Hello Vanesse, I agree and disagree with your attorney. He is correct in that you can just walk away from the house if you want, but the part about not being able to win is so wrong. Let me tell you why. You have all the choices and none of the ultimate liability unless you want it. Allow me to explain. If the house is worth more than the amount owed, you and your family members should put the home on the market and sell it. The attorney should have told you what steps it takes to probate the home and change the title if that is what you choose to do, then sell the home and keep the equity. If there will be expenses to do this (which might include taxes, repairs, costs to sell the home, legal fees to complete the probate and change of title, etc.), then include them in your calculations when making your decision. If there is remaining equity, then it is up to you and your family if you want to sell the home to recoup the equity or not. If there is no equity or if you do not feel that the equity is sufficient to warrant the effort it would take to sell the property, you can do exactly what the attorney said - walk away! You and your remaining family never signed any agreements to make any payments on the home and it doesn't affect you or your credit in any way if the tax assessor sells the home for non-payment of taxes. That's exactly why the lender stepped in and paid them last time and will again next time if they remain unpaid. If you plan to keep the home or sell the home, it is to your benefit to pay the taxes on time to avoid penalties or interest accruing on amount the lender would need to advance to pay them on your behalf but if you plan to walk away anyway, there is no adverse effect from you notifying the lender that the property is vacant, no one is maintaining the home and you are not interested in keeping the home and you wish the lender to take it via a foreclosure action (again, the foreclosure is against the original borrower who has passed so there is no adverse credit against you or any other heirs - just be sure all personal property you wish to keep is out of the home). These are all wins created by the reverse mortgages. Your uncle received the funds he needed to remain in the home without having to make a payment. He did not need to rely on family members to survive while living there with the reverse mortgage so the equity from the home he bought and paid for kept him going instead of having to go back to family members to request money that he obviously needed. The loan itself is a non-recourse loan. That means that the lender can never look to any other asset of the estate or anyone else for repayment of the debt. They can only take the property which is their collateral if no one wants to repay the balance and keep the home or sell it. They cannot make you pay anything (you never signed any agreements to make any payments) taxes and other expenses run with the land so you are not obligated to pay those either. You can choose to keep the home or sell the home and keep the equity if you wish, or walk away and owe nothing with no credit issues and no out of pocket expenses. But that choice is completely up to you and there is no reason to stress about it whatsoever.

Hello Shirlean, The lender cannot just acquire your home and if the home had gone through a foreclosure, there would have been notifications required by law in addition to some that must be posted at the property. To complete a foreclosure action, the lender in California must comply with Civil Code 2924 which requires several steps and notices to the homeowner. There is a good description of the law and those steps online at: https://www.propertyshark.com/info/foreclosure-process-california/. If you have not had anyone contact you about a default on your loan, it seems highly unlikely that any actions have been brought against you. However, if you are concerned about your title, I would suggest that you contact a tittle company, not rely on Zillow or any other online source. For instance, when I pull your property up on Zillow, it says nothing about the property being a bank owned foreclosure. It tells me your home is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 2134 square feet. It says the home was last listed on 03/09/2019 but that listing was removed on 04/16/2019 and that the home is not listed for sale at this time. It says nothing about a bank owned foreclosure on my screen. I cannot see anything wrong with your title, but I also cannot see any recently recorded documents. I would suggest that you check with your county recorder's office or possibly with a local title company to see if anything has been recorded against the property that I cannot see from my office or if I have the wrong address. If there is something recorded, you will want to know about it and contact an attorney to act before it goes any farther. But if not, it would be nice to know if it was just a Zillow error or a possible error in the entry of the property address at the time.

Hello William, If you wish to pay the loan in full, this will not affect that action. The company handling the closing would just contact the lender or their servicer by requesting a beneficiary's demand for payoff and remitting the necessary funds or you could request the demand statement yourself if you are not using a closing agent. The legal description of the property included the land and so did the loan at the time the lender placed the loan on the property. It was sold into a mortgage backed security and therefore, they would not be able to release a portion of the security for the loan later. You can pay the loan off in full at any time without penalty though so your plan to pay the loan off is still viable, you just need to pay off the loan with the sale of the parcel and that can be handled by a competent closing agent.

Hello Janet,I am so sorry to hear of your circumstances but I am not sure why you are contacting us. All Reverse Mortgage is not affiliated with RMS and we have no interest in your loan. In fact, we are not even licensed in LA. I would strongly suggest that you do a couple things but I would have you contact the HUD Homeownership Center that is listed on their site at HUD.gov that handles your area. If I were advising a member of my own family, I would also advise them to seek the assistance of a real estate attorney in your area before this goes any farther. The attorney may have to seek court injunction until this is resolved and the sooner he/she has an opportunity to make that determination the better.I wish I could be of more help and wish you much success.

Hi Lisa, A change of ownership or you no longer living in the home as your current residence would be grounds for the lender to call the loan due and payable. If you want to Deed the property to your granddaughter, you can do so but it would be better for her to refinance the loan with a new loan in her name and pay off the reverse mortgage with the refinance. If you were to move and she were to complete the occupancy certifications falsely claiming that you were still living in the property when you were not, would constitute as mortgage fraud and it would be up to HUD and the lender to determine if they wished to pursue charges against you and/or your granddaughter so I highly discourage that. HUD is facing losses on the program and have discussed many ways to crack down on unnecessary losses and occupancy issues are one of the areas of great concern.

Hello Constance,You should have no issues whatsoever requesting any draws available to you on your line of credit under the reverse mortgage program at this time. The program has always been backed by the full faith and credit of HUD and therefore, I have not known of any individuals who were adversely affected by the bankruptcy and were unable to receive their funds. When you pay off your current reverse mortgage, you are eligible for another on the new property and you do not have to worry about the lender calling the loan due and payable in the meantime.