Can a bank be forced to take ownership of a property that was released to them in a bankruptcy?

In the usual home loan situation, the borrowers own the home and the bank has both a lien on the property and the borrowers' personal contract to pay the loan. Going bankrupt erases the borrowers' personal contract to pay the loan but neither of the other things change. The bank can foreclose on the property and either take it over or sell it to a third party but the bank isn't required to. Banks are in the business of making loans and collecting payments, not taking over and selling houses, particularly long vacant houses that are probably trashed. Back when they went through bankruptcy, they should have worked out a short sale with the bank and gotten rid of the property but at this point, there is little that they can do.

I wish your parents had addressed this issue many years ago. Although they & their attorney may have assumed that the bank would foreclose on the property after the bankruptcy was filed, since the bank didn't do this, the responsibilities of property ownership have followed them & they are legally responsible for the expenses relating to their ownership of the property. A better choice would have been to rent the property to create an income or to sell it (via short sale if necessary), or to offer the bank a deed in lieu of foreclosure.