Betty The Restauranteur

[mjr]

And after 20+ years of juggling, she has gotten good at it

That's Ringling Bros. level juggling right there...

[taxguykarl]

And after 20+ years of juggling, she has gotten good at it

[eltf177]

But given the juggling act Betty's been doing its just a matter of time before this house of cards comes crashing down...

[Ghel]

OK Ghel, I give up: How much longer is the bank going to allow this nonsense to continue? What will it take to make the right people say ENOUGH?

Basically, what eltf177 said. If she gets far enough behind on the real estate taxes, we might foreclose to prevent the county from taking the property. But we don't want it. Real estate sells really slow around here. Commercial property even more so. One of the bars was for sale for about five years before someone bought it. As long as we continue making money on interest and late fees, we'll continue trying to work with Betty.

[eltf177]

OK Ghel, I give up: How much longer is the bank going to allow this nonsense to continue? What will it take to make the right people say ENOUGH?

As Ghel has mentioned before you can't get blood from a turnip. As long as she's paying something no one's in a rush to seize property that might take forever to unload. It's a lose-lose situation to be sure.

And I doubt Goodhair is in any rush either, it would make his business decisions look bad...

[taxguykarl]

I checked the original thread about Betty.
OK Ghel, I give up: How much longer is the bank going to allow this nonsense to continue? What will it take to make the right people say ENOUGH?

[Ghel]

No, nothing has changed since my last post. Betty continues to be intermittently overdrawn. She still hasn't paid the real estate taxes for the restaurant. It might go on like this for another year or more before we do anything.

[eltf177]

Hate to be a broken record but anything new here? I just see disaster in the future...

[Ghel]

Well, the real estate taxes are only past due on the restaurant for this year. And the real estate taxes are current for the house. So that part's actually not that bad.

Both loans are current, even though the checking account is frequently overdrawn. We make sure we get our loan payments as soon as the money's available, although that hasn't been bad, either, since there's enough money in the checking often enough to make the loan payments (which are still set up as automatic for the restaurant loan).

I don't know if Betty has done anything to take care of the federal and state tax liens that were on her credit last time we checked it. That's the biggest cause for concern right now.

[eltf177]

I wonder how much longer the Federal, State and local tax departments are going to wait. OTOH if they foreclose they get nothing. So maybe getting a little from time to time is a better deal, but they'd better not be counting on collecting any late fees and/or interest...

[taxguykarl]

Taxes are late again? .... The late fees must be piling up

No kidding. By now the interest and penalties would probably be more than the back taxes.

[eltf177]

Taxes are late again? Seems like a broken record with Betty. The late fees must be piling up...

[Ghel]

Nothing new. The checking account is occasionally overdrawn, and the real estate taxes are past due for this year. But nothing bad enough that we have to do anything about it yet. I expect Betty's situation to slowly go downhill again, like it has in the past, but it will take a while to get there.

[eltf177]

Any recent shenanigans from Betty?

[eltf177]

You are 100% right, Mental Mouse.

But if you read through the entire thread you'll see why Ghel's bank has resisted foreclosure up to this point. But rest assured, in the end that's exactly what's going to happen. There's too many people here hoping for a miracle, while the realistic realize there's no happy ending here for anyone - the bank's going to end up with a run-down restaurant and little else to show for it...