Legislation to Relieve Age-restricted Communities of Foreclosure Expenses

Legislation sponsored by Jersey Shore lawmakers, Senator James Holzapfel and Assemblymen Dave Wolfe and Greg McGuckin, requiring mortgage creditors to maintain and pay the expenses of foreclosed homes in retirement communities recently passed the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee. 

The bill would allow Associations of those communities to go after mortgage creditors to pay for the upkeep of abandoned properties, instead of having to pass the cost onto residents through higher maintenance fees, according to Holzapfel.

"If you have numbers of people where foreclosures are occurring and no one is making those monthly charges, it's going to all come back to the remaining people that are within the Association or the community," he said.

Holzapfel said the bill mirrors, to a certain degree, what happens in foreclosures on public streets. "Once that house becomes vacant, it's permissible for the town to serve you as the lien holder with violations."