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SALT LAKE CITY -- Sandy Rep. Trisha Beck became alarmed when she saw all the dead lawns around town as she was out talking with voters. She soon found out all the dead lawns were homes in foreclosures.
That prompted her to work on a bill to address the foreclosure issue in Utah. Tuesday night she's holding a town hall meeting to help craft the bill aimed at helping those on the verge of losing their homes.
- Tuesday, Oct. 19
- Eastmont Middle School
10100 S. 1300 East
Sandy - 7 p.m.
"We want to hear from homeowners. We want to know what is happening to them because we are in the top 10 states for foreclosures," says Beck.
Beck wants to give homeowners the opportunity to go to mediation when lenders issue a notice of default. She says the mediation takes about four hours and costs the homeowner around $250. She says that beats the alternative of trying to get in contact with the lender and work things out.
"(The homeowners) are frustrated. They're frustrated because they get a different person every time they make a call. It's just like a big room with all these people that are handling all these calls and nobody seems to know what anybody is talking about," she says.
Beck says her bill will likely be crafted after bills that she's seen help the process along in other states. She says her goal is to help homeowners stay in their homes when possible while at the same time protecting the property values of the others in the neighborhood.
She hopes the mediation process will end with either a homeowner getting a loan modification or knowing the foreclosure process is moving forward without going through months of uncertainty.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
