TN Legislature Hates Homeowners?

Tennessee's legislature is again making a bold stride backward. Their steady stream of legislation moving backwards certainly seems to be the theme of 2011.

Yesterday, legislators - led by Rep. Jimmy Matlock and Sen.Jack Johnson - moved a new bill to make it even easier for banks for rush through a foreclosure on homeowners. While nationally, 14 major mortgage firms were ordered to begin a process of reimbursement and corrective policies to provide more protection for homeowners struggling since the economic collapse -- a collapse brought on by "deceptive" practices in the mortgage market.

Rep. Matlock and Sen. Johnson introduced HB 1920 and SB 1299, which drops the number of required public notice publications of foreclosure from three times to just once. Currently, Tennessee homeowners have few protections - it can take as little as 21 days to foreclose on a property and the one way to halt it is to file bankruptcy and our state has one of the highest bankruptcy rates in the nation. The bill, as noted at the A Disgruntled Republican blog, would:

Their shorter process would be:
1. A single letter to the homeowner.
2. A single public notice in the paper.
(No property description in the public notice.)
(Errors would legally be allowed to appear in the notice.)
3. Sell the property at auction.

It's shameful.

But, as I said, given the constant moves against citizens in favor of corporate interests, this terrible legislation is likely to sail through the legislature and to hell with the consequences.