Topics: Your Home & The Law - 57 results

Mary J. Blige’s financial woes deepened in mid-February when the state of New Jersey reportedly filed a $900,000 lien against her New Jersey home. While most people don’t own homes worth that much, Blige’s case is a reminder of what can happen when income taxes go unpaid.   Mansion Targeted The singer has been in hot financial water for some time, with two banks having already sued her for defaulting on loans worth about $511,000 and $2.2 million, and a …

Never turn your back on a home foreclosure with the assumption your property title is dead. It could reanimate as a zombie title, dragging hordes of bills and fines along with it. A zombie title is stalking Joseph Keller, who vacated his home five years ago after receiving a foreclosure notice from JPMorgan Chase. Keller moved in with his daughter, assuming that his old home would be auctioned off any day. But weeks later, JPMorgan Chase changed its mind and …

PNC settled a lawsuit this month over its refusal of a mortgage loan to a Connecticut couple because the wife was on maternity leave. As part of the settlement, the bank must review the last two years’ worth of mortgage applications in eight states.   Unfair Choice The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) alleged that the bank violated the Fair Housing Act by requiring the wife, a Navy veteran, to go back to work before it would approve …

  Banks are foreclosing on the homes of widows. Financial institutions are refusing to modify mortgages when husbands have died without listing their surviving wives on the notes. Lawyers.com journalist Ed Alpern shows you how banks have gotten away with these practices and how you can fight losing your home to foreclosure. Director of Foreclosure Prevention Litigation at Legal Services NYC Jacob Inwald emphasizes banks are under a legal obligation to attempt to avoid foreclosures and to promote loan modifications. …

A Manhattan resident has filed a federal lawsuit against her former landlord, claiming she was evicted from her apartment because she was a cancer survivor. Heatheran Kristopher, 43, says she is sleeping on friends’ couches after being forced out of the Upper East Side building she had lived in for three years. Shortly after she moved in in 2008 she started treatment for ovarian and colon cancer. Her rental troubles began in 2011 when Icon Management sold her building to …