I have a "friend"  actually it is a friend but it's getting harder to be his friend.

He has a home worth roughly $200,000 under water with mortage, penalties etc up to $280,000 plus.  While I initially felt bad for him, it's getting harder to even discuss his situation.  Wells Fargo is actually not only letting to continue to live in the house after 3+ years of non-payment, they are actually paying his property taxes and even his home owners insurance this whole 3+ years.  I've never heard of a case this extreme.  I thought the backlog was getting cleaned up out but this true story makes me feel differently.  You can't find any pending foreclosure on zillow, or the local sherriff sale records like you see on so many other houses.  I can't figure how why they would continue something that can't possibly resolve itself.  Just curious if wells fargo is in more denial than most banks and if anyone has heard of other siutations where banks are paying the taxes and insurance for such a long time period.

I don't there being any "deal" to be had here except the one he is actually taking advantage of but if someone else sees an angle please feel free to contribute.

Thanks for your time

These cases "fall through the cracks" all the time.  The lender will typically pay the taxes, and force place insurance to protect their collateral.  At some point, they'll wake up and file foreclosure.

You will always have people working the system, and they are nothing but deadbeats, and they are the ones that making it tough for hard-working people to buy a home.

Joe Gore

The bank pays the taxes on the property to limit their loss in hopes it can regain maybe 100-150k in foreclosure vs losing everything in tax deed auction for dilinquent county payments.