$350K Home Bulldozed to Avoid Foreclosure

An Ohio man says he bulldozed his $350,000 home to keep a bank from foreclosing on it.

Terry Hoskins says he has struggled with the RiverHills Bank over his home in Moscow for years and had problems with the Internal Revenue Service. He says the IRS placed liens on his carpet store and commercial property and the bank claimed his house as collateral.

Hoskins says he owes $160,000 on the house. He says he spent a lot of money on attorneys and finally had enough. About two weeks ago he bulldozed the home 25 miles southeast of Cincinnati.

Messages were left for the bank and its attorney.

IRS spokeswoman Jodie Reynolds said individual taxpayer information is private and federal law prevents her from commenting.

[Shasiti]

We need about 30,000 more americans to do the same thing until the banks, fannie mae, freddie mac and the government stand up and notice that were not gonna take it anymore!!

[peterpan200]

I feel his pain.
We purchased home and did our due diligence with inspecting our home and went the extra mile to hire a specific stucco inspector to look at our home. Three years later... water infiltrating our traditional stucco home. Homeowners insurance claims that it is a builder issue. Builder bankrupt and untouchable however has a stucco remediation business in the area. Attorney(s) tells us that the homeowner rarely wins and do you really want to throw good money at bad? So everyone in the "stucco failure capital of the US" is just paying the 100 -200K+ out of their own pockets? These homes have depreciated that much in the past 2 1/2 years. So putting in 100-200K into an asset that has depreciated 100-200K... hmmm. Anyone would simply walk away if it were not their home. My builder and all of his sub -contractors did just that and claimed bankruptcy. What is going to happen when these houses need to be sold? Will my fellow homeowners be working until they die? No, they may simply either a)have a short sale or b) walk away. It is coming... no doubt in my mind. We have excellent credit,no debt except for the house, paid 11 years of mortage, saved money even when our income dropped considerably(25%) in 2008/2009. We tightened our purse strings and still were able to save. We have done all the morally correct things to live the American Dream and everyone - and I mean everyone is turning their backs on us. PA has written their laws so tight that builders can put up houses with no responsiblities to right their wrongs. Insurance companies turn their backs on homeowners. So do I think he was wrong... yes, but I am sure the anger that he had pent up was released with every piece of wood that fell. Godspeed-

[Ostrich123]

To Terry Hoskins -- Thanks for expressing how the rest of us feel who are being BULLDOZED by big Banking & Big Government.

d/t surgery & time lost from work, got behind 1 1/2 months on mortgage & after 2 years & lawyer fees etc. trying to work things out, we loose everything & have to start over in our old age. We know how you feel.

[formrusmcsgt]

His deficiency just went up by what the home could have sold for.

Total moron.

[joymotte]

Bet he will still owe the money he owes the bank. If everyone did this, the banks would continuallsly loose money and everyone would get a free ride.

[rykatspop]

By the way, this proves the case that if you are too big to fail, govt will bail you out, but will do nothing if you are among the millions of what corporate America considers crumbs, **** ants. Yep, if you are rich and powerful, Congress and the White House will open its doors to you. Powers to be will hear you. Remember Hank Paulson, Bernanke, bankers, telling Congress approve TARP or else? All kinds of help and action was taken for them and auto industry, but not the everyday Americans. No, we're just hapless whiners and suckers. There will be no relief for any of us. We don't deserve a break--just higher taxes and corporate greed.

[rykatspop]

Good for him. If there is some civil trial coming on this, then I pray a jury has enough suspicion and sense to find fault with the IRS and bank! Yes, they will try very hard to conceal their role of deception in a court, but hopefully decent peers will forgive and acquit him.

This is what America and Washington DC gets for allowing Wall Street to run amok on Americans and Main Street. For the grace of God, my life and finances are stable for now, but I have deep empathy for my Americans who are continually screwed by our govt (state and fed) and big business.

Thank God for the Internet. It does get the word out what is really going on. We know the media won't give us justice either; all they care about is crap news and shocking stories. The daily ruining of good families just isn't sexy enough. The Internet gets the word out.

As for banks, they WILL NEVER cooperate. A foreclosed house is just too cheap for them to recycle in: selling, mortgage fees, appraisals, title, inspections, etc. There are too many "connected" players and operators that make too easy a killing on something that essentially sits there waiting to be taken advantage of when the rightful homeowner is shoved out.

He's not a sicko, he's a victim--driven to extreme desperation. Let Wall Street burn to the ground. In this scenario I support the Tea Party movement. They're on to something on a certain level.

[mjlewis6]

MY READ IS THE BANK WOULD NOT FORGIVE LATE PAYMENTS OR PAST DUE INTEREST PAYMENTS AND WOULD NOT SETTLE FOR BALANCE ON PRINCIPAL (160K) PLUS 10K.

IF BANKS HELD MORE EMPTY LOTS AS A RESULT OF FAILURE TO NEGOTIATE ON MORTGAGE DEFAULTS, THERE WOULD BE FEWER GOLDEN PARACHUTES AND BONUSES FOR GREED DRIVEN EXECUTIVES TO WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY.

[KeithDrippingSprings]

Good for him, I don't know if I could do the same thing but I can understand his actions. If you work hard and do the right thing then life is supposed to work out reasonably. I never expected anything for free and worked 40 years now to be destitute. I didn't cause this recession but I am paying the price. The government gave all our money to the people that did cause the problem and now say they can't regulate them. The same amount of money given to the people would have saved a few houses and it seems that unless the Bankers are lying (imagine that) they would not have needed a bail out. But the truth is that foreclosures didn't cause the problem and our Representatives sold us out again.

So, I don't think I will bulldoze my house because luckily for me it is paid for but if the economy doesn't pick up I could loose it for failure to pay my taxes. Which isn't unreasonable since the taxes are about 10,000 per year and the experts are predicting three to four years of low to no employment. If that happens I am sure no one will ever enjoy living in my home. When we pull out of the driveway there won't be anything left but the lot

[rocketjl]

For me, I am a little concerned about all the reasons behind this or what drove this family to this point. There are millions of Americans losing their homes and millions more will lose their homes in the future, why. I hope you people are not saying that everything that the government and banks are doing to us is great and OK. Many foreclosed homes have been damaged by the previous owners, this is not new. Banks tend to not want to assist people that having been paying for years. The almighty buck, now.