In the dirt streets of Girassol, a residential building built by poor families on the side of the highway that leads to Brasília, the tension of a significant portion of the residents is almost palpable. Some properties reflect this feeling: they were abandoned and plucked, with water tanks, wiring and gates ripped out.
Other houses in Girassol, which is on the outskirts of Cocalzinho de Goiás, a small town on the outskirts of the Federal District, are occupied by families who arrived in the wake of the abandonment of the first residents. They are there as the only means of housing, without paying rent, and also to avoid the depredation of the houses at any sign of abandonment.
The uncertainty incorporated into the routine at Girassol is due to the decision of Banco do Brasil to auction residential properties of poor families who failed to pay their mortgages.
BB stated that the auctions were “mandatory, in compliance with law 9,514/97 (fiduciary alienation)”.
Auctions intensified in the years of the pandemic, when workers from the periphery of Brazilian cities found themselves without income in the face of the economic crisis and the restrictions on movement imposed by the fight against the virus, which mainly affected informal workers.
Default on real estate financing has become a constant in Girassol, where cleaning women, carpenters, bricklayers, sand loaders and other self-employed people who usually look for work in Brasília live, whose center is 70 kilometers from the Cocalzinho residential complex.
Vanderlei Pereira da Silva, 35, lives with his 1-year-old son Gael, in a simple house in Girassol. He hasn’t found work for three weeks. He does sand truck loading. In the worst moments of the pandemic, the periods without work were even longer.
Years ago Silva failed to pay the mortgage, whose installment is R$ 518. “I got into debt, I take care of my son alone and I pay R$ 400 just for the woman who takes care of the baby when I have work”, he said.
He fears the house will go up for auction; if he hasn’t already, which Silva doesn’t know because he hasn’t received a letter or phone call from the bank.
On the next lot, the house where Silva’s nephew’s family lives was put up for auction by Banco do Brasil on Monday (25). The minimum bid was BRL 15,493.
The painter Walliff de Oliveira, 28, his wife, Fabiana das Dores, 26, and their 10-year-old daughter live in the property. They said they had bought a premium from the person who made the financing at Banco do Brasil. They paid nine installments and were in default.
“We discovered the auction on the internet. There is no letter, no call, nothing,” said Fabiana. “If they’re going to take the house, they’re going to take it from everyone. From the asphalt to here, nobody pays.”
The properties offered for sale are simple. Some have two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom. There is no running water for everyone, the internet is unstable, most streets are unpaved and power does not regularly reach all homes.
Gustavo da Silva Mariano, 21, takes care of a farm near the house where he lives in Girassol. The property is one of those offered at Monday’s auction.
Mariano occupies the house with his wife and two children, aged 2 and 5. “Whoever made the financing stopped paying the installments over time. And then he offered me to live here, otherwise they’ll rip everything out. If I leave today, they’ll rip out the wiring, sink, everything.”
The young man said the situation has worsened a lot in the pandemic, with more houses being put up for auction. “I don’t even know. I’ve been here for a year. If the house is auctioned, I’m out.”
The occupied houses are being put up for sale at auctions by Banco do Brasil, with minimum bids of R$15,000 to R$60,000, as was the case with the auction held last Monday (25th).
In all, 101 properties – all of them described as occupied – were offered in this auction. The houses offered are located in Girassol and in residential units with the same level of urban precariousness in Cocalzinho and Águas Lindas de Goiás, also in the vicinity of the DF.
The auction was carried out without a communication by letter or telephone to the occupants, according to the report of the residents to the Sheet.
Information about the auctions spread throughout the neighborhood, and the abandonment of properties, the removal of valuables, occupation by other families or remaining in properties without clarity about the destination became common.
THE Sheet questioned Banco do Brasil about the number of auctions held from 2018 to 2022, involving properties with bid values of R$50,000 or less.
According to data provided by the bank, no auctions were held in 2018. In 2019, first under the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, there were 25. In 2020, when the effects of the pandemic began, 35 auctions were held. In 2021, the number rose to 41. According to the data, 4 auctions have already been held in 2022, adding up to 105 in total.
Commercial auctions also increased exponentially in the pandemic, according to data from Banco do Brasil: none in 2018 and 2019; 68 in 2020; and 166 in 2021.
Despite the increase, auctions have been experiencing low demand. In a competition with an offer of 149 properties, there were 4 sales, with an average negotiation value of R$ 33.7 thousand, according to the bank.
In another, with 119 houses, there were no buyers. It is common for these houses to be placed in repeated auctions, according to the occupants of the properties.
“Banco do Brasil has several options to avoid default on real estate financing operations”, he said, in a note. “After noticing the credit default, BB continues to provide alternatives for the regularization of installments in a simplified way with lengthening of the term and dilution of the overdue balance, within good banking practices.”
In 2021, according to the institution, more than 35 thousand operations of this type were renegotiated and regularized. The direct sale or auction takes place “after all attempts to regularize it have been exhausted”, according to the note.
“The properties are offered as they are, with significant discounts and differentiated conditions, giving the opportunity of acquisition, even by the current occupants, if any. the bank.
In case of resistance on the part of the person occupying the property, the matter must be resolved in court, on the initiative of the person who bought the property.
In Girassol, the report did not find any family that claimed to have the financial conditions to buy their own property at auction. They are not even formally notified of the sale, according to reports.
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