Quote:
Originally Posted by turbo6bar
Put me in the minority. I personally would never get myself in that mess, but I don't blame a person for walking. The banks and credit bureaus have made it too easy to walk. There is no penalty for this action. Those fuchers (lenders, investors, etc) quest for profit at all cost overrode all caution.
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I have some sympathy for this view. In contract law there is generally a concept of "force majeure" that excuses a party from walking away from a contractual commitment in certain limited circumstances.
"Force majeure" is generally considered to be an unforeseen factor that so completely changes the bargain that was made in the contract, that it would be inequitable to hold parties to their contractual terms.
In my mind the catastrophic drop in housing values is very close to being a "force majeure" event. At least I think there are cases where a compelling argument for this can be made.
In any case, I wouldn't put too much of a moral spin on this—especially with the bank at the other end of the stick. Banks certainly are not generally burdened by moral scruples in these matters—so why should the OP be? (I'm assuming here that he's giving sufficient weight to the issue of future credit wothiness etc.)