How to claim Foreclosure surplus

[jrwriter]

My family has been contacted to claim funds my father might have after his foreclosure in 2016. Is it possible to do the claim ourselves? We have found the original deed and the deed at the time of the Foreclosure sale. Would we contact the Title company filing the deed or the referee that represented the bank? All of that info was on the deed.
Thanks for your help!

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Who contacted you and what state are you in?

 

[Zigner]

If your father has passed, then his estate is due the proceeds. (In the US)

 

[jrwriter]

Thanks for the reply. I forgot the company name but it was something like “Asset Recovery LLC”. My father is not deceased and the asset location is in NY.

 

[Zigner]

Thanks for the reply. I forgot the company name but it was something like “Asset Recovery LLC”. My father is not deceased and the asset location is in NY.

Then why do you believe that you and/or your siblings are entitled to your father's money?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Follow this link https://www.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/ It is the New York office of abandoned funds.

 

[jrwriter]

Sorry for the confusion @Zigner My father asked to figure this out for him. So I am gathering info for him so we can make the claim. He’s pretty old

 

[jrwriter]

@PayrollHRGuy hey thanks for the link, this was the first place I queried and did not find any listing regarding the property the Asset Company was referencing. So I was wondering with a foreclosure is there a different claim process through the mortgagor or through the title company which handled the foreclosure sale closing?

 

[jrwriter]

@Zigner also in the initial post I said “my family has been contacted”. To clear that up, the asset company has literally contacted all family associated with my father. We have not communicated with the company since it sounds like fraud. Free money doesn’t really call your phone too often. So we wanted to go directly to the source.

 

[Zigner]

I'm not sure that a proceeding in 2016 that generated unclaimed funds would have escheated to the state by 2018. You would have to review the law in the appropriate state for that.

Your dad (or you, on his behalf, with authorization) can go ahead and contact the title company and see if they can provide more information. If you decided to contact Asset Recovery directly, be aware that they may try to charge you for recovering these funds. Whether or not you want to pay them is up to you, but remember that, oftentimes, you can do the same thing yourself for free.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

What concerns me is that a search for "Asset Recovery LLC" doesn't come up with anything but "Asset Recovery Solutions LLC" and that is a bill collector.

 

[jrwriter]

What concerns me is that a search for "Asset Recovery LLC" doesn't come up with anything but "Asset Recovery Solutions LLC" and that is a bill collector.

Thanks for looking into the company. I wasn't sure of the name as I was away from home. I am back now and the company name is "Atlantis Asset Recovery LLC".

 

[jrwriter]

I'm not sure that a proceeding in 2016 that generated unclaimed funds would have escheated to the state by 2018. You would have to review the law in the appropriate state for that.

Your dad (or you, on his behalf, with authorization) can go ahead and contact the title company and see if they can provide more information. If you decided to contact Asset Recovery directly, be aware that they may try to charge you for recovering these funds. Whether or not you want to pay them is up to you, but remember that, oftentimes, you can do the same thing yourself for free.

Thanks @Zigner! I will reach out to the title company then to see if I can get more information.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

That company does seem to be one of those companies that help you get money that has been escheated from to the state. I'm not familiar with other ways they may "find" money in New York but maybe they were just better at searching the NY Comptroller's database.

 

[Dandy Don]

With a little bit of investigation on your part, you may be able to find this information yourself. In many states (at the county level), the foreclosure listings are public record.

What county was your father's property located in? May I assume it is in Queens County? Contact the county assessor to find out how foreclosure proceedings are handled in that county, or call the Residential Foreclosure Office of Queens County at (718) 298-1092 to ask for their advice.

Any foreclosure will legally be handled by a court case and your father and his heirs/family should have been notified by mail when the foreclosure was taking place, although your father may not have been notified if whoever was handling the foreclosure did not know his mailing address at the time.

Do a search on the following New York court case website, using your father's first name and surname as search terms, to see if any relevant foreclosure cases come up with his name:

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/ecourtsMain

I believe you will find the relevant foreclosure case and you can then visit the courthouse to look at the file to see how the case was handled or order documents from the case by mail.

If you know any attorneys or paralegals or any members of the general public who have access to the PACER federal government database, you could ask that person to do a search, using your father's name as a search term, to see if the foreclosure case is listed there. There is a small fee required for that search.

Do NOT sign a contract/fee agreement with any asset recovery firm unless you can not find the information from other sources, and even then, you should negotiate by suggesting, for example, that they reduce their fee to 10% instead of whatever they are asking for (many such services ask for one third).