HuffPo: NY Developer walks away from 11,232 Manhattan apartments because it can't pay its mortgage

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Tishman Speyer Walked Away From Its Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village Mortgage. Why Can't You?

RACHEL BECK | 01/30/10 12:00 AM | AP



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/31/tishman-speyer-walked-awa_n_443659.html

NEW YORK — Tishman Speyer Properties walks away from 11,232 Manhattan apartments because it can't pay its mortgage. That's good business.

Rick Gilson, a college custodial supervisor in South Dakota, wants to walk away from the mortgage on his mobile home. If he does, he'll be a deadbeat.

Those two borrowers face the same financial dilemma: Their mortgages far exceed the values of their properties. Yet one gets to walk away without guilt, while the other can't.

Gilson is too scared to dump the mortgage on his mobile home. He owes $31,973, but the home is only worth about $14,000.

[SharonAnn]

1. Because Tishman Speyer had lobbyists to ensure the bankruptcy would allow them to do this.

Gilson (and you and I) didn't have lobbyists or didn't have powerful enough lobbyists.

I remember when this was being discussed several years ago with the changes to the bankruptcy laws and the banks won.

Another great deal from the changes in those laws is that now child support is considered equal to credit card debt. So it no longer takes precedence to feed a child first. You must feed the bank!

[FreakinDJ]

2. Corporate Bankruptcy is different then Personal Bankruptcy

thanks to the RATpubliCONs

[SharonAnn]

3. Except that in personal bankruptcy you can walk away from your second home, but not your first one.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Not with the NEW changes they put in place in 2006

Nope you lose it all and can quite possibly be making payments for the rest of your life.

[lurky]

4. Yes, now corporations have MORE rights than humans. n/t