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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   16444 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026

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I quite like the first right of refusal part of this law, and find the second right of refusal for non-profits to be a pretty obvious opportunity for abuse which has been rightly litigated.

I also think such a right of refusal should side-step the foreclosure rules. The problem is that the debts on the property are discharged in foreclosure, whether they're paid off or not. If I'm a tenant who wants to purchase the building that the owner defaulted on, either I should pay enough to discharge those debts, or I need to take them on myself. The whole reason foreclosure exists is for a mortgaged property that nobody is willing to buy normally - if there is a buyer, but at a discounted price, then foreclosure shouldn't even apply. Or am I missing something?

I quite like the first right of refusal part of this law

Isn't even this ripe for abuse? You have a big mortgage; you get foreclosed on; and your spouse or kid buys it at a steep discount. Or am I misunderstanding how it works?

If the price they pay for it is enough to discharge the mortgage debt, then they should be free to do so. If not then yes it's potentially abusable.

But according to op the first right of refusal has never been exercised. I think that's because if your spouse or kid can afford to buy your house at a discount, it's likely much better for them to help you avoid foreclosure in the first place.

I had written up a response about how buying a foreclosed property requires way more cash up front than a normal mortgage and that seems like a rare situation where a parent is really hard up while a kid has a decent amount of money laying around, but AI tells me NJ specifically wrote this law to give a 90 day window to find a normal mortgage.

They are trying to prevent misused directly with:

With respect to the borrower or the borrower’s next of kin, the right of 1st refusal only applies if the foreclosure is due circumstances outside of the borrower’s control (e.g., financial hardship, physical or mental illness, divorce, death of borrower or borrower’s spouse/dependent, etc…)

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