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After more than two years of rising foreclosure rates across the commonwealth, lawmakers are considering a handful of bills aimed at mitigating the damage to homeowners and their communities.
Senate Majority Leader Harriette L. Chandler (D-Worcester) in 2015 cosponsored S482, “A Bill to Facilitate Alternative to Foreclosure.” The bill essentially requires foreclosing entities to engage in mediation before foreclosing, if the borrower requests it within 30 days of notification.
Chandler also sponsored “An Act Clarifying Municipal Authority Regarding Cash Sureties.” If passed, this bill would make explicit that municipalities “have authority to enact laws for the purpose of minimizing foreclosures, ensuring the safety and security of residents, and ensuring the upkeep of vacant properties and those in foreclosure.”
Worcester County has been particularly hard-hit by foreclosures in recent months, as the area’s median home sale prices have not recovered as quickly from the recession as other areas of the state.
Sen. Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover), represents Lawrence, another city with increased rates of foreclosures this year. She filed S1090, which seeks to require vacant properties to be registered with the city or town it is in and be subject to monthly health and safety inspections. It would also require lenders to maintain liability insurance on the property.
There’s also a bill (H3770) that would mean people who lost their home to foreclosure would not have to pay state income tax on the amount of debt discharged. Another (S1463) would regulate third-party investors who buy municipal real estate tax debt and disallow them from foreclose on homeowners for non-payment.
Chandler was unavailable for comment; L’Italien did not return calls seeking comment on her bill.
Crash, Then Contamination
Victor Peristere is fighting the foreclosure of his son’s home in Warren, Massachusetts. Peristere said his son, Daniel, never received a notice of foreclosure and didn’t know anything about it until he saw people gathering in his front yard for the auction in September 2015.
Peristere said his son was about six or seven thousand dollars behind on his payments at the time, after losing his job and having medical problems the year prior. Peristere said he offered the auctioneer $12,000 on the spot to catch his son up, but the auctioneer said it was too late.
“These banks are predators,” Peristere said. “They took the money and ran. They made loans to all these people who couldn’t afford it just to make a buck. They’re all a bunch of bullies.”
Peristere is working with Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team to challenge the foreclosure in court. He said the 1,200-square-foot ranch his son bought for $155,000 in 2008 was recently appraised for $85,000. The younger Peristere still lives in the home the bank foreclosed on, and then purchased from itself at auction.
“I’m going to offer them a short sale,” Peristere said. “In the meantime, we found out there is a junkyard across the street that contaminated all the wells on that street. The Realtor told me it’s unsellable.”
Lori Cairns, of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team, said that group knocked on the doors of 47 homes worth a total of $10 million facing foreclosure in Worcester County in April. The group reaches out to owners and tells them about their rights to challenge foreclosure.
“As long as they’ll fight, we’ll fight with them,” Cairns said. “People open the door and are very leery; they’re frightened to death and want to be left alone. After we tell them about their rights they change from hopeless anger to hope.”
Cairns refutes the oft-heard explanation that the rise of foreclosures is attributable to lenders processing a backlog of foreclosures from shortly after the real estate market crashed.
“The people we’ve been seeing lately have been in the fight for two to four years,” Cairns said. “That’s not a backlog from 2008.”
Lobbying on Beacon Hill
The Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending on June 8 organized a group of a half-dozen homeowners facing foreclosure for a visit to the State House to lobby in favor of these bills. In a telephone interview during that visit, MAAPL Coordinator Grace Ross said half of the senators she met were aware of the magnitude of the foreclosure problem; the other half were shocked.
“We’ll speak with at least 20 senators today,” Ross said. “It’s going very well.”
Ross said she spoke with Senate President Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) about the bills last weekend.
“He said he’d put them in his phone, but I don’t know what that means exactly,” she said.
The bills are generally very well supported by Worcester-area legislators, she said, and MAAPL remains committed to spreading the word to the rest of the Legislature. “We’re going to be here several times in the next few weeks and we’re going to keep on knocking on doors.”
