Coloradans who lost their homes to foreclosure since 2012 can now check with the to see if they are due any money from the auction of property they once owned.
For the first time, public trustees across the state are turning over unclaimed excess funds from foreclosure auctions to the state treasurer, who maintains millions of dollars in property – cash, stocks, even jewelry – for owners who have not been located. Informally it’s known as the Great Colorado Payback.
The foreclosure sales proceeds are funds that exceed what a bank was owed when the home was seized and later sold at public auction. Known as “overbid” or “excess” funds, itap what is left after all liens and other claims are paid following the auction.
Denver Clerk Debra Johnson’s office – she is also Denver’s public trustee – is expected to hand over more than $1 million in unclaimed overbid funds that belong to about 50 people, said Patty White, director of the state’s unclaimed property fund.
“We’re anticipating some pretty substantial lists from the trustees,” White said. “I think itap really worthwhile that we can get this money back to the rightful owners.”
County public trustees oversee the foreclosure process and publish the names – but not the amounts – of people owed money from the auctions. Funds can be claimed at the trustee’s office, which auctions the property up until the transfer to the state treasurer.
Legislators this year changed the law that had allowed public trustees in each county to hold onto the overbid funds for five years before turning them over to the state treasurer’s unclaimed property fund. , though officials say it will happen just twice yearly to ensure all the money is properly accounted.
so no overbid funds have yet been transferred from trustees to the Great Colorado Payback until now, the treasurer’s office said.
The new law, which Johnson championed, . Consumers cannot be charged any fee in the first two years the money is with the state treasurer. Then the cap is 20 percent, rising to 30 percent after the third year.
no matter how much a homeowner might have been owed as long as it was unclaimed. how trustees often put , typically only mailing notices to a homeowner’s last address – the one they lost to foreclosure.
Now the funds remain held by the state treasurer in perpetuity, so descendants of the rightful owner can even claim the money years from now.
Trustees now spend more time looking for the owners and have reunited them at a time itap most needed. Last December, for instance, Johnson’s office returned $17,000 to a family whose father hadn’t been able to work in five years.
