012-09-28 12:45 PM
Reading this comments section is a microcosm of what is currently wrong with this country. The right-wing has its head buried deep in the sand, and many among you have absolutely no ability to imagine yourselves in someone else's shoes. You are like autistic robots. You have reams and reams of proof out there that banks have illegally foreclosed on people doing WHAT THE BANKS ASKED THEM TO DO while in the process of reworking their loans. (For the thinking impaired: reworking your loan is LEGAL and it is PRUDENT.) The banks are fraudulently, illegally shoving people out of their houses. They pay our public servants fees to help them out with the process. There is nothing legal about it. And you right-wingers want to call yourselves "Freedom Lovers." Wait till the Sheriff comes for your stuff, that you LEGALLY OWN. See how free you feel. And don't feel so smug. You're next.
COMMENT 325318	2012-09-28 12:49 PM
Funny to read the libs defending the former homeowner. If they paid their bills, they wouldn't be "victims". It's called personal responsibility. Now get yer stuff off the sidewalk.
COMMENT 325381	2012-09-28 12:51 PM
thinking the person who fails to make their mortgage payments is the victim is what is wrong with America today! This is just plain and simple irresponsibility. I know it's fun to buy a house, but if you cannot afford to do so then please don't. "No money down!" - are we all as naive as Pinnocchio thinking there is a Pleasure Island with no catch? What if you didn't make your car payments? Should you be able to keep driving your car anyway? What if you don't pay your cell phone bill? Should AT&T say, "oh it's ok - you can keep calling people for free". Nonsense.
COMMENT 325384	2012-09-28 12:54 PM
It is hard to believe that with 3 adults of working age and a mortgage from 2002 (home price at today's average) that they couldn't manage to earn enough to pay the mortgage. Just goes to show that not everyone can manage money.
COMMENT 325331	2012-09-28 12:56 PM
378 - people are upset that those who chose not to pay their mortgages are offered preferred treatment and often times FREE money and rent. Yes, its that simple. No one made anyone buy a house. No one forced anyone to sign a mortgage. No one but the homeowner has any responsibility for their actions and the reactions to their choice. If the family paid their mortgage then why were they foreclosed upon? If they didnt pay their mortgage then they are the only ones responsible. Its not a Blue vs Red issue, its a common sense and fairness issue. The sooner you realize that people made choices and the consequences of those choices are often dire, the sooner you'll understand why this isnt an issue that gains a lot of sympathy or support. I do not have sympathy for people who couldnt do basic math.
COMMENT 325328	2012-09-28 01:12 PM
@390, the problem is that the way these banks work, the right hand does not know what the left is doing. There are the "kick' em to the curb" people and the "lets save your house" peeps all residing in the same institution but often 1000's of miles apart. One pulls the trigger, and the other has no idea.
COMMENT 325399	2012-09-28 01:14 PM
No facts given, no way to comment directly. Generally I'd say this as a renter: I've always heard from the superior-than-thou owners for years 'if you can't afford it move to Bakersfield'. To those holier-than-thou owners, if you lose your home, take the 101 south to the 126 east, to the interstate 5, then north over the Grapevine to the 99, wa-la, you will have arrived. Until more facts are given, we don't know squat about this case other than someone lost their home. Happens all the time. Renters in a home such as this one would be given the boot without ceremony broken lease and all and not one word would have been said. Happens all the time.
COMMENT 325403	2012-09-28 01:19 PM
390, their loan had not yet been formally modified when they were foreclosed. There is no deal or obligation until it's been modified. Sucks for the family, but banks play hardball.
COMMENT 325412	2012-09-28 01:37 PM
In another state, this happened to my family and I. We lost our jobs. We tried and tried and tried to find whatever job we could find. ANYTHING. Even McDonalds. But, there are places in this country that aren't protected by the Santa Barbara bubble, and economy is just dead. However, we tried every which way to find jobs...and still lost our home. Saddest day of our life. When we received the notice of 40 days to leave, or try to salvage our home, we began packing. Just in case we couldn't find a way to save our home. 6 years into a home, it breaks your heart. If you truly try to fight for it. And see you will not win. So, I feel for this family. I don't know their complete back story, but, I feel for them. They were fighting for it. I hope they are able to find a new home to feel settled in...or that hopefully they can get this one back.
COMMENT 325414	2012-09-28 01:42 PM
The people who I know that were evicted stop paying their mortgage about 18 months ago and lived rent-free for nearly two years. Then they simply walked away with 2 years of saved payments for their trouble.
COMMENT 325421	2012-09-28 02:03 PM
390 said it best. But sadly even another 1,000 repetitions of that phrase won't get through some of the thick skulls here. In short, these people DID PAY THEIR BILLS. Their home was illegally (or at the very least unethically) foreclosed upon. This was not a case of not paying bills. I really hate how some people would rather use someone else's misfortune as a political soapbox than actually READ the linked story.
COMMENT 325373	2012-09-28 02:07 PM
People sure love to blame banks. Which I get. A lot of the executives are idiots. BUT, guess who made the deal with the so called devil? WE DID. Why would you expect them to modify your loan? Also, how many of you smuggies would be willing to modify a loan YOU made to someone? What if it meant YOU couldn't pay YOUR mortgage if you did modify it. Business is business. A contract is a contract. That sad, I feel for the family. I too may find myself in this situation if I lose my job. But, that's the risk I'm taking given that renting is the same outcome. Money down a pit.
COMMENT 325431	2012-09-28 02:18 PM
I have never got mad at anyone for lending me money. But I did say thanks.
DILLYDALLY	2012-09-28 02:26 PM
If you cant make your payments you are not a victim, nobody stated otherwise but nice try to obfuscate the issue. If you give out millions of loans that are going to be defaulted on, you also aren't a victim either. A lot of borrowers and a lot of banks got smacked down hard in 2008. The bail outs and stimulus programs saved the banks but those life rafts came with specific requirements that they work to allow people to keep their homes by modifying terms etc... Nobody is asking for a free house. The banks have ignored those laws and lied about it because there is 0, absolutely 0, oversite (because their lobbyists wrote the legislation). 4 years later, the banks have never done so well but they are not keeping to the terms of their stay of execution. We can argue if the original agreements with the banks were fair and just, or if the banks were in fact too big to fail. But the banks are breaking the laws on the books and lying about it and that does make many homeowners into victims.
COMMENT 325326	2012-09-28 02:45 PM
@378 & @390 - "Autistic robots" is too generous. What commenters here don't get is that the banks SOLD loans to third parties, then initiated loan modifications to the mortgages they NO LONGER OWNED, while SIMULTANEOUSLY moving forward on foreclosure. There are variations on this theme, but I believe this one is what applies in this case. Had the owners of this property known that the bank did NOT own their mortgage and was negotiating in BAD FAITH (e.g. illegally), they would have and/or could have acted differently, (e.g. gotten a third or fourth job) but moved forward believing a resolution was in process. Any lawyers out there, willing to comment?
COMMENT 325343	2012-09-28 03:04 PM
If the homeowners paid their obligation, end of story. sorry all you people out there lookign for the big conspiracy, the illegality the fraud, the blame game. Simple truth: pay your bills and control your life. not to hard to do.
COMMENT 325384	2012-09-28 03:06 PM
I did read the linked story. It says nothing about the owners having paid their bills. If they had, why would a bank foreclose? Those payments are profit. I call bologna.
COMMENT 325373	2012-09-28 03:11 PM
maybe if KEYT had gotten the ENTIRE story and the FACTS, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
COMMENT 325314P	2012-09-28 03:46 PM
325474 - this is a real story. A bank and a homeowner were in court. The homeowner provided to the judge a record that ALL PAYMENTS had been made. The judge was furious with the bank and asked why is the house being FORECLOSED. Summary ALL PAYMENTS HAD BEEN MADE BANK TRIED TO FORECLOSE JUDGE WAS AS MAD AS HELL
COMMENT 325519P	2012-09-28 03:53 PM
If you are paying your mortgage you cannot even start to get a "loan modification". I know several people who tried to refinance at the lower rate and where basically told - you can afford your payment, and your house is worth less than the amount of your mortgage, so unless you come up with 20% of the new mortgage as a "down payment" no go. Loan modifications are for those who bought in over their heads and now cannot make the payments. I am a liberal on most issues, but I don't think that means that I have to suspend the idea of personal responsibility for the decisions we make. It is making the people who did it right and bought what they could afford with a conventional and not a "lie to me" no documentation loan really angry. They feel that they are being shafted by the system, because they are. And -- no, I am not one of them, but I know many people who are.
COMMENT 325520	2012-09-28 03:54 PM
While I feel bad for anyone kicked out of the house they called "home" for any appreciable time I feel this story is as lacking as using a sieve to hold water. It was clearly written to incite sensationalism and controversy. Half the story is about the teen aged daughter complaining about not being take their food with them.... clearly her priority. Were they the mortgage holders? Were they renters and in spite of paying rent did their landlord fail to pay the mortgage? Such simple questions a high school reporter would think to ask to fill out the story but not so CJ Ward, senior reporter for KEYT. KEYT like the NP is resorting to a poor quality product and getting away with it.
COMMENT 325519P	2012-09-28 04:02 PM
When loans are sold to third parties - and they frequently are - you are notified by the original lender and told who now owns the loan. The new owner of the load lets you know who they are and who is "servicing" the loan. All this is done by mail. It is not a great big secret. Nor is figuring out who to talk to rocket science. When you call a lending organization about your loan the first thing they ask for is the loan number. If they do not hold the loan they have no information for you other than the fact that they do not hold that loan. Your loan payment booklet tells you where the payment is sent. That is who you talk to.
COMMENT 325520	2012-09-28 05:27 PM
5565... beware of pointing a finger as it invariably comes back to point back atcha.
COMMENT 325608P	2012-09-28 07:22 PM
While adjustable mortgages and dishonest lenders have undoubtedly caused many homeowners to experience financial hardships and even lose their homes, I can't help but think that if this family had saved some of the $300K+ they pulled out of their home's equity when they refinanced it, they would be able to find a good place to live now. And BTW, that number is a fact and public record.
COMMENT 325634	2012-09-28 08:07 PM
378- There is not one person in this world that would call me right wing- and my problem with this story is that the home "owner" feels entitled to a home that a bank owns, that she knew the payment she was required to make, and she didnt do it. I wonder how much of the "stuff" the family also bought on credit, so it isnt really theirs.....the family did not pay their bills by choice, followed terrible advice, and chose to ignore 2 years worth of warnings to move etc. This family chose to buy a home they could not possibly afford....and they knew it deep down. That is why I did not buy a home....
DILLYDALLY	2012-09-29 04:30 AM
Tracy, you are forgetting that our tax dollars already "bought" the home for the bank. Remember when we gave the lenders TRILLIONS of dollars to buffer against the mountain of foreclosures that would have ruined many of the lenders large and small? So think about it like this, the bank owns the house AND the house is paid off (with tax money), weird right. That is why the bail out came with requirements that banks work with homeowners in specific ways. I didnt agree with the bail outs in the first place but this is the beast Bush and Obama saddled us with. Banks are trying deviously to rewrite the rules mid game. It is amazing how easy it is to dish out tough love to our fellow working class while absolving the greedy lenders of any wrong doing and happily paying for their mistake.
COMMENT 325712	2012-09-29 06:31 AM
Didn't it say something about a bank officer telling them " you need to stop making payments on your loan in order to qualify for loan modification"? If that is true, who said that?, and when? If that is not in writing, and just hearsay from the former owners of the mortgage, then it is apparent that these people got bad advice from someone, acted on that bad advice, and have lost their home. I have heard of this happening to people I know. One friend of mine told me "I was told to stop making payments on my mortgage to get considered for loan modification, so I did...." That friend lost his house this summer. People, do NOT stop making payments as agreed upon in that paper you signed!!! Don't do it. It's bad advice. Its stupid advice. its similar to those people who tell you that you dont really have to pay income tax...You will lose your ....fill in the blank.
COMMENT 325330	2012-09-29 08:33 AM
California law bends over backwards to protect homeowners. Something does not smell right about this story.
COMMENT 325318	2012-09-29 09:14 AM
Time to scoop yer stuff up off the lawn, load it in a uhaul and head back to bakersfield.
COMMENT 325331	2012-09-29 09:45 AM
325608P - You nailed it. 300k in equity that they refinanced to get at... 100% their fault. End of story.
COMMENT 325785P	2012-09-29 09:51 AM
They should go to change.org and start a petition against the bank. These petitions work.
COMMENT 325314P	2012-09-29 10:15 AM
325747 - Banks' Disorganization Pushed 800,000 Homeowners Into Unnecessary Foreclosure: ProPublica http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/banks-unnecessary-foreclosure_n_1874737.html
COMMENT 325330	2012-09-29 10:30 AM
Did the Read's put the three months of non-payments into an escrow account as an act of good faith, of did they think they could scam the system not paying their mortgage and living rent-free to qualify as a default case?
COMMENT 325988	2012-09-29 04:03 PM
According to Read, Officials of the bank holding the mortgage told her that the ONLY way she could possibly qualify for a loan modification, was to not make the payments for three months. What part of that do the snipers and snarks on edhat NOT get? This type of advice from lenders, followed by surreptitious foreclosure proceedings has been epidemic across America, and has been reported now thousands of times in the media. Institutions such as Bank of America, Countrywide Funding, and Chase Bank, have all had their wrists slapped by judges and juries, for abusive, anti-homeowner practices. This is NOTHING new! We already have protective laws on the books. The main problem is having those laws defended and enforced by the government officials charged with that job. Until we stand up and demand that the banks be forced to live by the same rules that apply to eveyone else, these unethical, illegal abuses will continue.
COMMENT 326530P	2012-10-01 10:31 AM
I was scared off from refi-ing to a lower int. rate on my mortgage (Countyrwide/Bof A) because I didn't want to get into their system and get put into the wrong "bin" --as has happened with so many others, starting the re-fi process only to be filed by the lender as going into foreclosure (never having missed or been late with a payment) and then not having anyone respond to their pleas for help. SUCKS that the banks get away with so many abuses.

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