PNC owns empty house, buyer sits in motel as foreclosure mess halts sales

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. was on the brink of selling Jim Durden a foreclosed house in Weed, Calif., last month when the country’s biggest banks came under public fire for improperly seizing homes. Now, he lives in an EconoLodge. “I can’t get the house ready for winter, can’t install the missing water heater, can’t whack the weeds down, and can’t attend to the things a new homeowner needs to do,” Durden, 65, e-mailed from the motel. He has been in limbo since Oct. 7 after moving his belongings 640 miles north from a Los Angeles apartment. After Bank of America Corp. and other lenders delayed seizures almost two months ago to check their sworn court statements in thousands of foreclosures, a growing number of would-be buyers are struggling to close deals — a sign that the documentation mess is dragging on the market.