Posted on 02/22/2009 11:18:55 AM PST by Fred
While the Obama administration battles to keep people from losing their homes, one Florida lawyer said she has a better answer to the toxic mortgage epidemic sweeping the country - fight back against the loan servicers and banks that are improperly pressing the foreclosure actions.
"The loan servicers bringing most of the foreclosure actions in the country don't own the mortgages and have no standing to take away a person's home," said the lawyer, April Charney, who has stopped scores of foreclosure actions in Jacksonville, Fla., where she works as a Legal Aid lawyer.
In essence, Charney has forced scores of plaintiffs in foreclosure actions in Jacksonville to admit they don't have legal ownership of the securitized mortgage they are trying to foreclose upon - stopping the home takeover battle in its tracks.
The strategy has spread virally around the country and now thousands of foreclosure lawsuits are sitting idly - in legal limbo.
"I have one case from 2004 where the bank has not returned to court and where my client now has deposited more money into a trust account than the house is worth," Charney noted.
Charney has held seminars in Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina and throughout Florida to educate lawyers on how to implement the courtroom defense.
At least one Brooklyn judge, Arthur M. Schack, is already using the strategy himself in the courtroom. He told a reporter recently that he denies more foreclosures than he approves. Last summer, 13 of the 14 foreclosure actions that came before him were denied.
"I want to see the servicing agent's power of attorney, I want to see all the paperwork before I approve it," he said. "If the paperwork is garbage, I deny it. If you're going to take away someone's home, it should be done properly."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
A corruption at all levels ping to you rabs
Yeah doesn’t she know that only the banks can use the laws in their favor.
Very smart lady. The banks and mortgage companies played a very dangerous game in their greed, and now are going to get burned ever worse since they don’t actually own the mortgages anymore, and probably don’t know exactly who does.
This could be the death-knell of the Collateralized Mortgage industry.
And the sooner the better.
sheesh...well if that’s the case, WHO does have the standing to foreclose...and if it’s too convoluted to figure out...why will anyone feel obligated to pay?
bttt
I’m shocked that someone can oppose the banks. I thought we’re obligated to bend over for them and their pet “the government”.
In almost every case the servicer has the mortgagee’s power of attorney to enforce the terms and conditions of the note and mortgage. There’s always the chance that documents can go astray and delay the process.
The fact that so many who are foreclosing on these homes...do not have proof of lien on property....means that there are just as many stupid people in finance/banking as there are in government.
I was wondering the same thing. Is my own mortgage so compromised now that I simply stop paying and tell them to stuff it? How do I find out who actually owns it? BofA is the loan servicer, but they're so screwed up right now it's anyone's guess where the actual loan is. How does one find out?
It would be great if we could find some productive work for the super geniuses who dreamed up this stuff.
My sock drawer needs sorting, for example.
This whole mess is because of greedy manipulation by banking and financial vampires.
But, on the other hand, a diagram like the one you posted does beg an obvious question: What if the legal system can't determine who owns the deed on the house?
If the mortgage broker passed the mortgage on to the bank, and if the bank passed the mortgage on to some hedgefund, and if, from there, the mortgage passes through several other entities, then how does the legal system go about determining the rightful owner of the title?
Even if you got away with that you'd never be able to get a clear title in case you want to sell.
Well, in fairness, you can't overlook the greed of the people who took out mortgages they never stood a chance in Hades of repaying, or the politicians who forced the banks to lend astronomical sums of money to various racial minorities who were completely credit unworthy and who [predictably enough] defaulted on their mortgages as soon as the balloon payments came due.
Just thinking—we should all collect our 13 dollar tax “cuts” and have regional bon fires once a month—similar to Boston Tea Party. It might help to curb inflation more that throwing tea bags in a lake.
But if I did, I would:
1 Have my lawyer set up a secure escrow account.
2 Start putting my monthly mortgage payment in that account as a sign of good faith intention to pay.
3 Instruct my lawyer to write to the current ostensible holder of my mortgage, asking them to demonstrate provenance; "Please provide me documentation that you have my mortgage note, properly assigned by all successive holders."
Multiply this strategy by a couple of million mortgagees if you want to see some real mortgage reform!
Tee-hee. This is just the first mortgage confusion. Betcha a massive percentage of these properties have second mortgages (those who borrowed 20% down to avoid private mortgage insurance) and credit lines using them as collateral.
ping for later
It would seem to me that the last firm who can show that they have (or had) a properly assigned mortgage instrument would be the firm which can release the mortgage and enable a deed.
Hey everybody, no one can prove who owns your mortgage loan. So just stop paying it.
Very common in post collapse of the Spanish Empire and today in Central and South America. Often title is unclear, contested....for hundreds of years. No clear title, no borrowing, no selling, squatters, no use building nice home because the land is unclear...presto chango...you get slums.
If these guys were playing as fast and loose with the backend paperwork as they were with the frontend loan applications, then goodness only knows who the true deed-owner might deserve to be.
Welcome to N0bama's America:
The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages
by Tom Bethell
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312223374/The phenomenal success of Western civilization and the remarkable economic expansion fueled by modern capitalism, says Tom Bethell, depend chiefly on the institution of private property and the development of secure property rights, yet this simple, striking idea is misunderstood by elite opinion leaders in the United States and around the world. Bethell, a reporter for the American Spectator, offers a history of property as an idea and a reality around the world. His sweeping narrative will appeal to fans of David Landes's The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. Yet, in many crucial respects, The Noblest Triumph (the title comes from British philosopher Jeremy Bentham's line that property laws represent "the noblest triumph of humanity over itself") is better than both, displaying a keener understanding of human nature and of how incentives shape behavior. In a chapter sure to inspire controversy, Bethell argues that the Irish potato famines of the 1840s were due primarily to Ireland's lack of stable property rights in the 19th century. Full of astute observations and written with real clarity, The Noblest Triumph makes a unique and welcome contribution to the debate over why some countries thrive while others languish.
Interesting bit of info on Ms. Charney
www.lsc.gov/pdfs/MaryManning1621NPRMComments.PDF
With some of these folks sorting your socks,
You may go out one day and someone will say “did you know you have on one blue sock and one black sock?” You will then reply, yeah I know I’ve got another pair at home just like these.
I’d be careful with that advice. I handle foreclosures in North Carolina (mostly commercial and construction loans, but some consumer equity lines as well, and personal guarantees of commercial obligations secured by residences), and we use deeds of trust rather than mortgages. Before I foreclose on deeds of trust by entities other than the original beneficiary of the deed of trust want to see all assignments. Once that is done, I can easily prove who the holder of the deed of trust is and get a foreclosure order with little trouble.
However, if you are a consumer making your payments to an entity other than the original borrower, it is fair to ask for proof of the assignment before you make your FIRST payment to the new entity.
And if you never get the “original note” after payoff, the release document means nothing.
You call it greed and Possibly there is an element of it there but There is also an element of self preservation , the Banks made loans they were pressured to make BY THE GOVERNMENT (Search Out Community Investment act implemented By Jimmy Carter and Enhanced by BubbA Clinton ,also go to You Tube and See Andrew Cuomo announcing this new Program that he admits out of his own Mouth is going to create more foreclosures because they are being made to risky Borrowers)so the Banks sought out a way to insure themselves aginst these losses ,and this is where a lot of GREED took place as these derivatives were sold and resold to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars ,Franklin Raines ,Jim Johnson , Jamie Gorelic at Fannie And Freddie walked off with Millions in Bonuses in that Quasi Government agency.
Bush from 2001 in speeches was telling Congress that Fannie and Freddy needed reform but that only led to the Usual rantings from Barney Frank And Chris Dodd ,Maxine waters and the rest of the Poverty Pimps that the Mean Nazi George Bush only wanted to deprive the poor downtrodden from Owning a Home.
Well look at what we have now AN ECONOMIC MESS THAT WAS PREDICTED bY GEORGE BUSH and John McCain Years before this Happened and as usual because of the Main stream Television News the Morons in the Masses have rewarded the Perpetrators of this fiasco with total power and they will now finish the Job of total destruction to our way of life
That was my thought, Why pay at all. Can you image the tied up courts? Heck all that extra money (from no house payments) to put into other daily needs. Well that’s just what the economy needs right? (sarc)
“WHO does have the standing to foreclose...”
Anyone who has the note, the piece of paper. Ya know the actual contract.
But I suspect the banks will lobby Congress to do away with that clerical error.
Bump for later.
The schools that produced these arrogant elitist idiots need to be closed permanently so they get their rightful rewards for the damage they have cause this country.
Or, “Hey, with one sock I can leverage you into a loan for twelve new pairs of Nikes!”
I have no idea how to figure it out...I’m confused myself...but I wish my son’s student loans would get lost somewhere (sallie mae), LOL.
Great graphic.... just sent it to my banker...
Another good thought. Go back and surf the newspaper archives in Minnesota, the Dakotas, etc. during the mid-180’s when the farm economy was in the tank. Folks would show up the bank’s auction wearing a red bandanna. Well, it really was not too smart to out-bid the bandanna folks who kept the price down so the farmer/owner could buy-back his farm.
The owners of lots of these loans cannot produce the paperwork..this is the most basic defense in the book....use it!
Pay the mortgage.
What is this insanity about lenders being criminals who tricked people into buying more house than they could afford and made them sign trick loan documents that required them to pay more than they agreed?
Has the country gone completely insane?
There no doubt may have been some unscrupulous lenders behind a very small percentage of problem loans, but certainly not to the extent that is being claimed by the left and the greedy.
We all know that the majority of this craziness started with congress and federal agencies forcing lenders to abandon good business practices and make under-secured loans to unqualified buyers.
And it was all for the purpose of expanding “minority” home ownership. And we all know who the intended minority beneficiaries are.
Somewhere in the equation must be the expectation that if a person is able to make it all the way to contract closing on a loan of several hundred thousand dollars they are smart enough to understand what they are agreeing to do in return.
This whole mortgage crisis is a scam that has been, and is, being run on the middle class to extort tax money to pay for homes for the coddled minorities.
Now this woman has figured out another way to use a loophole to screw lenders out of more money that hardworking taxpayers will have to cover.
Statute of Frauds..............
Well, the problem is that these “lenders” are sometimes “brokers” in storefronts that charge no kidding 20G or so in “fees” connected with the “contract for deed” or whatever “tool” they use to convey the property to the poor “buyer”, then they sell the thing using screens, computer screens to evidence the “transaction” get their 20G, or 50G or whatever it is, out of the “deal” the homeowner has been “put” into a home he no more can afford than the man in the moon, so he defaults, the deed has to be followed around through all these LLC and Inc names with PO boxes and the whole thing is a shell game, the homeowner loses the house, gets a huge judgment against them for more money than he will ever see in a lifetime and the “broker” has gone and bought “the wife” a thirty two thousand dollar ring she accidentally flushed down the potty....
This stuff was dreamed up by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Acorn, the US Congress...and a bunch of fat-cat's on Wall Street that quickly realized that they could COLLECT THE COMMISSION on both the Mortgage AND the CDO sale, while dodging any direct criminal responsibility for this enormous fraud.
And to top it off, S&P and Moodys officers made certain everything was rated AAA.
Who owns your mortgage? It costs the servicer thousnads of $ to find out...and often it's owned by a very large number of entities...per mortgage.
Lets say your $250k mortgage was bundled (along with it's "servicing") with 999 other of similar value. The "servicing" was sold to...let's say BofA for a percentage of the value ($250mil) of the combined 1000 mortgages. The Principal and an "assured" rate of return was sold to various investors throughout the world as a "Collatoralized Debt Obligation"...say, in $100k increments for a total of 2.500 CDO's costing $110k each and paying 4% annualized return...and rated AAA by Moodys and S&P.
Slices of your mortgage are owned by CalPERS, Teamsters Union, Magellan Fund Mutual Fund holders, an Arab Sheik...China's Treasury...and a little old lady in Japan. However, they may not be able to find ALL the pieces...making the "trust" that holds all of the original paper work...transfers of lien, power of attorney etc. critical to the whole mess.
One of the LARGEST such trusts was Lehmann Bros. They no longer exist...literally...and may not have had any legal transfer of responsibility and assets occur.
The "ownership" of your mortgage may, honestly, be the local dump.
The CDO’s were and are a good way to raise capital for mortgages, car loans and credit cards. The problem is that they should not be done by private placements, but should be traded on the stock exchanges..and have ratings set by the free market. Then they would not be subject to subjective ratings by rating agencies, but subject to open financial scrutiny based on their underlying assets and cash flow, default rate etc.
The absence of that market today is killing us.
Banks got sloppy with the paper work and I’m sure that they will clean that up real quick.
If you really want us to become a Banana Republic..then just promote the idea of “screw the banks”...Can you imagine functioning without a mortgage system, or with 50% down payments?
If that’s all it takes, then there truly was no need for the bailout.
damn so the first thing to come to my mind is title insurance is a waste
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