A
December 26 CNN Money report says hundreds of homeowners and condo associations
are foreclosing on banks that have failed to pay dues and other expenses on the
properties they've repossessed.
Ben
Solomon, a Miami-based attorney, according to the report, has so far
filed more than 1,100 liens against banks on behalf of homeowners associations
(HOAs), has pursued 131 foreclosures, and in more than 90% of the cases, has
the banks agree to a settlement by paying the bills. Only in very rare cases do
HOAs end up pushing the foreclosure all the way through to the auction sale of the
properties. This has happened only once for Solomon. In early November, Keys
Gate Community Association in Homestead, Fla., brought a foreclosure on a
property owned by mortgage servicer, NovaStar, which owed $22,890 in back dues
and fees. By mid-November, the association foreclosed on NovaStar and the home
was sold at auction to a third party for $62,000, fully paying off the debts to
the association.
