Two vultures in ugly fight  to claim foreclosure fees

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| AP file

Updated: June 16, 2011 12:37AM

Every now and then, I find myself privately rooting for and against both sides of a bill at the same time. I’m doing it again.

Two sides in Springfield are fighting over a rather unseemly and rapidly growing pile of auction fees created by the foreclosure crisis.

That’s a heckuva way to make a buck. Auctioning off what used to be somebody’s home and collecting a sweet little fee.

But, I suppose, somebody has to do it. You can’t leave foreclosed homes empty forever. They can become a blight on neighborhoods. The companies holding the mortgages often don’t take care of them and they crumble or are vandalized, or the yards aren’t maintained, or drug dealers or other criminals squat in them, or all of the above.

State law has long allowed private companies to conduct foreclosure auctions. The auctioneers appear to make a fairly decent living off of the business, particularly now that people are being kicked out of their homes at a record pace.

Counties, like pretty much every government everywhere, watched in horror as their tax revenues plummeted during the Great Recession. One of the very few growth areas was foreclosure auction fees.

The Bloomington Pantagraph reported the other day that foreclosure auction fees are now eight percent of the McLean County Sheriff’s total revenues.

But the sheriffs collect those fees only if they host the auctions. So some counties are either not allowing the private foreclosure auctioneers to do business or they are pushing judges hard to steer the auction dollars to sheriffs.

The private companies say they can handle the auctions faster and cheaper. The sheriffs say quicker auctions means impoverished, stressed-out homeowners are booted from their homes a lot sooner. That’s a very good point, and it’s one reason I’m so conflicted about this bill. On the other hand are all those abandoned homes, which, by the way, the sheriffs also have to worry about.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office claims there were serious problems with private auctions, so it was forced to set up a system to address the complaints. However, under questioning at a Senate committee hearing, a sheriff’s staffer said she had heard only rumors and couldn’t substantiate — or even list — any actual homeowner complaints.

So, yeah. It’s probably all about the money.

Want more proof? The Senate’s sponsor offered an amendment to give the sheriffs $200 for each foreclosure auction handled by a private company. Two big counties Cook and Will, quickly switched from “opposed” to “neutral.” Getting something for doing nothing ain’t bad at all. But it costs very little to hold a sheriff’s auction. And the markup is so high that not everybody wanted to give up all that blessed cash.

Of course, some banks complained about the added cost of kicking $200 to the sheriffs, so the amendment hasn’t yet been officially adopted.

The bill requires judges to follow the wishes of the foreclosure plaintiffs, meaning the banks or other mortgage holders. Because the private auction companies say they are cheaper and faster, they think that gives them an edge. Opponents say cutting out the views of the defendants — the people who are being kicked out of their homes — is illegal and downright wrong.

Again, a good point. But I’d be more sympathetic if this fight between vultures didn’t make my skin crawl.