Attorney General Pushes Legislation To Protect Homeowners
NATOMAS (CBS13) - California's attorney general announced a new plan Wednesday designed to protect struggling homeowners and come down hard on banks, but of course the proposed legistlation is already too late for thousands of Sacramento area residents who've lost their homes.
Two years ago, Elizabeth Miller's bank came knocking on her door with a foreclosure notice.
"Your heart stops beating, your throat swells shut, your stomach goes down to your toes," she told CBS13's Maria Medina.
But Elizabeth says she'd paid her loan modification on time. "And I said 'But I've got my receipts.'"
She was a victim of dual tracking, when a bank pursues foreclosure even though it has given a homeowner a loan modification.
It's been a common bank tactic that the attorney general says is unfair and wants stopped.
"The pipeline currently for foreclosure … is we have about 500,000 homes (in California) currently in that process," Harris said in a press conference on Wednesday.
Many losing their homes in California live right here in the valley. Between 2008 and 2010, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin topped the list of the counties with the highest foreclosure rates. Sacramento made the middle of the list at 7.4 percent - or one every 13 households.
Included in the "Homeowners Bill of Rights" backed by the AG:
- Homeowners would be given one bank person to talk to
- Banks wouldn't be able to dual-track
- There'd be a $10,000 fine for robo-signing
- A different fine for owners of blighted homes
- Renters would get more time to move out of foreclosed homes.
Elizabeth is one of the lucky ones. She hired an attorney and won in court.
While she got to keep her home, she knows many are losing the same battle.
Elizabeth says anyone saying they'd be opposed to the homeowner protection legislation hasn't gone through the process.
"Go through foreclosure or find someone you trust or you know that's been through it and they can tell you the horror stories," she said.
