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SALT LAKE CITY -- Some real estate agents are calling for more protections in the law in "hostile" foreclosure cases.
Too often, they say people who are supposed to be out of their foreclosed homes squat until the last minute, and then trash the places on their way out.
"They were hauling out carpets, tearing out hardwood, taking the appliances, ripping out trees, rosebushes in the front yard," said RE/MAX Results Realtor Josh Whitby of one case in Federal Heights over the weekend.
Whitby says his group buys homes at foreclosure auctions, then improves and sells them.
In this case, Whitby says the home had been purchased at the auction, RE/MAX had tried to negotiate a time for the former owners to leave and they would not leave. After two failed bids to buy the property from RE/MAX and facing an eviction date of midnight Saturday, Whitby says the family instead stripped the house Saturday night.
"Really, we were just livid when we were just sitting there watching it and knowing we can't do anything about it," Whitby said. "They're just destroying it on purpose so that we have to spend more money to fix it up."
Whitby says it happens frequently in what he terms, "occupied foreclosures," and the companies that take over the properties are left holding the bag. He wants to see legislative action.
Police can offer little help in these cases, Unified Police Lt. Don Hutson said.
"It's a gray area between criminal acts and civil issues," Hutson said. "Until you're physically kicked out, how can you damage your own property?" Hutson says, often, the only recourse is a lawsuit. Realtors say that does not help.
"In that situation, you file a lawsuit against them to try to recoup that money, and then they file bankruptcy and you're left with nothing," Whitby said.
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
