Real Name: JAYNE LAUGHLIN Member Since: March 14, 2006 Last Signed In: September 03, 2008 Profile Views: 199 Blog Views: 536 Foreclosure- Families in Crisis Does Child Support Services ever enforce court orders? July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 
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The idea of families being thrown into the street with all their worldly possessions strewn along the path is a tragic event regardless of the underlying circumstances. What happens to those with no friends or relatives with whom they can live? How will they find even temporary shelter or a place to store their property? The homeless shelter is filled to capacity;
The rescue mission is turning people away;
Setting up camp along the Kern River or being in a park after hours gets people arrested;
…………. and yet the numbers of families in crisis continues to soar ever higher by the minute.
Lets’ go back in time to 2005 and view the scenery in the refi arena. It was real estate’s era for the feeding frenzy upon homeowners. Brokers and agents made calls every day trying to get people to refinance their homes and take cash out. Even homeowners with “iffy” credit could do it, they’d say, “It’s not a problem in the long run. All “we” have to do is get you refinanced with cash out, clear up your credit, refinance again, (a couple times) and you’ll have your credit rating back, all your debts will be clear, and you’ll be set.”
The brokers and real estate agents had homeowners sign documents that were a little less than accurate to get the loans. They then had the loans transferred to yet another lender, (sometimes within the first payment cycle) and the cash out was sufficient to make the payments for a year or so until another refinance would become necessary. “It’s all in the plan of the broker and their ‘group’ to ‘help’ the poor homeowner get on track.”
These agents and brokers made bank at the homeowners’ expense- $10k here, $30k there- “Hey, what’s the problem? You have cash to pay the payment, so what does it matter how much it costs in the long run? We’ll get you a better rate on the next refi- trust us- this is our expertise.” they’d assure.
In my own situation, the broker said I would need to do the refinance 4 times to clear up all the issues left in the wake of a divorce. The debts of the ex would be paid and removed from my credit making the next refi even sweeter. The second refi would provide enough cash to make upgrades to the property and if anything else came up after the first refi, the second would handle that, too. The third refi would provide less cash out since the loan to value percentage would be lower, but by the third refi, things should look pretty clean on the credit report. By the fourth refi, I could get a “good” loan with a decent rate and not have to refi again for many years (if ever). Rates were low, home prices were high.
Then came the real kicker… since they had been such ‘mates’ in getting all these ‘favors’ called in on my behalf, the only thing I would have to do is work for them- for free. Helloooooooo? I just paid them over $35K to do these “acts of generosity” for me and now I owe them a favor? I begged to differ. It seemed from my perspective that I was the one to whom favors were owed, and no free work was appropriate.
Even if I were so inclined to offer free work, how would I make these payments (that were now 3x the size they were before the refis) if the income ceased? I would be working a full-time job for the broker’s “group,” with no pay, living on the cash out until the next refi? Of course they had an answer for that, too.
With the high quality work I would do for the broker’s “group”, it would surely get noticed by all their associates. I would then get more contracts with new clients that would be paying the fees. To them it seemed win-win, but to me it sounded a lot like a story we share in the web development arena. It goes something like this:
A car dealership approaches a web developer and offers to let them create and maintain an expert online venue for them. They would not pay anything, but instead tell all their friends what a great job the developer does and hence, all their friends would order paid services from said developer.
The developer asks the dealership owner if the scenario would seem as sweet turned the other way around. How about if the developer picks a new car off the showroom floor, drives it all over town for free (forever)? The developer could tell all their friends what a great deal they got at the dealership. The dealership would then be inundated with sales, because they gave the new car away to the developer.
The dealership doesn’t like the deal because they “have fees to pay, personnel to pay, power, phone, utilities, etc.” Guess what? So does the developer.
Now to the tragic part.
The company for whom I worked finagled a deal with the IRS where they got out of paying me over $88k in a round-about maneuver. It made a head-on impact. The IRS came in and seized the company’s tangible assets, sold them to another party and relieved the original owner of any liability to back taxes, and the creditors- including me. The new owner had no obligation to the previous providers of service because they only acquired tangibles from the IRS, they didn’t buy the company. The new owners got to avoid the investors as well, who had no idea of what was being arranged. (Do you smell something yet?)
The new owners retained a small fraction of the services I provided, (their gesture of ‘goodwill’- you know) but now instead of paying a full salary, they only pay 10% commission on sales from the website and hourly development fees IF they request services. Normal day-to-day upkeep of servers- processing of ecommerce transactions- customer and investor relations (even on weekends) ….. those are not considered to be requested services, thus they won’t pay for any of them. The full salary for full-time diligence is gone and what remains is less than 8% of the original fees. The $88K? “Well…… sorry about your luck,” they say- “it’s gone, too.”
Hoping the new owners would do as they had promised and “turn the business into a real money maker” by doing what should have been done all along- marketing- advertising- faster product delivery- and “expert customer service” was placing trust where none was earned.
They don’t advertise. They don’t market the product. They suck at customer service. The investors contact me to find out what the H*ll happened to their money (since the previous owner has moved out of state and doesn’t answer their correspondence.) The fallout from the new business model is very similar to the foreclosure crisis….. Someone dishonest makes money while someone hard-working gets taken for everything they have- including their home, yet still has the obligation to keep working anyway to honor the contract. To stop marketing the product from my end, or to stop taking care of business daily, would only serve to shoot myself in the foot. No sales- no money.
While fully employed by the first owner, side clients could be small, occasional, and low key, but with the new arrangement, the side clients have to be increased in numbers to fill the gap in income. They have become essential to survival. They don’t have to be bigger clients (money-wise) there just has to be many more of them to fill the same gap.
Dumping the development career in favor of going to work at McD is an option. It’s not an option that will lead to stability, but one that will lead to the same homelessness at a slower pace. McD won’t pay enough to make the house payment or support the necessities of a single mother of 4….. even though it would be a steady paycheck delivered every 2 weeks.
So, dear friends- to those of you that seem to think there is a humorous side of families losing their homes to foreclosure, I am grateful that you have nothing to lose. I am grateful that none of your loved ones have a crisis at hand. I pray that you will never gain first-hand knowledge of the tragedy we face. It’s going to be a rough ride for me, but the bright side is that I am not my job- I am not my house- and I am not defeated even if I have to lose every possession I now enjoy.
If you would pray that I find a new company (or companies) for whom I can serve through my hard work, impeccable integrity, and creative spirit, I would be forever grateful.
When a case is set up, the child supprt services division takes a dominant authoritative stance, but when it comes to putting those assertions to the test, kids suffer by the department's lack of action. Over-worked and under-staffed is an explanation that still results in the suffering of kids. "If he doesn't pay, we will take away his drivers' license." "If he quits his job to get out of paying child support, we will have him working in his regular field from jail and sieze his income until amounts are current." "If he doesn't pay within 3 days of the due date, a warrant will be issued for his arrest." "We will put a lien on his name. Any tax refunds he has coming, will be seized. He can't sell anything or buy anything without us stepping in to collect amounts due to children. He WILL have to pay his child support or go to jail." I wonder how long it takes for these consequences to actually materialize. Sure, it's easy enough to suspend a license with the assumption that Dear old Dad won't be able to get to work without a license. But simply suspending a license doesn't stop anyone from being able to drive. Speaking of work, how successful has it been to collect child support from a contractor. If the man is in business for himself and receives a notice of garnished wages, how likely do you think he will be to attach his own paycheck? Not happening. It has been 6 years for my kids and still, no enforcement has been implemented beyond the suspended driver's license. Dear old Dad still drives everyday. Dear old Dad still works and gets paid. No garnished wages, no jail, no liens, nothing. Every few months, a letter or call comes in from the division inquiring about the father's location, employment, contact information, and other info that could assist in collection, but even with all requested information provided, no one takes the next step- going to the location, contacting the employer, contacting family members, or anything else that would serve the affected kids. What happens to kids when the mother is unable to develop skills necessary to provide stability? Do they stay in the welfare system for the allotted 5 years? Do they learn that the authority of the court is only symbolic for Dads and no matter how rough it sounds, enforcement is not forthcoming? All stability, therefore, is provided by the efforts of the mother (who is required to comply with all orders.) Non-compliance by the mother results in "possible charges being filed" and "possible jail time" while the father is free to do as he pleases without consequence or regard to any facet of parental responsibility. Does Child Support Services ever pick up the ball they dropped? If so, just how many years do kids have to wait for their advocate to take a stand as bold as their mothers make on their behalf? 
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