It's axiomatic that credit unions and other mortgage lendersdon't want to foreclose on houses. They are not in the real estatebusiness. But George Shipman has seen more than his fair share ofthe problems that credit unions and other lenders face while owninghouses.

One of the biggest challenges Shipman has often faced has beensecuring the houses that his employing institutions owned. Herecalled instances where a team was sent to a foreclosed propertyto get it ready to sell and found someone else had moved into theproperty.

Then there was the time a broker whose buyer was bidding on aproperty called the credit union to report that someone else hadmoved in there and was making changes to the property, such aslandscaping and some minor renovations. When confronted byofficials from the credit union, the new occupant said he livedthere and threatened to sue the credit union if it took action toevict him.

“Twice we changed the locks on the doors and twice he had themchanged back,” Shipman said.

But the most memorable incident might have been the time acredit union found that the occupant of a foreclosed propertyclaimed to be renting it from a nearby church. The church, locateda few blocks down the street, had started renting the property,Shipman explained.

“That one might still be in the courts,” Shipman said. “It gotvery complicated because there were renters involved and that isanother whole section of law,” he added.

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