Betty The Restauranteur

[Ghel]

As far as the insurance, we did "force place" insurance on Betty's house. It's a product we use that only covers up to the amount of the loan if the property sustains damage. Thus, there's no liability insurance (for example, if somebody falls through Betty's front steps) and it would only pay off the loan - the customer gets nothing if there's a claim.

Even though we have force placed insurance on the house, we're still requiring them to get insurance before we renew their mortgage. Because that should be Betty and her husband's responsibility.

[taxguykarl]

I am _shocked_ the IRS has held off this long, 2011 is so long ago one has to wonder what they're waiting for!

Nothing I haven't seen If they have a refund coming, the Treasury Department will gladly milk the interest or even pocket the money if the don't file on time.
As for the insurance, time to start looking around...if any will cover her at all. I understand insurers also check credit.
At long last:
Betty meet Reality--you've been expected.

[eltf177]

She claimed that the roofing company had settled for $20,000, and she was just waiting for the attorney to take out his portion and send her a check for the rest. Then, she assured me, she will pay her real estate taxes on the restaurant. I won't hold my breath.

Ghel, are you saying you don't believe Betty? Shame on you!

I also went over her homeowners insurance. Yesterday, we received a letter stating that the check she'd used to pay her premium had bounced. Since it was her first premium payment, they weren't even giving her a chance to pay again, they were just canceling her insurance. She was under the impression that she just needed to send another check, but I told her that the letter we received said she had to re-apply if she still wanted insurance. So she promised to talk to her insurance agent today.

Somehow I don't think the insurance agency is going to want to have Betty's business. Which puts Betty in a real bind...

I asked about her tax returns, too. She said she still needed to get some information to her accountant about her husband's income from 2011.

I am _shocked_ the IRS has held off this long, 2011 is so long ago one has to wonder what they're waiting for!

Maybe Betty's finally got a clue, and is now busy trying to skip town...

[Ghel]

I managed to get hold of Betty this morning. I called the restaurant yesterday and today, and I was told she wasn't working. So I called her house this morning, and she answered the phone. Funny that she didn't return the message I left on her answering machine yesterday. She claimed that the roofing company had settled for $20,000, and she was just waiting for the attorney to take out his portion and send her a check for the rest. Then, she assured me, she will pay her real estate taxes on the restaurant. I won't hold my breath.

I also went over her homeowners insurance. Yesterday, we received a letter stating that the check she'd used to pay her premium had bounced. Since it was her first premium payment, they weren't even giving her a chance to pay again, they were just canceling her insurance. She was under the impression that she just needed to send another check, but I told her that the letter we received said she had to re-apply if she still wanted insurance. So she promised to talk to her insurance agent today.

I asked about her tax returns, too. She said she still needed to get some information to her accountant about her husband's income from 2011. I mentioned to her that we could offer to do a 90-day extension on her home loan (to give the accountant time to finish the taxes, so we can do a longer-term modification), if she has insurance in place, but without insurance, we can't do that and the loan will continue to be past due.

Betty was surprisingly cordial. Maybe she's finally realized she's run out of free passes.

[taxguykarl]

From Ghel's first post on this matter, I somehow knew this would happen. I'm surprised the management let the nonsense go on this long.

[earl colby pottinger]

Betty

Betty sounds like the type of person who sets a fire without reading the part in the insurance policy that states what the minimum safety standards and minimum time she has to have the insurance she must meet for the insurance to be valid.

Example: For my cabin up North I needed a dry fire fighting unit, the wood stove had to be a certain distance from the wood studs in the wall and the chimney had to be 2 inches thick in the insulation. The old standard was just 1 inch but at the time I put in the stove the standards were upgraded.

If she misses even a single one the conditions in the insurance they can turn her claim down and not pay her a cent.

[roxtar]

predicting arson in the near future... after insurance has been secured of course.

[wolfie]

Considering some of her problems are with the IRS, the bank needs to get rolling on the foreclosure ASAP. Because the IRS has priority, if you wait too long the bank might not get its money back, but my understanding is that once the bank has got its money back through LEGAL means it's now the bank's money and not subject to action against Betty by the IRS.

[eltf177]

This is good to hear. And Betty's not returning your calls is the final nail in the coffin.

Let the wailing commence!

[Ghel]

I very much doubt he'll be willing to bail Betty out. Foreclosing will likely mean some negative publicity, since Betty will tell everyone that the bank wasn't willing to work with her when she fell on hard times (), and we won't be able to respond in our defense because of privacy laws. The previous bank management advanced on her loan many times to help her pay her real estate taxes, insurance, and IRS tax levies so that she wouldn't go out of business. That's the primary reason her loan has only gone down by $9,000 in the past 20 years, when the original term of the loan was only 15 years (IIRC).

Goodhair had suggested to do another 90-day extension on the house loan, which has matured again, in order to give Betty's accountant enough time to finish the tax returns. But with her not returning my calls, I can't even do that.

[eltf177]

What is Goodhair's current view on the matter?

I for one hope he's not going to try and bail Betty out this time. He's let enough questionable loans go through already, if he ignores the obvious issues here one would hope higher ups would notice and start asking Goodhair some _very_ uncomfortable questions...

[Tama]

What is Goodhair's current view on the matter?

[eltf177]

Agreed, there's too many red flags to keep on letting this situation continue...

[Ghel]

When last I posted on this thread, I was waiting to talk with Betty about the results of her day in court, regarding the lawsuit against the company that did the roof of her restaurant. I still don't know what happened. She's not returning my calls.

In addition, her homeowners insurance has been cancelled because the check she used to pay the premium was returned for insufficient funds.

Her tax returns still aren't done from 2011. And now it's tax season, and her accountant is very busy.

So, it sounds like, if she doesn't call me back before Goodhair returns from vacation on Thursday, we'll be starting legal proceedings for foreclosure on both the restaurant and their house. It sucks, but we can't keep bailing her out of her bad decisions.

[taxguykarl]

It will be interesting to see how hard the IRS goes after them...

IIRC, they are already on some kind of payment plan. Still though, sooner or later someone will say ENOUGH! and the liquidation will commence.