Saving your home in Georgia is harder than anywhere else in the nation. Losing the house you’ve owned for 30 years can happen in the blink of an eye.
Currently, Georgia only requires banks to notify individuals 30 days before foreclosure.
Worse, current law does not require that the homeowner actually receive the notice, simply that the bank sends it.
And to add insult to injury, the bank can start the process of taking your house if you are only one day late on your mortgage payment.
If you make your payment after the bank has started the process, the bank alone decides whether to stop the process or proceed with the foreclosure.
Imagine this common situation: You are one month behind on your mortgage payment. The bank gives you 30 days’ notice before they foreclose on your house. You are out of town and do not receive the notice until 20 days later.
Now you are left with 10 days to come up with the extra mortgage payment. You are unable to come up with the money in that short period of time, so the bank forecloses your house. You owe $200,000 on your mortgage at the time of foreclosure.
The bank sells your home for $180,000. The current law allows the bank to come after you for the $20,000 difference. If the bank sells your home for $220,000, they pocket the extra $20,000.
That’s not right.
Now imagine you are a soldier serving overseas. How are you supposed to find out about the foreclosure and take care of the matter in 30 days from tens of thousands of miles away from home?
From Columbus-Muscogee to Liberty County, we have thousands of Georgians who are called into service and have no choice about the length of their deployment.
Georgia ranks dead last for foreclosure modifications. In other words, if you cure your debt, it is still up to the bank to decide whether to stop the foreclosure process.
Georgians deserve better. We need consumer protection and stronger foreclosure laws. We’ve needed this for the last two years in the worst economic decline in recent memory. That’s why I introduced House Bill 972.
HB 972 requires banks give individuals facing foreclosure 90 days’ notice. Individuals will have those 90 days to cure their debt and save their homes.
The bill won’t cost banks anything. It simply gives homeowners more time to cure their debt and keep the houses they’ve invested a lifetime to build.
In these tough economic times, we owe Georgians more than property tax relief. We owe them the right to keep their property.
State Rep. Billy Mitchell (D-Stone Mountain) represents District 88.
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