Aired April 6, 2007

Rising numbers of foreclosures across Ohio mean banks and mortgage companies are finding themselves stuck with more and more homes - and the bills required to keep the properties up to code. Housing activists say some lenders are avoiding these responsibilities by taking too long to formally tell the county that they've repossessed the property. A new study out of Case Western Reserve University's NEO CANDO project may shed some light. It found 2,000 properties in Cuyahoga County - 1,100 in the city of Cleveland - that have been repossessed by mortgage companies at sheriff sale, but have been waiting months, if not over a year, for lenders to file their deeds. ideastream's Mhari Saito reports.

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Mike Schramm sits in front of his computer at Case Western Reserve University's NEO CANDO office scrolling through a a long list he's put together of mortgage companies.

Mike Schramm: And you can see at the sheriff sale that this was bought by Citifinance.

Schramm, the data director at the research office, is reading the names of buyers who at some point between May 2005 and December 2006 bought foreclosed properties at Cuyahoga County's Sheriff's sale. But as of March first of 2007, these buyers had not yet taken the next step in the legal process. They still had not filed the deeds from the sale with the County Recorder's office.

Mike Schramm: Seriously, we haven't seen any humans.

Nope, virtually no humans, or private citizens on the list. But there are dozens of lenders, large and small, plus the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka says that's been the pattern in his courtroom for several years.

Judge Raymond Pianka: In ways we have stealth ownership that's flying below the radar.

And it's often done on purpose, Pianka says. A lender buys back a foreclosed property and fails to file the deed, making it difficult for the county to figure out who's responsible for keeping up the property.

Judge Raymond Pianka: We have countless examples of neighbors who are held hostage to vacant and abandoned properties and they have no way of finding out who is the actual owner and then contacting them.

The department of Housing and Urban Development - or HUD - has the most properties in this state of limbo. The NEO CANDO study found about 200 in the city of Cleveland. Doug Shelby is the field director of HUD's Cleveland office. He doesn't know what's holding up the paperwork.

Doug Shelby: It's possible there are title problems, and we won't take a property unless it has clear title, then they're may be some problems with the property itself and it may not be in a position where it can be conveyed back to us.

Some blame the problem on bureaucratic delays at the county. Over the past year and a half, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office has sped up the process of preparing deeds. Instead of several months, it now takes only one. Its then the job of the lenders' attorneys to get the deeds and walk them across the street to the County recorders office. Lawyer Jim Sassano says the overwhelming majority of the thousands of foreclosure cases the county is dealing with are getting filed on time.

Jim Sassano: There are some instances where we don't get instructions from the lender to file the deed, but these are in a very small number of cases, and even if its only one case, I can understand the city's frustration with that.

One solution being considered is to shift responsibility for filing the deed from the lenders to county sheriffs. Cleveland state representative Michael Foley has introduced such a proposal in the state legislature.

Michael Foley: There is no incentive for the lending institutions to let it be known they own this property, so what this bill does is it gives the responsibility for filing the deed to the sheriffs so there's not this mystery about who owns the property.

But critics like foreclosure lawyer Jim Sassano says the law would just create new problems. Sassano says it would be simpler if cities learned to double check County Court records, where sheriff sales are also recorded. Tell that to Pat Kresty at the County Sheriff's office and she shakes her head.

Pat Kresty: I don't agree that the city should have to go and look at court records because its available, The recorder's office is where it is. They ought to pick it up and record it.

But no one is sure how the proposed new law would impact the biggest offender, HUD, because it is a federal agency. HUD's Cleveland field director Doug Shelby says he's sure his office's lawyers will be looking into it. I'm Mhari Saito, 90.3.