Ohio man bulldozes $350K home to avoid foreclosure

[MasterBlaster]

MOSCOW, Ohio – An Ohio man says he bulldozed his $350,000 home to keep a bank from foreclosing on it.
Terry Hoskins says he has struggled with the RiverHills Bank over his home in Moscow for years and had problems with the Internal Revenue Service. He says the IRS placed liens on his carpet store and commercial property and the bank claimed his house as collateral.
Hoskins says he owes $160,000 on the house. He says he spent a lot of money on attorneys and finally had enough. About two weeks ago he bulldozed the home 25 miles southeast of Cincinnati.
Messages were left for the bank and its attorney.
IRS spokeswoman Jodie Reynolds said individual taxpayer information is private and federal law prevents her from commenting.

 

[Trek]

Wonder if he got the idea from that Little House on the Prairie episode where they blew up all the buildings in the town instead of handing it all over to the scumbag businessman who managed to buy all the land the town was built on.

 

[Martha]

It is a crime to destroy collateral. He can make a new home in jail.

 

[FIREd]

I am so tired of this pervasive victim mentality. "The IRS/bank/credit card company ruined my life, waaah!". Perhaps you could man-up and pay what you owe instead of throwing a tantrum when you don't get your way. For Pete's sake, grow up!

 

[chemist]

Bulldozing a home only destroys its value and the value of the land is retained.

He could have got 'em one better by operating a Meth lab in the home and dumping the waste in the backyard and letting the bank foreclose. Now the house and land would have negative value.

Just kidding folks.

But I did read some banks foreclose on $250K homes with $200K loans only to inherit a half million environmental bill due to antics like these.

 

[audreyh1]

It's worse than a tantrum! This only makes me think of the guy flying his plane into the IRS building in Austin last week.

Audrey

 

[Bestwifeever]

At least no one was injured in the bulldozing. I'm going to bet he left the debris on the land for the bank to clean up after the foreclosure goes through.

 

[kyounge1956]

Anyway, hasn't he just made his own situation worse? Bulldozing the house won't repay the debt, but it does reduce what the bank will get for the property when they resell it after the foreclosure, and thus increase the size of the remaining debt. This will not clear the IRS liens. What did he think he was going to gain?

 

[bbbamI]

This will not clear the IRS liens. What did he think he was going to gain?

Three hots, a cot and a roommate named Bubba.

 

[SarahW]

It is a crime to destroy collateral. He can make a new home in jail.

As well he should. Good grief.

 

[youbet]

It is a crime to destroy collateral. He can make a new home in jail.

Sometimes it takes guts and a strong will to stand up to a corrupt and unfair government. Sometimes you burn a draft card or flag. Sometimes you refuse to sit in the back of the bus. Sometimes you bulldoze your home.........

But, I'm sure he's screwed up his chances of FIRE.

 

[tgotch]

YouTube - Man Bulldozer His House Before It Goes Into Foreclosure!!!

 

[SarahW]

Sometimes it takes guts and a strong will to stand up to a corrupt and unfair government. Sometimes you burn a draft card or flag. Sometimes you refuse to sit in the back of the bus. Sometimes you bulldoze your home.........

But, I'm sure he's screwed up his chances of FIRE.

Maybe he should have simply PAID HIS INCOME TAXES to begin with. Then he could have avoided those pesky IRS liens. I hope he goes to jail.

 

[JPatrick]

Sometimes it takes guts and a strong will to stand up to a corrupt and unfair government. Sometimes you burn a draft card or flag. Sometimes you refuse to sit in the back of the bus. Sometimes you bulldoze your home.........

And sometimes you get the elevator--Sometimes you get...

 

[Orchidflower]

Sometimes it takes guts and a strong will to stand up to a corrupt and unfair government. Sometimes you burn a draft card or flag. Sometimes you refuse to sit in the back of the bus. Sometimes you bulldoze your home.........

But, I'm sure he's screwed up his chances of FIRE.

And sometimes you take a plane and run it into an IRS building killing yourself. Good plan, Stan...not.

He needs to attend another anger management meeting...good grief. Glad I'm not married to him.

 

[youbet]

And sometimes you get the elevator--Sometimes you get...

Yep..... Life isn't fair. So ya do what ya gotta do. But if it wasn't for some folks making a statement, we'd still have the draft, men-only voting, white-only lunch counters, etc. I don't necessarily agree with this guy, and he may very well go to jail, but as I get older I find myself realizing that some of the folks in my life that were more aggressively speaking up in defiance on various subjects than I might not have been all wrong.

 

[Orchidflower]

Isn't that what the Boston Tea Party and the Alamo were about? Standing up for your beliefs I get. Destroying your life or your house is pretty radical, but they did get the point across at least.

 

[youbet]

Destroying your life or your house is pretty radical,.

It's going on here in the Chicago area. Folks advertise on Craig's List that their house is being foreclosed and they're "selling parts." Contractors, tradesmen, whoever flock in and strip out the appliances, HVAC system, light fixtures, flooring or carpets, plumbing fixtures, doors - interior and exterior, cabinets, pretty much anything worth a nickel. They pay a few cents on the dollar, in cash of course. If the owner is particularly vindictive towards whoever is foreclosing they even post in the Craig's List "free" section and allow scrappers to pull the copper pipes and wire out of the walls. The owner walks away leaving a totally trashed house but with a little cash in his/her pocket. This is most common with newer, high tier homes. Less dramatic than the bulldozer deal this guy did, but has about the same effect.

If the bulldozer guy goes to jail, these folks ought to spend a little time in the pokey too, IMHO.

They're all jerks, but at least Mr Bulldozer got his moment of fame and made his point, whatever it was. Somehow doing it with a bulldozer just has more character than doing it via Craig's List.

 

[kyounge1956]

And sometimes you get the elevator--Sometimes you get...

elevator?

 

[MasterBlaster]

elevator?

And sometimes you get the elevator--Sometimes you get...

Sometimes you get the shaft -

badadump rimshot

 

[laurence]

I don't know this guys particulars, but destroying the foreclosed home, stripping the copper piping from your foreclosed home etc strikes me more steps on the same path as all my neighbors (in the old house) who were "upside down" and walked away from their home. I went to an open house where a guy was bragging about how much he made in real estate but was now going to "walk away" from a rental home since it was upside down. I said, "so the upside was your wit and fortitude and business savvy, but the downside was misfortune and not your fault? Did you understand the terms of the purchase agreement?" at this point the real estate agent nittered her way in to keep it pleasant for the crowd. I, of course, stopped interfering with her attempting to do her job.

These people probably don't see the irony in pointing at wall street execs and say, "look at them, privatize the profit, make the losses public!"

 

[NW-Bound]

His house was worth $350K. He owed the bank $160K. Does that mean he had $190K worth of equity that he also bulldozed when throwing that tantrum?

 

[kyounge1956]

His house was worth $350K. He owed the bank $160K. Does that mean he had $190K worth of equity that he also bulldozed when throwing that tantrum?

It's confusing. I don't think he owed money on the house, he owed back taxes, but in that case I don't quite understand why the bank was foreclosing. Maybe the taxes were owed by his business and he had at some time used the house for collateral on a business loan? It still makes no sense at all to me. He has destroyed an asset that was worth more than he owed. Even if the bank did foreclose, wouldn't they have to return to him any excess over the amount of the lien? It sounds to me as if he has shot himself in the foot to the tune of $190K, and he still owes back taxes but now has no way to pay them. Not only has he destroyed his house, he has probably destroyed his credit, and maybe made himself liable to jail time for tax fraud and/or deliberately destroying the collateral of his loan (assuming there was a loan).

I wonder if there is any such thing as a Financial Darwin Award? I think this guy has earned at least an honorable mention.

 

[traineeinvestor]

I wonder if there is any such thing as a Financial Darwin Award? I think this guy has earned at least an honorable mention.

No chance. Not even close. There are too many much better examples - look at the people who ran Lehman, Bear Sterns, AIG, LTCM, Countrywide etc, the people who gave all their money to one ponzi scheme operator, Iceland, those who relied exclusively on a single company pension for retirement, not to mention so many other deserving individuals like Casey Serin and, one of my personal favorites, the Hunt brothers.

Not a bad idea though - we'd want to call it something else (like the John Law Award for financial innovation, the Andrew Dexter Award for banking prudence or the Jesse Livermore Award for risk management etc)

 

[Maurice]

Folks advertise on Craig's List that their house is being foreclosed and they're "selling parts." Contractors, tradesmen, whoever flock in and strip out the appliances, HVAC system, light fixtures, flooring or carpets, plumbing fixtures, doors - interior and exterior, cabinets, pretty much anything worth a nickel. They pay a few cents on the dollar, in cash of course. If the owner is particularly vindictive towards whoever is foreclosing they even post in the Craig's List "free" section and allow scrappers to pull the copper pipes and wire out of the walls. The owner walks away leaving a totally trashed house but with a little cash in his/her pocket.

Wow, what filthy scum. What kind of families are these people from?

If I borrowed money and then couldn't pay it back, I would feel bad about it. The last thing I could imagine doing is vandalizing my creditor's property.