One of the shining blog stars of Match Doctor recently wrote a blog about judges throwing out foreclosures because the mortgage trusts did not have proper legal paperwork together. I don't foresee the rulings having much impact out in the American Heartland.
My observation is that judges and law enforcement are more likely to take the little guy's interest at heart in larger, more progressive cities that in smaller towns and rural areas. What is more typical in the United States is that both the judiciary and law enforcement are controlled by the good-old-boy system. As long as someone is in good standing with the good-old-boys, they can get away with about anything, except the most heinous of crimes.
About ten years ago I was leasing a house. I had a one year lease agreement. I paid my rent promptly, maintained the house and grounds . . . even used my farming skills to get grass growing where the owners had been unable to grow it.
The owners of the house lived in a new house about a mile from their old one - which was being rented to me. They even invited me over to dinner to thank me for the voluntary upkeep of the property . . . and told me at the time, that I could stay there as long as I liked. If I wanted to buy it, they would help arrange an attractive mortgage, which would be lower payments than rent.
Dearest Daddy, who lived about 85 miles south of there, became concerned because I was making friends, had become active in a local church, and was dating a woman who could likely become my wife. He pulled some connections with organized crime or ultra-right-wingers ... Who knows? About two weeks after having dinner with my landlords, my mother called me up early one Sunday morning to tell me that she had found the perfect house for me to buy. It was in a seedy, blue collar neighborhood near Lake Allatoona. What I knew that Dearest Daddy didn't tell her was that it was in the center of drug running in NW Metro Atlanta. It was the worst possble place I could live. Two days later, I received a certified mail, that stated I was being evicted and had to vacate the house in three weeks.
I did get out of the house in three weeks, but the landlord didn't pay me my $900 deposit. I took him to court . . . one of Georgia's notorious magistrate (small claims) courts. Even though Georgia's laws are pro-landlord and pro-creditor, the laws were completely in my favor in this case. If a landlord evicts a tenant, who has been paying his rent on time, the tenant must have 30 days plus the time remaining till the next rent is due to vacate. All of the rent deposit must be paid back immediately upon the tenant's departure, unless the original eviction notice contains legal documentation of damage to the property by the tenant. All my eviction notice said was that I had to get out in three weeks - no cause given,
Well, my first two pieces of evidence were the eviction notice and a photocopy of the state's laws as published by the Georgia Secretary of State's Office.
The wife of the landlord showed up in court with her hair dyed gray, claimed to be 74 and introduced her teenage son as her grandson. She then dropped a large garbage bag full of garbage in front of the judge and claimed that it was one of 22 bags of debris they had picked up. She showed him a photo of a living room filled with beer bottles. paper plates and women's underwear. Actually, I had left the place spotless - and don't even like beer.
I then pointed out to the judge that the defendent had made a false statement by giving her age as 74 when she was 43, and calling her son, her grandson. That's a felony! I then handed him dated photographs of the interior of the house on the day I moved.
The "judge" smiled and then said, "In my opionion the state's laws don't apply in this case. I find for the defendant." That was it.
When 99% of the people fighting foreclosure try to seek legal relief, that is exactly the treatment they will get. A good-old-boy smile.
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