Lenders Turn to Facebook to Deliver Foreclosure Notices

Foreclosures have numbered in the millions over the past five years in the United States, and thenumber rises even higher when you factor in foreclosures from overseas – from countries that have alsoexperienced housing difficulties and collapsing markets.
One such country is Australia, and in light of their foreclosure crisis, officials there came up with a uniqueapproach to sending out foreclosure notices to homeowners: posting them on Facebook.
Delivering a foreclosure notice can be a tricky proposition, because some homeowners are hard to reachand contact. In the U.S., homeowners are required to be given notice, but the law frequently does notspecify exactly how that happens. A direct delivery to the property is the most common method, andlenders also try via phone and mail. But, Facebook is a new innovation that could make the processeasier and less costly for lenders.
Of course, there is always the fear that relying on something online, like Facebook, can leave the ownerand the lender both vulnerable to fraud and security breaches. The debate, though, is interestingbecause it highlights some of the themes found in the market with robo-signing and other scandals inthe foreclosure process over the last year.
If some lenders cannot be trusted to even read mortgage files before foreclosing on them, is there anyguarantee that being able to use Facebook would help?
In fact, according to some reports about the ongoing settlement, regulations for notification andprocedure prior to a foreclosure may be less strict than they are now. We are following the ongoingsettlement talks between the government and the lenders with interest because it will have a big impacton the market.
In the mean time, American homeowners shouldn’t expect to see notices delivered via a post on theirFacebook wall any time soon.