People involved in foreclosure actions have paid “questionable” fees for years to cover mailing expenses the county never incurred, Public Trustee Tom Mowle said Thursday.

Mowle told county commissioners his office reduced the $57 flat fee for mailings associated with foreclosure actions to $35 on Jan. 1.

In March, the flat fee was eliminated, and now the county charges actual mailing costs, which generally run from $13 to $15 per foreclosure.

“This is questionable whether we should be doing this in the first place,” he said of the flat fees. “There’s no legal basis to collect fees for more than we are spending.”Mowle, who took office in February 2008, said the flat fees date to at least 2002.

The fee is paid by the banks, the person who buys the house or the homeowner if the home is cleared of default. Mailings can range from a few notices of sale to homeowners and lien holders to 70 or more if a property involves multiple occupants, such as an apartment complex.

“It’s not right to charge the same fee for five envelopes and 70 envelopes,” he said.

Even if a homeowner cleared the default and no mailings were required, the county charged a flat fee.

“We pay the $217.50 to publish a notice, and we pass that charge along. That’s a legitimate fee,” Mowle said. “This flat fee, it wasn’t clear that it was attached to any actual expense.”

Mowle said he refunded some of the $35 charges this year when it was apparent postage wasn’t necessary, such as when a homeowner cleared a foreclosure by getting a new loan or renegotiating the loan.

Mowle said the change means the county will collect $150,000 to $200,000 less this year than it did in 2008.

“It’s not good for us,” Commissioner Chairman Jim Bensberg said, a reference to the cash-strapped county, which has cut jobs and programs because of falling revenues amid the economic slump.

“But it’s the right thing to do,” Mowle said.

Last year, the Public Trustee’s Office returned $499,035 to the county in excess funds that the county was free to spend as it wished.

–

Call the writer at 636-0238

Lance Armstrong Photo by AP PHOTO