Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans were granted a three-month moratorium on their mortgage payments following Hurricane Maria’s destruction last fall. But many of those agreements expire this month, and thousands of homeowners are scrambling to get extensions.
Further, some Puerto Ricans who may have stopped making their mortgage payments are now learning that the moratorium was not automatic. They believed their mortgages were frozen, but they’ve since discovered they’re being held accountable for missed payments.
Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, knocking out power across the island in the largest blackout in U.S. history. The blackout prevented many homeowners from contacting their lenders, Ariadana Godreau, a professor and human rights lawyer, told the Associated Press. Moratoriums offered by the U.S. government have been extended until March, but many banks have not provided such an extension. “The big concern now is that mortgage foreclosures are going to spike,” Godreau says. “We’re going to see more homeless people, more homes foreclosed.”
Puerto Rico was in the middle of a recession when Maria hit, and foreclosures were already skyrocketing. The number of repossessed homes in Puerto Rico in the past decade has jumped from more than 2,300 in 2008 to 5,400 in 2016. The Associated Press reports that an estimated 6,200 or more foreclosures occurred there last year.
Banco Popular, Puerto Rico’s largest bank, told the Associated Press that more than 20,500 of its customers received moratoriums that expired in December and January. “The three-month moratorium might have seemed generous at first, but in reality, it’s not,” says Maria Jimenez, director of the legal services clinic at the University of Puerto Rico. “There are still people without power, so the ability to generate revenue is not there.”
Source: “Puerto Ricans Face Foreclosure Wave as Moratoriums Expire,” Associated Press (Jan. 24, 2018)
