ZOMBIE PROPERTY UNITY
Tri-City Mayors unite on enforcement against PHH/OCWEN Financial Services
TROY, N.Y. » Tri-City Mayors united together Wednesday afternoon in Troy to send a strong message to mortgage servicers across the Capital Region and State.
Properly maintain properties upon which you are foreclosing, and bring foreclosure actions to a timely completion or face the consequences. The trio of Troy Mayor Patrick Madden, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, and Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy backed up that talk, announcing a coordinated effort in filing lawsuits against Ocwen Financial Corporation and its subsidiary, PHH Mortgage.
By virtue of utilizing New York State’s Zombie Law, the three cities have filed lawsuits covering 18 properties with 502 NYS building code violations. The law imposes a duty to inspect, secure, and maintain vacant and abandoned properties on mortgagees or their servicing agents. Additionally, it provides municipalities the ability to sue
mortgage servicers for $500 per code violation per day the code violation exists.
“Zombie properties negatively affect the quality of life and property values in our neighborhoods,” Madden remarked on the nuisance posed by the properties to the community.
“While enforcement is time and resource-intensive, Troy’s Zombie prosecution efforts have successfully forced demolitions, property sales, code compliance, and significant financial settlements,” Madden noted on the ensuing results from legal actions taken.
Madden also spoke to the importance of the three cities banding together in their collective enforcement efforts.
“This unified initiative will improve the processes and property maintenance actions of Financial Institutions, and we are pleased to work with leaders in Albany and Schenectady on this important enforcement initiative,” Madden added.
Those efforts and lawsuits brought forth by the three cities could yield an award of upwards of $251,000 per day the violations remain to the three cities combined.
“This enforcement action puts mortgage servicers and banks on notice that if vacant properties aren’t maintained they will be held accountable,” McCarty remarked.
“I am proud to stand with my fellow mayors against this organization that perpetuates harm not just in Schenectady but across the Capital Region,” McCarthy noted.
The enforcement actions are funded by New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ Office, via the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) as part of the Zombie and Vacant Properties Remediation and Prevention Initiative, and through Enterprise Community Partners, as part of the Cities for Responsible Investment and Strategic Enforcement (Cities RISE) program.
“We are thrilled to have worked hand-in-hand with our partners in Schenectady and Troy to continue this transformative work,” Sheehan noted on the collaborative effort.
“Thank you to New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who provided us with the necessary resources in the Zombies 2.0 program and the Cities RISE grant to pursue such an unprecedented action, and our Cities RISE team for their commitment to reducing the number of zombie properties in the City of Albany,” Sheehan added.