The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC) has taken more than 20 Bahamians to court this month in a bid to collect some of the $80 million owed to it in delinquent loans, The Nassau Guardian has learned.
However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. As previously reported by The Guardian, over 1,000 Bahamians have loans in arrears.
In fact, The Guardian understands that some persons who were approved for loans at the mortgage corporation have not paid a single dollar for up to 10 years. Asked about the rate of delinquency, BMC Chairman Dr. Duane Sands would not comment on court proceedings, however he said the corporation is looking at ways to get its money back. He said scores of homes have gone or are about to go into foreclosure as a result of arrears.
"There's that group of individuals who have the ability to pay but chose not to," Sands said. "With them we've had to be extremely firm. Some of those individuals have been taken to foreclosure and some will be taken.
"We are not in the business of putting people out of their home. We are trying to provide funding for prospective homeowners."
The delinquency rate is about 38 percent, according to Sands. "We're actively looking at all legal options in a compassionate way to ensure that the Mortgage Corporation can live up to its mandate," he said.
"We would prefer to identify a way to help every single one of those delinquent mortgages to become current, but if we are unable to do so then we have to be guided by the law, which says there are certain remedies that the corporation can take."
Sands pointed out that the corporation's executive team has been working to clean up BMC's finances over the past 18 months. "We continue to have cash flow challenges because people are unwilling to pay," he said.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham recently lamented over the state of affairs at BMC. "The mortgage delinquency rate is unacceptably high, unaffordable and unsustainable for the future," he said.inable for the future," he said.
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