this kind of situation can't appen in France, only in USA, right ?

The house is always owned by the homeowner -- the bank merely has a lien. Ownership is rights, and
until the lien is exercised, the bank has no rights -- it cannot occupy, improve, demolish, rent, sell or borrow against the house.

Only after due process -- foreclsure or trust deed sale, depending on the state -- can the bank own the property. I doubt it's much different in France or any other country.

Yeah but in France the government taxes you to death and everyone eats snails. USA! USA!

Yes don't worry, we will only be suffering and in misery over here, you're safe in your country.

Of course this situation can (and does) happen in France - it can happen in any country that has a mortgage system.

It won't happen in the same way (just as it doesn't happen in this way in the US - the people involved are probably just as callous but the film misses out the more "boring" notice periods, negotiations etc.), but it happens.

However, like most of Europe, France is also a much more equal society with stronger safeguards for looking after the poor than the US - which is why things like this happen less often.

Actually we never truly 'own' a home, even after it's paid off (i.e., property taxes).

And don't think someone can't be evicted for a late property tax bill, especially if someone really wants the property.

I know the story of an elderly woman in my town who owned a little house and a little patch of property she grew watermelons on and sold for some spending money every year. Property had been in her family for years -- generations. It had been countryside but then some developers decided they wanted to develop that area. Everyone around her was bought out (or whatever), strip mall goes up, fast food joints, ya da ya da....

However, this woman did NOT want to sell. She was very old and wanted to die in that home. She was a very fragile lady with ill health. She was literally 'last man standing', in the middle of all these businesses and parking lots going in and going up.

Well, they tried and tried to buy from her. But no dice. They were angry.

Miraculously, *someone* *somehow* then *found* a $90.00 property tax bill that they *said* she had owed from something like 30 years before. Funny how she was never informed before that, that she had owed this.

And then they attached all these fines, back interest, and penalties on top of that. She could not pay.

She was old, practically infirm, and had no one to help her with this.

In short order, they boosted her out of her home and put her in a nursing home (where she died a short time later), and grabbed her property for little more than a song, by paying off that 'tax bill'/fines.

They literally made out like bandits.

People in town did not know until a few years after she had died what had happened. But by then, it was too late. Now, years later, her once beautiful property is just part of a dingy fading strip mall.

Personally, I think that tax bill was 'cooked' much like that forged paper at end of this movie.



"A distant ship, smoke on the horizon. You are only coming through in waves."

Yes, I "own" my home, but in reality the bank owns it until I pay off my 30 year mortgage.
I see it as paying rent to a lender, until its paid off.

Pursuant to the French Consumer Protection Code, borrowers can apply for a 'repayment holiday' (deferred payment) of up to 24 months if they are suffering financial hardship. Where the mortgage in arrears is less than 3,800 Euro, a simple Application, rather than a Summons, can be filed with the local Court. This, if applicable, must be done prior to lenders formally issuing a notice of foreclosure, i.e. that the borrower is defaulting on his/her loan repayment.

French homeowners can get a 24 month "reprieve" if they fall behind. The USA is not that lenient!

I'm a dual citizen, French and American, and own a home in the US.

In the US, you can get an unsecured loan, but not in the amount necessary to buy a house in most places. And if you do, the interest rate will be higher than a secured loan. Also, because of the US tax code, the unsecured loan interest is not deductible for income tax purposes.

For example, you might pay about 7% interest rate on an unsecured loan, not tax deductible.

Vs getting 3.5% interest rate on a mortgage - secured loan - ie. one with "hypotheque". And then that interest on your primary residence is deductible from your taxable income. Due to marginal tax brackets, depending on your income, between federal and state income taxes, your taxable bracket may be about 30-40%. So, your effective interest rate is really 60-70% of the bank's interest rate. Thus the 3.5% becomes 2.1 to 2.5% effectively, after tax deduction.

That makes the unsecured loan much less attractive. And in fact, you won't be able to qualify for a 7% loan of the same amount as a 2.1% loan - you can get a much bigger loan at 2.1% than 7%. In practice, you just cannot buy a house with an unsecured loan, because the rate and monthly payment would be too high compared to your income.

IMO, the US system is better than the French one. In France, if you want an unsecured loan for a home, you must qualify for life insurance. If you have medical conditions that make you uninsurable, you cannot get a loan at all. Myself and my husband have HIV, and we could never get an unsecured home loan in France if we wanted one for this reason.

However, with a secured loan (hypotheque), there are no medical questions - if we fail to pay for any reason, the bank can subsequently foreclose and take the home. And we do not need to pay extra costs for life insurance to protect the lender - life insurance which we don't qualify for at all. The bank's secured interest in the home (lien) is considered sufficient to protect them. Of course, that requires them to only loan reasonable amounts, compared to the property value. Thus, the appraisal is very important. If the appraisal is fraudulent, then the lenders can lose big. It is up to the lenders to do their jobs and appraise properly. They clearly did not do this in the 2000s. They had other incentives not to do so - they could resell the loans to other lenders at a profit. A lot of people borrowed too much as a result, and lost their homes. Eventually, the game of musical chairs stopped, and many lenders got stuck with bad loans.