County Official Agrees To Comply With Colorado Law In Handling Left Over Surplus Cash From Foreclosure Sales Belonging To Ex-Homeowners

In Arapahoe County, Colorado, The Denver Post reports:

• Despite a law that dictates otherwise, Arapahoe County for years has not told homeowners who lost their property to foreclosure that they are entitled to money left over from the sale.
• Instead, tens of thousands of dollars in overbids that belong to homeowners have sat in a county-controlled account. The money is from funds remaining after the house was sold in foreclosure and the bank note and liens were satisfied.
• State law says counties must publish notice that they have the money so it can be claimed. If it isn't claimed after five years, the county can keep it.

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• Arapahoe County has published almost none of the required notices since the law took effect in 1990. The county published a notice once, in early 2009, for a foreclosure with an overbid of $6,600, but Treasurer Sue Sandstrom said it's unclear why only that one was handled properly. The money remains unclaimed.
• State law requires county treasurers to take out five weeks of newspaper ads shortly after a foreclosure sale to announce it has the leftover money.

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• Sandstrom said notices were published properly last week on 15 properties, a practice that will continue. Arapahoe County recently doled out more than $165,000 in overbids to seven homeowners who have lost their property to foreclosure since 2006. That was the result of a Denver Post story last month about how few people know about the money and how counties sometimes do little to find them.
• Sandstrom, in office since Jan. 1, said her plan now is to also publish the names from the entire five-year period on the county's website as well as in a local newspaper.

For more, see People foreclosed on in Arapahoe County might be owed money and not know it.