There is an interesting twist to the saga of record numbers of home foreclosures. In some states, like Colorado, for instance, if a home is foreclosed upon and sold and if there happens to be any money left after all the obligations on the foreclosed property have been paid, then those funds are the property of the original home owner who lost the home due to foreclosure.
Normally this type of situation does not happen. It is rare for any funds to be left over after a foreclosed home has been sold. Once in a while, however, this situation does arise, and the state of Colorado, for example, has a fund of over $600,000 in the state Treasurer's office that consists of money that is owed to former home owners who have lost their houses to the foreclosure process.
Unfortunately, most former home owners in this situation never learn that they are owed money by the state. A notice is sent to the person's last known address, but in most cases that is the home they lost and were evicted from. So they never see the notice sent by the state Treasurer's office. The latter is also required to put a notice in a local newspaper for a week's time. But the usually choose a small local paper with little circulation and low advertising rates, so it is unlikely the former home owner will see that either. So most of the time the person who is owed the money is never made aware of this fact.
The fate of a 63 year old man was cited as an example. He went through a series of bad-luck events that caused him to lose his home. He was injured and missed a lot of work time, and then his wife became very ill and he needed to nurse her essentially full-time. She eventually died. All this caused him to lose his employment, and eventually his home was foreclosed upon and was later sold to someone else. There was a surplus of about $50,000 due to him after the sale, but he never knew about it. He lived out of his car for over two years because he had no money, and he could have avoided a lot of pain if he knew the state owed him $50,000.
Of course the state Treasurer's office is in a bit of a bind. They don't have funding to do the kind of search required to locate people, although one wonders if they couldn't find a way to make more than just a minimum effort. The newspaper reporter found the person in question, and I doubt they spent months looking for him.
Certainly each state has its own laws with respect to this kind of eventuality, but if you find yourself in this situation, it is wise to know if you might be owed money. Anyone who has lost a home to foreclosure is most likely in need of additional funds, and there is no use letting it sit in some fund of the state government.
Normally this type of situation does not happen. It is rare for any funds to be left over after a foreclosed home has been sold. Once in a while, however, this situation does arise, and the state of Colorado, for example, has a fund of over $600,000 in the state Treasurer's office that consists of money that is owed to former home owners who have lost their houses to the foreclosure process.
Unfortunately, most former home owners in this situation never learn that they are owed money by the state. A notice is sent to the person's last known address, but in most cases that is the home they lost and were evicted from. So they never see the notice sent by the state Treasurer's office. The latter is also required to put a notice in a local newspaper for a week's time. But the usually choose a small local paper with little circulation and low advertising rates, so it is unlikely the former home owner will see that either. So most of the time the person who is owed the money is never made aware of this fact.
The fate of a 63 year old man was cited as an example. He went through a series of bad-luck events that caused him to lose his home. He was injured and missed a lot of work time, and then his wife became very ill and he needed to nurse her essentially full-time. She eventually died. All this caused him to lose his employment, and eventually his home was foreclosed upon and was later sold to someone else. There was a surplus of about $50,000 due to him after the sale, but he never knew about it. He lived out of his car for over two years because he had no money, and he could have avoided a lot of pain if he knew the state owed him $50,000.
Of course the state Treasurer's office is in a bit of a bind. They don't have funding to do the kind of search required to locate people, although one wonders if they couldn't find a way to make more than just a minimum effort. The newspaper reporter found the person in question, and I doubt they spent months looking for him.
Certainly each state has its own laws with respect to this kind of eventuality, but if you find yourself in this situation, it is wise to know if you might be owed money. Anyone who has lost a home to foreclosure is most likely in need of additional funds, and there is no use letting it sit in some fund of the state government.
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