See that would be the difference between American mortgages and Australian mortgages. American mortgages are non-recourse (ie. creditors can only reclaim the property on the loan to re-coup loses) and Australian mortgages are full-recourse (creditors can reclaim every single little thing that you and co-signees have to re-coup loses on the mortgage)
This is why jingle mail is so popular in the US. However in Australia people are a little less willing to walk away from their house mortgage knowing that they will lose their house, car, plasma, savings, business, jewellery etc. If the avg. Australian Joe doesn't know this then kind repo guys may remind them of this, when they come for their $.
