Posted on 09/25/2011 4:20:07 PM PDT by LouAvul
I know a divorced lady who is upside down in her mortgage. Her employer has also been cutting back her hours and she was late last month making her payment.
She financed through a bank that sold her mortgage in the secondary market to Bank of America. Bank of America refuses to talk to her about renegotiating her loan.
Other than walking away, does she have any options?
Thanx.
Hard as it may be to hear, she needs to get a second (or third) job. Walking away from messes is what liberals do.
If it’s BofA, she should plan on walking away and handing them the keys. They won’t re-negotiate unless she can get someone to shine a very bright light on this aspect of their mortgage business.
She’s in a tough position and, contrary to popular leftist belief, Bamy won’y buy her gas or pay her mortgage.
At least she has a job - even if her hours ARE being reduced!
I know a fair amount.
This isn’t a topic to be handled anecdotally (”he told me that” “I thought that”) nor indirectly. The woman has to have her actual papers (could be scans of same) and has to present them to someone knowledgeable.
Many people use the term “underwater” on a mortgage to mean she is “behind on her mortgage payments”. They are not the same. That’s but one example among 473 why these things cannot be handled indirectly. Because people mean different things when they use certain words. Like liberals.
I can tell you that she can probably expect zero cooperation from the B of A. But there are far too many aspects and details to provide a remote assessment. It does nobody any good.
Is this the original purchase loan, or a refi? In CA, if it’s the original purchaae loan, she can walk away if she has to. If it’s a refi, she might be liable for any balance after the forclosure. At least that’s what I was told by a lawyer.
I do not support not paying - a contract is a contract. However, as long as a mortgagee is paying, they will never negotiate. The only way to bring them to the table is to stop paying. Then, they will gladly negotiate. After 90 days they have to book the paper as delinquent and the bank regulators see it...after 180 they see it in a different (and worse) bucket...and so on. The more delinquent the bucket, the more incentive to negotiate.
Under CA law the contract stipulates that if the mortgage defaults, the banks only recourse is to take the property. That's a risk the bank takes. If they really can't make the payments, they can't make the payments. It happens. More and more under Obama.
I am not an expert, but from what I have read about these situations, the loan is already in a MBS, a mortgage backed security. They will NOT re-negogiate with her. Even if she went into the gov plan for such as her, they tell them to default, while they PRETEND to see if she qualifies. THEN they will foreclose on her.
The bad news is that the 9th Circit Court just recently gave MERS a clean slate and they can foreclose EVEN if they can not show a proper chain of assignment. This would include California.
Here are two foreclosure places, but one is for FL
http://livinglies.wordpress.com/
She may REALLY need to see someone who knows about walking away. There are legal ramifications to NOT doing it right. Like spending ten years hunting her down to pay it all back.
And here ae some links from MISH on this subject.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/11/before-walking-away-consult-attorney.html
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/walking-away-goes-mainstream-yes-its-ok.html
Good Luck!
she needs to find a local credit union that will take the loan out of their hands and renegotiate the loan.
Not an expert in any way, but, some thoughts...
Since it was an industry-wide practice for the issuing bank to sell the mortgages, usually thru a mortgage processor, the original title, note documents were lost, destroyed, and not actually transferred, sometimes not recorded in the county records....all with increasing frequency from 1992 to the present. Courts are increasingly and repeatedly holding that the mortgage holder, on challenge, produce the original paper trail of transfers. The forgeries that have been produced widely in the absence of original transfer documents have resulted in convictions.
Recommended by many is the acquisition of a competent real estate attorney to do first a Forensic Title and Note Search for a few hundred dollars to determine who claims to hold the original note and title papers, request them and check for forgeries....go from there on the attorneys’ recommendations.
Something to think about. The banks lost, destroyed the legal papers for possibly millions, or most of the underwater and foreclosed securitized mortgages in the US, and with a lost paper trail, the properties are not processable for anyone in a court of law for legal purposes such as foreclosure or anything else as has been demonstrated in civil and federal Court cases. Such loss of a paper trail seems to be a legal “destruction of property”, a non-holding up of the legal standing of property rights guaranteed by the Constitution, is an issue quite more serious, especially given the current situation with mortgages that have been securitized or sold, nationally, sometimes multiple times. The creation of “non-property”, with no papers, is a fundamentally important issue, not dealt with adequately by the 50 State Attorneys General, currently involved with the issue.
Can property meet legal standards for transfer, sale, rent, exchange, repackaging for sale to private and public pension plans, between govt bodies and agencies and banks, legally (meaning BofA, Fannie and Freddie, or the Federal Reserve for example) if there is no legitimate paper trail in existence? It is a huge issue not being dealt with and identified in Congressional hearings on C-Span, the political parties, and especially the media. Is there a legal exit for mortgages having lost their PAPERS to be legally processed in any way with-out outright forgery?
Is the end-effect of Congress legislation regarding bank mortgage securitazations a one way trip as in a one-way, basket fish trap, where there is no legal way for the govt to transfer/exit property that finds itself in govt hands? Has not an effective transfer of private property to govt hands been accomplished without legal, documented transfer without having used the point of a gun as in the Bolshevik revolution? Can the property even be legally “redistributed in a socially just manner as the administration has alluded to?” Problems, problems.
It is to be noted that the issuing bank was paid 100% of the original value when it sold the mortgage with a triple AAA rating by the investor, investors. The mortgage is worth less now, and the legal process demands the original paper trail to identify the new or newer owners, and, they are missing or forged.
Tell her to contact a chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney. If she is still employed, she may be able restructure the terms of the loan in chapter 13. At the very least she should contact a chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney to see what her options are.
When you enter into the purchase of anything, you have a moral obligation to meet your end of the agreement.
This is what is wrong with our county. I owe more than what it is worth, ok, why did you agree to buy it at that price?
Why should the rest of us taxpayers pay for your speculation that what you want should be worth more than what you paid for it.
You made a bad investment, live with it.
I’m not lecturing you Big Al, I just responded to you.
It also depends on the size of her mortgage.
Just did a Google search and several outfits popped up, claiming they can help renegotiate mortgages.
I would recommend that she talks to some of them, but DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING, without having knowledgeable friends or another lawyer look at it.
I put in “california home foreclosures mortgage renegotiate” into Google:
Here are some that popped up:
Did you mean: california home foreclosures mortgage renegotiation
Search Results
Foreclosure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreclosure
House in Salinas, California under foreclosure, following the popping of the U.S. ..... Home Affordable” plan have offered incentives to renegotiate mortgages. ...
Loan Modification, Restructure Mortgage| Renegotiate Mortgage ...
www.renegotiatemortgagerates.com/loan-modification.html
New law linked to 62% reduction in California loan defaults & Foreclosures ... in jeopardy of defaulting on their mortgage and losing their home in foreclosure. ...
Can a Second Mortgage Holder Foreclose? - Bills.com
www.bills.com/can-a-second-mortgage-holder-foreclose-if-the-first-...
1 day ago – Can the lender of a second mortgage foreclose on my home if the first ... If the second mortgage holder forecloses, it is not automatic that the first ... Alternatively, the first and second mortgage holder will negotiate a ... In some states (such as California) and in some circumstances, the second mortgage may ...
Los Angeles Avoid Foreclosure Lawyer | California Mortgage ...
www.wsrlaw.net/CM/PersonalBankruptcy/Foreclosure.asp
Los Angeles Avoid Foreclosure Attorney. California Mortgage Renegotiation Lawyer. Warning: You may have seen the ads promising that you can avoid ...
Foreclosure Tips for Home Buyers and Sellers in Default
homebuying.about.com/.../foreclosures/Buying_Foreclosures_Tips_f...
Home Selling in a Market Dominated by Foreclosures and Short ...
• 10 Ways to Protect Your Neighborhood From Foreclosure Crime
• The Dangers of Buying an Investor’s Flipper After Foreclosure
• How Soon Can We Buy a Home After a Foreclosure or Short Sale
Loan Modification California, Mortgage Relief
www.legalloanrelief.com/
California Homeowners Can Stop Foreclosure with Loan Modifications, ... Underwater mortgages, short sales and home foreclosures have taken their toll on the ..... a financial motive for professionals to negotiate mortgage loan modifications. ...
From my previous search I noticed that “ California loan modification” might be a good search word.
This brought up more options, including this:
BoA Loan Modification - Don’t let BoA take your home
www.boa-loan-modification.com
We can get your loan modification
As I said, she should call and meet with a number of places, but DO NOT SIGN anything until after she educated herself and knowledgeable people read what she is signing, have her ask a lot of questions, to make sure she is not obligating herself to something, without realizing it.
I spent down 90% of my life savings doing that and still
lost the house.
I don’t give a crap what others may think, she should
not throw funds down a rat hole that she may need in her
retirement. It that means walking away, then she should walk, and fast.
First and foremost, she should cut back her expenses. If she’s got a fancy smart phone, trade it in for a dumb phone and no data plan. If she’s got cable, turn it off, and watch OTA instead. It is time consuming and not very fun, but economizing is something she should do, and likely immediately.
Once she controls the outflow of her finances, she needs to sit down and figure out exactly what she can afford. Perhaps a roommate might be what she needs to handle the discrepancy. Maybe it was handled simply by packing lunches for work instead of eating out.
But the long and short of it is, if she walks away from her home, she walks away from security and all she’s invested in it. And odds are that she’d have to suffer much more dire circumstances to walk away and get into rental properties than she’d have to endure in continuing to make payments.
Other serious considerations: If she’s got open credit lines, close down those which she can pay off immediately, and stop charging any more debt. Keep one credit card with an available balance in excess of a month’s salary for emergencies. What I don’t recommend is stopping payments in some plan to get the bank to negotiate. If she can make it through the hump, she’ll have a good credit record and likely could easily get the loan refinanced, vs the maybe negotiating with the bank for better terms.
Additionally, one late payment on a mortgage won’t count against her credit record if she keeps good payments up for the next six months.
Call Bill Handle at Handle on the law KFI
Your friend is in a position where everywhere she turns outstretched hands and offers of ‘help’ are made and less than 1% of them can affect the outcome, including her current lender. They can only take more of her money.
She needs to start collecting evidence. NOW. Start with a QWR under Cal Civ Code 2943. She will have 2 levels of leverage depending on what she uncovers. If there are no title-affecting flaws, she will have to move. With really good low leverage (TILA, RESPA, UCL) she might negotiate enough cash from lender to move.
Even if there are title affecting flaws, the worst being the bank can’t produce the original contract, the lender can still post a bond and a lost note affidavit. California is that tough, and there is a lot of competition for the very few attorneys who can defend her, and there are a lot of attorneys who will gladly take her money and drive her to unexpected bankruptcy from their incompetence.
There have been some homeowner victories. Look up Millie at ForeclosureHamlet.org. She has taken an unlawful detainer after foreclosure sale action to the CA Supreme Court on grounds the lower courts ignored her issue of standing (from want of unexpired contract) and therefore court had no jurisdiction to rule for the lenders.
Tell your friend to avoid Legal Aid, bankruptcy, shyster attorneys, ‘loan negotiation help’ firms, and loan modification unless the lender confirms in writing first that the loan can be modified - all are a waste of her time and especially money. She is on the same course as the Mtge Bankers Assn was when they walked from their multi-million dollar loan on their new headquarters building.
There is no stigma from walking from a loan where the players changed the rules that affected the environment to prevent your ability to repay. (see Caroline Fitts ‘implosion’ on Youtube)
Get a roommate ... or two ... collect enough rent to make her mortgage payments.
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