As If We Didn't Have Enough to Worry About! Well, I'm sure that all of you out there are aware of foreclosures due to mortgage nonpayment issues. However, not paying the mortgage is only the most common area for foreclosure. However, there is a major second foreclosure issue that has always existed, and is now growing at such a pace that it thre3atens to become a second foreclosure wave. What is this? It is foreclosures for failure to pay real estate taxes and/or any related late fees. In many states a home may be foreclosed upon via the familiar public auction route for even the smallest of amounts due. Even a few hundred dollars is not too small an amount! Where it gets really sticky is the local laws' provision to somewhat protect the defaulting homeowner. In most cases (check your local laws to get exact details), once the home is foreclosed, the homeowner has the right to buy it back from the foreclosing buyer for what the buyer paid. The catch? Well, most statdes also allow the foreclosing buyer to charge a fee to the former homeowner in addition to the amount paid at foreclosure. So, you say, how much of a fee can it be? Well, in some states the fee can be as much as 20% of the home's value. Let's do the math. Let's say you lost your home for a delinquent tax of $200. So, you scrape together the $200, contact the auction buyer and he says he'd love to sell you your house back. Just one thing--he's had "expenses" and related activities to handle relative to its purchase/ownership and so forth, so he 'needs' to add a fee to the cost for you. But it's "only" 20%. Well, if your home is valued at $100,000, that "only 20%" is $20,000! Not so "only" is it? What can you do? You might want to call your state legislator and any pro-housing group and start pushing for a change in the law to eliminate or at least severly reduce these fees. Also, for more info, check out the National Consumer Law Cdenter (NCLC). They can be found on the web: www.nclc.org . If you're affected, good luck.