Alleged questionable housing write-offs

On Tuesday night we reported that Corozal resident, Jorge Escalante, had received a letter from the Housing & Planning Department stating that a loan he had paid off years ago was written off in the recent house mortgage write-offs. Since that news, a number of other reports and letters have surfaced from persons who never got a loan or who had long paid off their loans. News Five obtained copies of two more such letters today.  Fernando Montero was notified that a balance for a loan in excess of eighteen thousand dollars had been written off. But Montero says that in 1993, upon the request of the government he had to give up the house because he was unable to meet payments and since then another person has been occupying the home. The second letter was received by Andres Catch, with his name wrongly spelt as Andrea Catch. His letter stated that almost seventeen thousand dollars had been written-off and that he is required to visit the Ministry of Natural Resources and Lands Department to purchase the land. But Catch says he finished paying his loan four years ago and also has title to the property.