Everyday Marylanders are struggling with the skyrocketing costs of basic goods and services. As many costs soar out of control, it makes everything else harder to afford too. Many Maryland homeowners are having a hard time paying their mortgages. In fact, Maryland has the sixth-highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Some Maryland homeowners have also faced a terrifying zombie foreclosure. In the early 2000s, lenders were qualifying some home buyers for mortgages using an 80/20 loan, where the homeowner holds a first and second loan simultaneously. When the mortgage bubble crashed, these second loans became worthless and many homeowners thought they were dead.

Lenders sold these second mortgages to debt buyers who purchased them for pennies on the dollar. As home equity has increased, these second mortgages are valuable. Now, decades later, often with no statements or notices that a homeowner owed on the second mortgage, these debt buyers are foreclosing on homeowners–mostly in majority Black and Brown communities–to obtain the house and all the equity homeowners have built. More than 700 homeowners in Maryland have received foreclosure notices due to these zombie mortgages.

Take action to end zombie mortgages in Maryland!

SB353 will expand protections for homeowners in two critical, common-sense ways by 1) establishing a statute of limitations for foreclosures and 2) requiring people who are trying to resurrect and foreclose on these zombie mortgages to prove they own the loan and provide other documents as they try to collect.

Maryland and Alabama are the only two states in the country that do not have statute of limitations for foreclosures. Having a statute of limitations for foreclosures gives homeowners a clear timeline for the process and incentivizes lenders to act within a reasonable period if they intend to foreclose rather than leaving homeowners in limbo.

To protect homeowners from future zombie mortgages, debt buyers trying to foreclose on these homeowners must prove they own the loan and have all of the documentation that is already required under Maryland law for other loan and credit products.

As Maryland foreclosures rise and predatory debt buyers attempt to collect on homeowners’ years of equity, we must act now to expand protections for homeowners and ensure fairness in foreclosures. Legislators are hearing from Wall Street debt buyers and venture capitalists that these protections aren’t necessary. TAKE ACTION TODAY and let your senator know that hard working homeowners should not lose their homes to predatory debt buyers and lenders.

Thank you for your voice, emails, and social media shares. YOUR actions help us to counter the corporate debt-buyer lobby.