Apparently,
Terry Hoskins
does...click the link to see a video of the man bulldozing his
home. Below is my take on this issue.
Hoskins
claims that the house is worth $350,000 and is owed $160,000 on his note.
If that was true, he would have been able to sell the house for a profit.
If he couldn't sell it for $350,000, it's not worth $350,000!
He
says he had an offer for $170,000, which would have satisfied the note, but the
evil bank turned it down, saying they could get more at auction. The bank
is probably right; don't forget, the bank owns the home, by virtue of the lien
called the mortgage, which this guy signed. A deal is a deal. What
happened to honoring contracts? Is there any evidence that the bank did
something wrong? I didn't see any in that article. If the bank
engaged in predatory, unfair, unethical or illegal practices, that would be a
different story. Most likely, this guy
decided not to pay his note. The bank then foreclosed. That's the
deal.
Now,
this fool decides he's going to bulldoze his home, in some sort of scorched
earth maneuver. Congratulations - now, instead of owing the bank
$160,000, you're going to owe the amount that they would have gotten at
auction!
Read
the fine print of your note and mortgage - you promised not to do anything to
damage the premises. Instead of using a
legal maneuver to delay the foreclosure sale, and sell it to recover as much
money as possible, this guy decided to destroy something he didn't
own...brilliant!
Contract
law is such a basic element of society. If we do not honor our contracts,
society is in trouble. Contract law is so important that our Founding
Fathers put the following in the Constitution:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or
Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of
Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass
any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the
Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. [emphasis added].
An
honorable person lives up to his end of the bargain, or, if he does not, must
accept the consequences for the breach, which would be to turn the asset
(house) over to the bank. Congratulations, Terry - you now owe the bank
some serious cash. Maybe you'll get some book deal with a nice
advance, which you can use to pay off what you bulldozed.