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Banks Could Pay for Foreclosure Blight in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles City Council passed one of the country's toughest ordinances on Thursday which is designed to penalize banks that foreclose on homes and then allow properties to become blights on local neighborhoods. Under the new ordinance, if a foreclosed home falls into disrepair, a bank can be fined up to $100,000. 
 

According to reports from KABC-TV 7, Los Angeles County has approximately 100,000 homes in some state of foreclosure.  Once banks seize homes, though, they often fall into disrepair and can become part of the "broken windows" theory of crime, attracting vandalism, challenging public safety, and dragging down the value of other homes in the neighborhood.


L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti was a sponsor of the ordinance that is aimed at keeping banks from neglecting foreclosed homes.  The ordinance creates a central registry of foreclosed homes and require banks to give the city the name of a local contact person. Failure to comply with maintenance regulations could result in fines of $1,000 a day, up to $100,000.

In addition to establishing a registry of foreclosed homes, the ordinance would also force banks to provide a list of homes in pre-foreclosure status. "The best thing that would happen is that the banks would really work to renegotiate these loans and mortgages with the homeowners. That's what we really need. That would be the best corporate citizenship that they could provide during this tough economic time," said L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

Encouraging banks to try and renegotiate mortgages and to communicate with homeowners is welcome news in light of the substantial increase of wrongful foreclosure lockouts and trashouts happening across the country.

Victims of wrongful foreclosure lockouts and seizures have rights. Phillips & Garcia, P.C., a leading law firm in wrongful foreclosure and seizure cases, is now taking cases in any state where there has been a wrongful foreclosure, lockout or trash-out of a borrower's home. Although we are licensed in Massachusetts, we can associate with qualified attorneys in your state. Contact us for a free consultation about your wrongful foreclosure lockout or trashout

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