Posted at 05:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Bank of America, Citibank, Comptroller of the Currency, foreclosure, GMAC, home mortgage foreclosures, home mortgage foreclosures, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, law, mortgage, PNC, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo
Filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Ignacio Damian Figueroa vs. Merscorp, Inc., Law Offices of David J. Stern, PA, and David J. Stern, individually, is a class action suit on behalf of people who have lost their homes in mortgage foreclosures where MERS and Stern's office were involved. The Complaint is thoroughly researched and well written. It asks for triple damages, costs and attorney fees under the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act," also known as the RICO Act.
The suit says that Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc.,or "MERS," is a racketeering enterprise. It charges that Stern, along with his law firm and related companies conspired with MERSCORP to deprive homeowners of their property illegally through fraud. The homeowner's attorney in this case is Kenneth Eric Trent in Fort Lauderdale.
Many thanks to the folks at http://4closurefraud.org/ and Matt Weidner Blog for bringing this to our attention. The Irish have an old saying: "Is this a private fight or can anybody get in?" If the Court certifies this as a class action, and your home mortgage was involved with MERS and foreclosed by Stern's office, you will be offered an opportunity to get in this fight.
Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: 4closurefraud, class action, David J. Stern, fraud, home mortgage, Matt Weidner Blog, MERS, mortgage foreclosure, racketeering, RICO, RICO Act
This morning the Palm Beach Post ran an article called “Weighing the Pros and Cons of Foreclosures vs. Short Sales.” There’s a lot of good information in the story. There are serious consequences to just walking away and letting the bank foreclose your mortgage. A short sale can be the best solution to your mortgage problems. But there are some things you should know that the Post didn’t mention.
1. IT CAN TAKE A LONG TIME TO GET A SHORT SALE APPROVED
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Lots of people want stay in their homes for as long as they can. It can take 9 months or longer to get bank approval and close the sale. That’s after you have a contract signed by a buyer. But if you just want to get it over with, there are faster foreclosure alternatives than short sale. Look into a deed-for-lease or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. A mortgage foreclosure defense lawyer or a HUD-certified housing counselor can explain these options to you.
2. THE BANK MAY NOT WAIVE ITS RIGHT TO THE DEFICIENCY
Yes, there are banks that sometimes agree to waive the deficiency, but there’s no guarantee that they will. To get a short sale approved, you have to give your bank the same information they want for a mortgage modification: tax returns, bank statements, pay stubs, an income-and-expense report, a list of your assets and liabilities, and even a hardship letter. If the lender decides that you could pay the deficiency with your future earnings or by selling some other things you own, you aren’t likely to get a waiver of the deficiency
3. THE BANK CAN JUST SAY NO
Mortgage companies have an absolute right to refuse a short sale. There is no law that requires them to approve it. There is nothing in your mortgage that says they have to agree. Short sale may be the most logical, reasonable solution for everybody involved, including the bank, but that doesn't mean they will agree to it. They can say no to the short sale or they can “stonewall” giving an answer to the approval request for such a long time that your contract expires and your buyer goes away.
4. EVERYBODY ELSE WITH A LIEN ON THE PROPERTY HAS TO BE INVOLVED IN THE SHORT SALE TOO
Besides your first mortgage, any other liens on your home have to be cleaned up before a new buyer can get good title. You may have a second mortgage or home equity line of credit. There could be homeowner or condo association liens, judgment liens, mechanics liens for work that was done on the house, or tax liens. Some of these things would be eliminated if the mortgage was foreclosed, It ought to be easy to get the people whose liens would get wiped out to agree to the sale but sometimes they’re stubborn. The associations have rights that survive foreclosure, and their claims have to be resolved. If you have other liens, you should have expert help with negotiating your short sale.
5. SHORT SALE MAY NOT STOP FORECLOSURE
Listing your house for short sale probably won’t stop your
mortgage company from filing a lawsuit to foreclose your mortgage. Getting a
short sale offer from a buyer who has the ability to pay the contract amount is
no guarantee that the bank won’t sue you. You can send your lender all the
paperwork that their “foreclosure prevention” department has asked for, and
still have a process server show up at your door with a complaint and summons
for foreclosure. And if you don’t defend yourself in court, you can lose your
home even though you’ve been in daily contact with the bank about the short
sale.
Don’t believe anybody who tells you that you don’t have to respond to a foreclosure lawsuit. That’s absolutely not true. Negotiating with the bank for a short sale, a mortgage modification, or any other “foreclosure alternative” won’t even slow down a home mortgage foreclosure if the court doesn’t know about it. If you get sued for foreclosure and you don’t answer the complaint, you can lose by default. Talk to a mortgage foreclosure defense lawyer to find out what you really need to do.
The point of all this is not to talk you out of listing your home for short sale. Depending on your circumstances, short sale could be your best choice. Just get all the information you need before you make that choice.
Posted at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: foreclosure, foreclosure prevention, home mortgage foreclosure, mortgage, mortgage foreclosure, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Post, short sale
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1. Don't ignore phone calls and letters from your mortgage company or loan servicer. Answering those letters is your best bet for keeping your home.
2. Don’t work with any foreclosure prevention consultants until you check with the government agency that regulates them to make sure they are licensed or certified. The Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau are NOT government agencies.
3. Don't pay up-front fees to a foreclosure consultant. It’s against the law for them to collect money before they perform services.
4. Don't pay your mortgage payments to anyone except your lender or loan servicer. Phony mortgage consultants often keep the money for themselves.
5. Don't transfer the title of your home to a "foreclosure rescuer." A promise that you will be allowed to stay in your home as a renter or that you will be part of a bankruptcy that will get rid of your mortgage debt is a scam. You can end up homeless faster than if you went through mortgage foreclosure.
6. Don’t ever sign any documents without reading them first. Better yet, get a lawyer to read them for you and tell you what signing them will do.
The more you know about what your rights are and about who you are dealing with, the better off you are. When it comes to preventing mortgage foreclosure, knowledge is power.
Posted at 05:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: foreclosure, foreclosure prevention, mortgage, mortgage foreclosure, scam
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If thinking about mortgage foreclosures and foreclosure rescue scams isn't enough to keep your blood pressure from sinking down to normal, consider the following item, first published in 2009.
Since the beginning of 2008 . . . the 20 U.S. banks that have received the most bailout dollars have laid off 160,000 workers. The 100 top executives at these 20 banks, in 2008 alone, collected a combined $791.5 million in personal compensation.
Posted at 03:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: bailout, banks, foreclosure rescue scams, mortgage, mortgage foreclosure
On Wednesday, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Citigroup announced 90-day temporary foreclosure relief programs for oil spill victims. Bank of America and Wells Fargo issued similar press releases on Thursday. This is great news. At least it's great publicity for the outfits making the announcements. It may be good news for some homeowners as well, but let's just look this gift horse in the mouth.
First of all, no matter what impression you got from the news reports, foreclosure sales of properties with mortgages backed by Fannie and Freddie are NOT being automatically suspended for 90 days. They aren't being suspended at all. Some homeowners may have their payments reduced, or possibly even suspended, for a month or two or maybe three.
Here's what the Fannie Mae press release actually said. Under the "Special Relief Measures" policy, companies that service Fannie Mae's loans are permitted, but not required, to suspend or reduce a borrower's payments for up to 90 days. During that time, “the servicer determines the nature and extent of the impact the disaster is having on the condition of the property or on the borrower's financial condition.” After the assessment, “servicers have additional flexibilities to evaluate the appropriate loss mitigation alternative based on a case-by-case determination, including an additional three months of forbearance, a loan modification or other customized solution.” Borrowers seeking relief under Fannie Mae's "Special Relief Measures" policy should contact their loan servicer.
In other words, Fannie's program is for people whose loans are not in foreclosure yet. It isn't automatic; they have to apply for it. There's no guarantee that they will get any relief. There are no standards and no procedures that the loan processors are required to follow. There's no time limit for the processors to respond. If you have applied for a mortgage modification, all of this may sound depressingly familiar.
Freddie Mac was even less specific about it’s program. “We are instructing our servicers to work with borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages to extend forbearance of mortgage payments where appropriate to help them stay in their homes as they navigate through this financial hardship,”
Citigroup’s home mortgage division said it is suspending loan foreclosures in zip codes in parts of Florida and other states within 25 miles of the coastal areas affected by the oil spill through Sept. 17. “In the midst of this crisis, we will continue to explore ways to help people avoid foreclosure so they and their families can remain in their homes and have one less thing to worry about,” said Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Let's see who gets the benefit of all this generosity. Citigroup's press release says that borrowers with first mortgage loans owned by CitiMortgage who meet certain criteria will not be subject to foreclosure sales or foreclosure notifications. It's hard to tell what that means. Maybe they will reschedule some foreclosure sales until after September 17. Maybe they won't file some new foreclosure cases until then. Perhaps they will do this for some people who fill out all the necessary forms to prove that they "meet certain criteria."
Wells Fargo sounds a little more vague than Citigroup. ‘We encourage customers affected by the Gulf events (loss of job or income) to reach out to us and work with our mortgage consultants on a one-to-one basis to determine the best options for their homeownership and financial needs,”
Bank of America says it's analyzing its portfolio and assessing the situation.
So, for a very small number of homeowners, there are some programs that may provide temporary relief. If you think you may qualify for any of these, apply for them. Gather up all the information the processor asks for. Keep copies. Get receipts for everything you send them. It might pay off. Eventually. In the meanwhile, the mortgage companies are enjoying the public relations benefits of these so-called relief programs. Why am I not feeling waves of gratitude?
Posted at 06:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Bank of America, Citigroup, CitiMortgage, Fannie Mae, Florida, foreclosure, Freddie Mac, mortgage foreclosure, mortgage foreclosure relief, oil spill, Wells Fargo