The owner of the property is legally responsible for maintaining the property and making sure it is kept up to code. With foreclosed homes, the legal owner is nearly always the lending institution or another party that acquired title through foreclosure. In this case, you will need to contact not only the property owner but also the Field Servicer. Most lending institutions who have purchased properties through foreclosure hire Mortgage Field Service Companies or Property Preservation Companies to maintain properties in the foreclosure process or after they have become vacant.

The role of the Mortgage Field Service Company or Property Preservation Company is to inspect and perform property maintenance on properties that have gone into default and during the Real Estate Owned (REO) phase.  The REO phase is the period of time from when a mortgage has been defaulted until the time that the property is sold to a third party or new buyer. They are typically responsible for:

• Mowing grass
• Plowing snow
• Boarding and securing properties
• Clearing debris from a property where that debris constitutes a code violation.

How to Identify the Field Servicer of a Foreclosed Property.

1)      Check to see if there is a sticker affixed to the property containing the field servicer’s contact information.

2)      Contact the real estate agent associated with the property to see if the agent has been made responsible for maintenance or knows which field service company is responsible for the property.

3)      Use online resources to identify the original lending institution and field servicer.  The Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) Servicer ID System is a free online search that, given the address of the vacant property or the owner name, will provide the lending institution name for any active, registered mortgages:

https://www.mers-servicerid.org/sis/

Once you have determined who the lending institution was for the mortgage, contact them and ask for the name and contact information for their field service company.

Working with the Field Servicers

Once you have identified the Field Servicer, contact them and offer assistance with property maintenance or to look after the property. The most important thing is to open up lines of communication with the field servicer understanding that both the servicer and the neighbor have a shared interest in the properties preservation and security.

If you are getting nowhere, contact your local unit of government for help.

There is a vacant foreclosed property in the neighborhood and we suspect it has been broken into, what should we do?