Another "Beazer Homes" Foreclosure Story
Go here for other posts on Beazer Homes, including links to investigative reports on Beazer by The Charlotte Observer.
Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues. This blog will consist of information describing the various forms of Home Equity Theft and links to news reports & other informational sources from throughout the country about the victims of Home Equity Theft and what government authorities and others are doing about it.
The plan is designed to cut through all of the red tape when dealing with financial institutions by avoiding dealing with banks’ customer service representatives or collection agents who are generally powerless to negotiate loan workout agreements. The lenders in this deal have agreed to give ACORN names of specific employees to deal with on workouts. Banks are also providing detailed instructions on how people can apply for help.
For more, see ACORN deal with lenders eyes easier ‘workouts’ (no longer available online).
For more, see Wow, I could've had a prime mortgage (Why many borrowers who qualified for prime-rate loans wound up with subprimes instead).
For the whole story, see Out of townhouse, but not by choice (Immigrant loses his dream through foreclosure). - Story Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4.
Postscript - Legal Question
In the "too little - too late" department, I wonder if, given the inexplicable and (in my view, unreasonable) delay by WaMu in waiting four years to initiate the foreclosure action, coupled with the possible difficulty in obtaining all the relevant transaction records from Pope that could have proven that the mortgage payoff was received by WaMu (given Pope's own legal troubles that arose well after the 2001 refinancing), there was enough for the homeowner to assert a defense of laches in the foreclosure action under Maryland law, notwithstanding the fact that the statute of limitations on bringing a foreclosure action may not have expired.
Baltimore Sun Follows Up
I suspect that this story was troubling enough to those over at the Baltimore Sun that they decided to give this story more space in their newspaper today. For one follow-up story and an opinion article related to this story, see:
Help for homeowners (Md. officials vow hearings, reforms on foreclosure) (6-8-07)
The court of Catch- 22 (6-8-07). Kwaku Att Poku
Go here for other posts on this story, including links to media reports. Kwaku Atta Poku
I suspect that House Bill 365 will shortly be going to the Governor to be signed into law. For more, see State House wrap-up: Foreclosure ‘rescues’ targeted.
Bloomberg.com today reports:
For the whole story, see Ohio Sues Real Estate Firms for Pressuring Appraisers.
For more, watch the KCRA-TV report (no longer available online) (by reporter Josh Bernstein). To read the online report, see FBI, IRS Take Action On Mortgage Fraud (Indictments Could Soon Be On The Way).
For more, see Top Producing Originator Pleads Guilty In Massive Fraud Scam.
For copies of relevant Federal court documents, USA vs. Maize - Crininal information(Charging document setting forth all criminal allegations made by Federal prosecutors), and USA vs. Maize - Plea Agreement, drop me a line at HomeEquityTheft@yahoo.com and I'll e-mail you a copy (be sure and put USA vs. Maize in the "Subject" line). babajian
For more, see Plea Deal In Loan Fraud (Broker to pay restitution, serve year in jail) (no longer available online).
For more on Altaf A. Shaikh (aka Zak Khan), see Mortgage Mess Shines Light on Brokers' Role (Job-Hopping Mr. Shaikh Left Trail of Lawsuits, Failed License Exams).
For more, see Foreclosure's Filthy Aftermath (As foreclosures become more frequent, so do the bizarre and shocking stories of abandoned animals, insect infestations, and deplorable living conditions).
Go here for a BusinessWeek slide show of what people leave behind after they lose their homes to foreclosure.
For one story about 23 animals being found in a foreclosed home during eviction proceedings, see Animals taken from Lake Carmel home recovering.
Go here for more on pets and foreclosures.
Paulson & Co. has made "a multibillion-dollar bet on the decline of the subprime mortgage market, using [sophisticated, Wall Street] trading strategies." Apparently, Paulson & Co. is concerned that the help being sought by and given to homeowners stuck with onerous subprime mortgages in order to avoid foreclosure may cause Paulson's "multibillion dollar bet" to go sour. For more, see Hedge Fund Bear-ish On Subprime Relief.
For a comment on the concerns of hedge funds regarding the assistance being offered to homeowners facing foreclosure who are stuck with subprime mortgage loans, see The Dangers of Democratic Hedging (Not About Iraq), (by Robert Weissman in The Huffington Post). According to Weissman, "The hedge funds have invested in various derivative instruments that pay off when borrowers default and get thrown out of their homes."
Go here for other related posts on mortgage servicing issues. MortgageServicingIssuesAlpha
Another approach in defending homeowners facing foreclosure is addressed in a recent article in Forbes magazine. Mortgage loans get sold and resold in the open market and, if they end up in the hands of the Wall Street players who issue mortgage-backed securities, the ownership interests in those mortgages will then get "sliced and diced" among short, medium, and long term "investor pools". The focus of the Forbes article is the apparent difficulty many foreclosing mortgage lenders are having in maintaining, keeping track of, and presenting in court the required mortgage loan paperwork when they initiate a foreclosure action, given the number of times the mortgage loans are sold, resold, sliced, and diced.
Stated another way, some attorneys representing homeowners are making an issue of the sloppiness with which foreclosing mortgage lenders maintain their loan paperwork and the sloppiness with which they present their case in court. In one case in Florida, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid lawyer April Charney got a foreclosure filed against her client withdrawn after discovering that the company that filed to foreclose didn't own the mortgage loan that they were attempting to foreclose. The following excerpt from the article reflects the thinking behind this approach in defending homeowners:
The article goes on to report that Charney "stumbled upon the industry's paperwork problem two years ago after noticing that nearly all lenders seeking to foreclose against clients were filing "affidavits of lost notes."" These affidavits are filed in court by foreclosing mortgage lenders in an attempt to get the judge to, in effect, waive the legal requirement that they present the required paperwork that proves that they, in fact, own the loan they are trying to foreclose.
Reference is also made in the article to prominent foreclosure filer--Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems ("MERS"), a Vienna, Virginia company whose name is reportedly on 30% of the mortgages in county clerk offices around the country, and have been known in the industry as a company that files foreclosure actions in connection with mortgage loans that they may service but do not actually own.
For more, see Paper Chase (You're in luck. Your mortgage lender has flipped, sliced and diced your loan--and now no one knows who holds it).
Postscript
The carelessness and sloppiness in which some foreclosing mortgage lenders and their attorneys often go about their business when initiating forecloure actions has been observed by at least one Federal bankruptcy judge in Massachusetts. In fact, the judge, Judge Joel B. Rosenthal, "has observed instances in which attorneys representing alleged mortgagees or their servicing agents did not know whether the client was a mortgagee or a serving agent, or how their client came to acquire its role." For more on the apparent cluelessness that some lenders and their attorneys seem to possess as it relates to their legal obligations when initiating a foreclosure action, see Judge Rosenthal's Memorandum of Decision in In re Shwartz, (Bankr. Ct., Ma. April 19, 2007).
For a comment on the significance of a foreclosing mortgage lender's failure to present in court the actual, original promissory note, signed by the borrower / homeowner when bringing a foreclosure action, see "Editorial Note" in my prior post, Dillon Continues Battle Against Alleged Predatory Mortgage Servicer.
For a copy of a court order from a Pinellas County, Florida trial court ruling that the mortgage servicer mentioned above, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. ("MERS") "lacked standing" to bring foreclosure actions on behalf of the actual mortgage holders whose loans MERS was servicing, (and, accordingly, dismissed twenty foreclosure actions that MERS brought on their behalf), see in re Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), available online courtesy of Mortgage Servicing Fraud .org, at msfraud.org.For more, see Lawyer eyes Ameriquest: Clients: Home loan paperwork faulty (no longer available for free online; the story may be available in the Boston Herald paid archives).
For other posts about homeowners suing their mortgage lenders for violation of Truth In Lending statutes to undo onerous subprime mortgage loans, see:The Sikeston man is currently represented by Missouri attorney Jim Robison, who filed a "petition to set aside deeds and deeds of trust" in order to restore clear title to the three properties in the victim's name. Robison is reportedly also representing three other Scott County property owners, who have also experienced the same problem with forged signatures. For more:
For another Channel 12 story, this time of a Millersville, Missouri family whose home is threatened with foreclosure due to what appears to be a skimming scam, where payments made by the homeowner to one party (a modular home vendor) weren't ultimately remitted to the mortgage lender who now seeks foreclosure, see:
Go here for other posts on this story.
For more, watch the NBC 7/39 TV report (no longer available online).
To read the online report, see (no longer available online) Man Accused Of Stealing Grandma's Cash (Deputies Say Grandson Used Cash On Strippers, Prostitutes)
For more, see:
For more, see Wait's longer for help with foreclosures (The city's new no-interest loan program won't be ready until fall).
Reportedly, the couple was renting the house from Gary Colemansmith, who said he bought the house at a foreclosure auction last October and rented it back to the couple, the former owners. Colemansmith said the wife had given him written notice recently that the couple would be moving out May 31. For more, see Sifton-area man dies from fire injuries; arson blamed. zebra
For more, including how he went about compiling the information on the suspicious transactions for authorities, see Real estate scam emerges -- 'Crash and inflate' method generally leads to foreclosure.
Go here for prior posts on Northern California real estate appraiser Gary Crabtree's efforts to compile and provide authorities with information on suspicious real estate transactions.