Miami Foreclosure Lawyer Blog

Financial Times is reporting that 10 of the nation's biggest banks are reviewing foreclosures of military members because they may have unlawfully foreclosed on 5,000 active-duty military members.

Military members have built-in protections from foreclosures when they are on active duty. And while regular citizens don't have the same protections by law, their rights, too, have been trampled upon by banks.

Many people fighting a Miami foreclosure have found that some banks have have violated rules and laws in their diligent efforts to evict them from their homes. For those who think that banks are going to work with them, to be friendly and maybe even help them, this situation may extinguish that idea.

Let's face it: Banks are interested in making money. In an area like Miami and other locations in South Florida, real estate prices were previously much higher and a destination spot for many retirees. It seems now that banks may be more interested in taking a home away through foreclosure than helping the owner in figuring out a loan modification that would keep homeowners in their place of residence.

Bankers typically look at things primarily as a dollars-and-cents transaction, and not the fact that they may be hurting a family's chance to live happily. That's why if you find yourself in a foreclosure situation, you must have an advocate by your side. Hiring an experienced Miami foreclosure defense lawyer can help.

An experienced attorney will investigate all the facts to determine for instance whether the bank created and filed false documents with the court. Or maybe used robo-signed documents, or can't prove who actually owns the note on the home. There are many or other areas that need to be explored to help homeowners keep their home if at all possible. Each case is different, so consulting an attorney would be a good first step.

The newspaper reports that JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America already this year reached settlements with 200 military members who alleged their homes had been improperly taken away.

Recently released data by the Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the bank regulator, revealed that 10 lenders, including Bank of America, are reviewing about 5,000 foreclosures of homes that belonged to military members to see if they complied with the law.

The 2003 Servicemembers Civil Relief Act provides some protections for foreclosures. Mortgage servicers have to follow special procedures when they foreclose on homes belonging to military members and their families. Among them, banks have strict rules on whether they can implement default judgments, when the homeowner doesn't show up in court.

JPMorgan Chase's settlement this year included an admission that officials foreclosed wrongfully on 27 military members in May. Bank of America earlier this year paid off military members after intervention from the Justice Department, which alleged the bank wrongfully foreclosed on 160 homes.

Homeowners facing foreclosure should seriously consider hiring a skilled Miami foreclosure defense lawyer to help defend their rights.

Continue reading "Not Just Miami Residents, But Military Also Hurt By Illegal Bank Foreclosures" »

Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have written quite a bit lately about the fact that banks and mortgage servicers contracted to work for them have been sitting around, wondering if they will come to a settlement with state prosecutors to avoid a glut of lawsuits.

We're happy to report that at least one attorney general is taking a more aggressive approach, and may even prove helpful to those who have suffered through foreclosure in Miami and elsewhere as well.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Maso announced recently that a grand jury returned a 606-count indictment alleging that two title officers conducted a robo-signing scheme between 2005 and 2008.

Nevada is one of a handful of states whose attorney general has bailed out of negotiations to settle their unethical and illegal practices they conducted once the real estate market crashed and foreclosures began flooding the market. We reported on our blog recently that a dozen top banks are expected to pay $20 billion to settle claims of taking people's homes away through these actions.

But several attorneys general would rather hold banks accountable instead of letting them off the hook. $20 billion is a lot of money, but nothing compared to the money these banks have made over the years. They bundled and sold loans that defaulted, and have taken away homes from people who couldn't afford a lawyer and who were victimized when banks made up documents and robo-signed them. They need to be punished further.

And if it takes criminal charges, so be it.

In the Nevada case, Gary Trafford and Gerri Sheppard, both of California, are alleged to have fraudulently notarized and filed documents that were prepared to foreclose on Nevada homeowners. The grand jury alleged that these two directed their employees to forge their names on foreclosure documents and notarize the signatures they just forged. The documents were then filed with the local clerk of courts office in order to start the foreclosure process.

Trafford faces 102 counts each of offering false instruments for recording, a felony, false certification of certain instruments, a felony, and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public, a misdemeanor. Sheppard faces 100 counts each of the same charges.

The documents were allegedly forged in order to rush them to the clerk's office so they could be filed the same day. Don't think this is something that happened only in Nevada, either. This is a widespread problem that hasn't gotten enough attention. It certainly has happened at the Miami-Dade courthouses as well.

Hundreds of thousands of homes were taken away at the beginning of the foreclosure mess. Who knows how many of those were taken with fraudulent and robo-signed documents? Before the problem was well known, the people on the front lines of this battle likely had their rights violated when no one knew what was being done.

Sadly, it's still being done today even though there are investigations ongoing in every state. Banks have used many unethical and illegal tactics to tackle the foreclosure problems they created with their greed.

Continue reading "Nevada AG Fights Back on Foreclosures With Charges Against 'Robo-Signers'" »

The Miami Foreclosure Lawyer Blog reported recently about the settlement that banks and states attorneys have been working on for months.

Sadly, it appears the settlement will do little to help homeowners and to teach banks a lesson. It would be nice if Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi would take a note from her more aggressive colleagues in New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Massachusetts and Nevada who don't want banks to get away with robbery.

Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers reported how the proposed settlement is about $25 billion, split among several of the country's biggest banks. Banks would end up paying only about 15 to 20 percent of that -- $3 to 5 billion.

Most of the rest of the money would be in the form of credits to banks that agree to lower how much is owed on mortgages owned or serviced for private investors. So, those who invested in home mortgage loans would benefit. It's unclear how homeowners struggling with foreclosure in Miami would really be helped.

As The New York Times points out, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is leading the charge against banks. While President Barack Obama wants to finish the settlement -- which is now reportedly closer to $20 billion -- he and Beau Biden, Delaware's Attorney General and son of Vice President Joe Biden, are fighting back.

Obama wants the deal to go through, but several attorneys general don't want to let banks off the hook. The settlement would preclude states from bringing legal action against the banks that could be costly.

These attorneys general want banks to bring out more documents, testify truthfully and do a better job or proving they actually own millions of mortgage notes they are attempting to foreclose on. They are asking for $200 billion, which would allow the government to pay down tens of millions of mortgages.

While it's unlikely the settlement gets that big, they want to know what banks did to create this mess. They want to know their tactics and they want to know what actually happened behind closed doors when people were struggling to stay in their homes.

"If you don't air out the policies that led to the implosion of the economy, it will happen again," Schneiderman told the newspaper. "There's not one sentence in the proposed agreement, not one period or comma about the stuff that blew up the economy. We can't let the banks rewrite history."

The newspaper reports that during the Great Depression, the U.S. Senate hired New York lawyer Ferdinand Pecora to report the collapse of the economy. He found that National City -- an ancestor to Citigroup -- had sold flawed investments and that its president engaged in a tax evasion-type scheme.

Now, officials in Washington, D.C., are trying to pressure the five or so "rebel" attorneys general into signing the deal so they can tell the American people how great a job they did getting money from the banks. They want it to go away, without anyone asking questions.

But the rebels want answers. They want to know why such an unregulated atmosphere where just about anyone could get a mortgage, which were quickly bundled and sold as investments, was able to happen.

The American people want to know, too. They expect answers, not just a cover-up and a check. What would stop banks from doing it again if they aren't forced to explain the process and uncover the dirt?

Continue reading "Will Banks Get Away With Miami Foreclosure Debacle or Will States Make Them Pay?" »

Probably the most disturbing thing to come out of the real estate crash and foreclosure mess is how often banks have used unethical tactics to try to take away people's homes.

Obviously, people who are fighting to keep their home from foreclosure in Miami are there because they missed payments. In many cases, they probably tried to work with bank officials to modify a loan or get a lower interest rate in order to stay up to date on payments.

But the banks apparently care more about making about money. There's a lot of money being made when homes are foreclosed, sold at auction, then going after the former homeowner in an attempt to get a deficiency judgment in Miami.

Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have seen banks make up documents that were never there before, employ robo-signing techniques whereby unauthorized people signed off on documents that should have been notarized by bank workers, and other misdeeds.

In a recent case in New York, a Bank of America lawyer was trying to foreclose on a New York City police officer who didn't earn enough to qualify for a mortgage modification, according to The New York Times. The officer didn't send in the right documents, the lawyer argued.

But the judge cut off the lawyer, telling him he was lying and trying to blame the homeowner when bank officials weren't there to back up the story.

"Bank of America got a bailout, and this is an outrage, how this man has been treated," said New York Supreme Court Justice Catherine M. Bartlett. "Hard-working, middle-class Americans are trying to make it, trying to refinance with your bank."

She ordered bank officials to show up in court to prove the allegations that the bank's lawyer was making.

In another story, this one by National Public Radio, a report showed the damage that can be done by banks who have little accountability. The story looks at the fact that many homeowners should have qualified for loan modifications through federal programs, but were denied by banks.

With little evidence of why they were denied, but only a form letter stating so, banks would move forward with foreclosure and give homeowners no reasoning. They would sometimes tell homeowners that they sent in the wrong paperwork or missed deadlines even when people had proof they had followed the rules.

That happened to a family of 10 in Wisconsin. Bank of America rejected their loan modification request. They put down $20,000 for a $130,000 house, but were stuck in a 10 percent rate home loan from Countrywide, which Bank of America later bought.

The government's HAMP program would have worked perfect, NPR states, but the bank repeatedly lost documents and then said they didn't make a payment when they did. When they attempted to prove she had made the payment with paperwork in hand, bank officials said there was nothing they could do.

HAMP would have allowed the family to lower their interest down to about 4 percent, which would have made their payments affordable, but the banks denied them. Then, they came and changed the locks and put a foreclosure sign on the door.

Months later, after the family moved into a local church, Bank of America sent them a letter admitting their error and offering a loan modification. Too little too late, however. After a year through a Wisconsin winter, the basement is flooded, the sewer system is trashed, mice have infested it and it needs a new furnace.

Bank of America told NPR it would fix the family's house because of the error. It appears they're trying to avoid a lawsuit, but maybe the family can get back in their home.

Continue reading "Are Banks Finally Being Held Accountable for Their Actions in Miami Foreclosure Cases?" »

USA Today predicts that it could take the country several decades to clear out the backlog of foreclosure cases that have plagued our real estate market nationwide.

Miami foreclosure defense attorneys reported in October that there is also a "shadow" market of homes that are either still in some form of foreclosure or have already gone through foreclosure but are being held off the market by banks that now own them. The official number of homes for sale nationwide is 3.5 million, but adding in the shadow market, the number may jump to 7.5 million.

Experts believe that it will be a long time before housing prices return to the levels that much of the country saw in 2005 and 2006, especially given the large inventory of homes that are available for purchase.

What this means for those fighting their foreclosure in Miami is that they are among many, many Americans who are sitting in the same boat.

One reason for the delay in these cases were the banks themselves. Initially, they filed millions of foreclosures in order to try to take homes where people may have missed one or two payments, rather than attempt to work with them. The problem was they were so unprepared to handle that many cases.

So, they started hiring companies to sign the documents that should have been signed by a bank official who had reviewed the case. Instead, an unqualified person at a different company would sign and notarize documents that they couldn't say were 100 percent accurate. This practice, known as robo-signing, was rampant and has still been documented to this day.

Most banks took about a year off from filing foreclosures as they reviewed cases and attempted to streamline their procedures. But they did nothing to address the issues of the past, such as homeowners who lost their houses because improper documents were signed and incorrect numbers were used in support of a foreclosure.

In other cases, banks couldn't even prove who owned the mortgage, as they are typically sold in bundles to investors. Without knowing who is foreclosing, a foreclosure shouldn't be granted.

According to the USA Today article, the backlog of cases suggests that in some markets, the recovery time will be longer than in others. In New York and New Jersey, new court rules may make lenders take 50 years at the current pace to clear out the backlog. In Florida, the prediction is about eight years.

In states where there is no judicial review, the process is moving much quicker. Many states expect to clear out their backlog of cases in only two to four years. But even many small states, such as Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and North Dakota may be struggling for a decade or more to move cases out of their systems.

For the real estate market to recover, it is certainly good that Florida's predicted time schedule is slightly lower than that of other states. But Miami foreclosure defense lawyers hope that courts don't weigh the challenge of moving these quicker more heavily than ensuring homeowners' rights are upheld.

Continue reading "Foreclosures in Miami, Nationwide Could Take Decades To Work Through" »

Financial experts believe that many homeowners may be considering a strategic default as they have incurred big loans, have little equity and are "upside down" on their mortgages. It appears they would rather walk away than wait for the real estate market to turn around in a decade or longer.

Fighting a foreclosure in Miami is one way to stop the banks from taking your home away. But many others are considering a strategic default in Miami as a way to fight back.

Strategic default means the homeowner simply mails the keys to the bank and walks away from the loan. Typically the reason for this is the mortgage is under water, meaning the homeowner owes more than what the house is worth. What has become a reality more recently for homeowners is that the real estate market in Miami won't be turning around for years or decades.

However, considering one of these exit strategies does have consequences. And a deficiency judgment in Miami is one of them. As Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have seen, banks have become more aggressive when it comes to deficiency judgments.

That is when the bank comes after the borrower for the difference between what is owed on the mortgage and what the house is sold for at auction. Given how much prices have dropped, banks have gotten more and more aggressive in pursuing borrowers who walk away.

According to a Washington Post article, experts believe that those with jumbo mortgages may be the next in line to default, as banks are anticipating that happening. Those with big mortgages, good credit scores, but little equity fit the criteria.

Moody's, the ratings agency, recently put out a study that found homeowners with jumbo mortgages are now at a "greater strategic default risk" than any other type of borrower. Because many are stuck with persistent negative equity, they are likely to walk away rather than be stuck in a market hit by real estate deflation.

FICO, the credit score agency, estimates that 30 percent of all defaults are strategic. Considering there are 12 million or more mortgages underwater, people simply stopping making payments even though they can afford them is a "growing problem."

While people likely understand what's going on in their local real estate market, the article opines that many may not know the consequences -- including triple digit credit score hits, which can make getting another loan difficult for several years. But a deficiency judgment is typically the bigger issue at hand.

Especially in markets with larger fluctuation in prices in the last five years, of which Miami is at the top of the list, a deficiency judgment can be crippling. If a person took out a loan for $450,000 for a house that is now worth $250,000 and the family walked away and is now renting, how could they be expected to pay back $200,000?

That is something that requires legal counsel to help you understand the risks and prepare a strategy for fending off the banks when they start calling and sending threatening letters and e-mails. If you are considering strategic default in Miami, consult with an experienced foreclosure defense lawyer first.

Continue reading "Experts: Jumbo Mortgages May Be Next to Strategic Default in Miami Foreclosures" »

Much has been made in recent weeks about the "1 percent" vs. the "99 percent." Occupy Wall Street's movements have put a focus on looking at the disparity between the rich and the middle class.

What hasn't been said much, though, is how the federal government has contributed to the problem. Many of us know at least one person who has been struggling with a foreclosure in Miami with no help from the government's poorly planned programs.

Many homeowners' mortgages are underwater, meaning they owe more than what the house is worth because of tanking real estate prices. They are trying to do the right thing, but have nowhere to turn.

And as the Miami Foreclosure Lawyer Blog reported in September, banks received $1.2 trillion from the government in loans that were never disclosed to the public. The Fed kept it secret even though it was taxpayer money. That money would have paid off every house in foreclosure in the country and yet banks used it to stay afloat after causing our economy problems. And not just for operating costs, but to hand out big bonuses to their executives, too.

Because of the collapse of the economy, people are losing their jobs or have been hit with high medical bills or high interest rates on loans and credit cards and can't afford their house payments. Rather than working with them, banks get aggressive and try to take away their homes.

Miami foreclosure defense lawyers are aware of the stories about how the 99 percent struggle while the 1 percent manage to get along just fine. It's time for a change -- for people who want to keep their homes but have gotten no help from the government and who have been lied to by their banks to get some relief.

But it doesn't appear to be happening just yet.

As The Hill reports, Republican Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) recently released a report that details tax breaks for the wealthy that he says amounts to welfare for millionaires. People in that demographic category enjoy about $30 billion of "tax giveaways" and federal grants each year. That's about twice NASA's budget.

The giveaways include write-offs for vacation homes, gambling losses, yachts and subsidies for giant homes and properties. On top of that, millionaires received $74 million of unemployment checks between 2005 and 2009, along with $316 million in subsidies for farms from 2003 to 2009. About 1,500 rich people didn't pay taxes in 2009.

This is unfair and it's refreshing to see someone bringing up these issues because the two political parties are clashing about whether to change the tax structure in this country. It's obvious that our country has allowed the rich to get richer, but has done little to help the middle class.

This is especially true for those who are struggling to make house payments and who face foreclosure in Miami. If the government is going to hand out millions in breaks to the rich, maybe they can do something for the 99 percent.

Continue reading "1% Make Millions From Government, While 99% Struggle With Miami Foreclosures" »

We've heard debates about Social Security, the 9-9-9 tax plan, closing the borders and job creation.

But what we haven't heard are any suggestions about how to fix the worst housing crisis in the last eight decades. The field of Republican candidates for president has been debating for months about many issues, but as MSNBC points out, none have offered plans to fix our real estate market.

Foreclosures in Miami have caused a great strain on our economy. Many homeowners have lost their jobs, and their home may be the one stable thing left in their life.

But rather than try to work with homeowners who have made years of payments without fail, Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have seen banks get pretty aggressive with homeowners. They may offer an opportunity to participate in a loan modification program, but then they may say the homeowner is disqualified because they missed payments. Or there may be a clause that disqualifies them from participating because they owe too much.

It seems banks aren't really trying to help homeowners, they simply want to make money. Oftentimes, that means they prefer to let the house go into foreclosure. Then, they start looking at how much money they can make by auctioning the home. Some go as far as filing for a "default judgment" against the former homeowner, which is the difference between what is owed on the mortgage and what the bank receives at auction for the house. This, too, can be devastating.

Banks have had ample opportunity through federal-backed programs to work with homeowners. Largely, they have done little to help, and now they're stuck with millions of properties.

MSNBC reports that about 33 percent of U.S. homeowners with mortgages are now "under water," which means they owe more on the home than its worth. Housing prices have continued falling, so that percentage will likely increase in the coming months. Despite this, there has been little talk about it by the candidates.

Recently released data shows that of the 50 million houses with mortgages in this country, 28 percent of homeowners owed more than what their house is worth, which amounts to nearly 14 million houses nationwide. In Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Detroit, Phoenix and Sacramento, data suggests that nearly 50 percent of mortgages are under water.

Experts believe that the basis of the economic recovery in this country is tied directly to the real estate market. Without people buying and selling homes and banks drumming up business, our economy as a whole will continue to suffer.

Some candidates have said that to do less is more. They believe that allowing the market to hit rock bottom, where investors can get rich off of bottom-barrel prices and get renters into houses is the way to fix the problem. Texas Governor Rick Perry is focusing on job creation, which he believes will fix the issue.

This certainly isn't encouraging news, especially considering that the Obama Administration has failed to make a large dent in foreclosures and could have been an area to exploit. But it's clear that there are few answers out there.

The only thing a homeowner dealing with a Miami foreclosure can do is fight back with the help of an experienced Miami lawyer.

Continue reading "Republican Presidential Candidates Not Talking About Miami Foreclosure Crisis" »

The clerk of courts in Jacksonville and the attorney general in Delaware have sued MERS -- Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Mortgage Servicing News is reporting.

MERS is an entity created by the nation's major banks to record and track residential mortgage assignments. This is a private, limited-access system that banks deemed necessary so they could keep up with the influx of purchases and sales that were moving too quickly for the public system.

But it has been exposed in recent years by foreclosure defense lawyers in Miami and elsewhere for having many problems. Foolishly, banks relied on MERS when filing foreclosures in Miami, even though those figures, dates and other information wasn't the official information gathered by the clerk of courts where the house is located.

In this case, according to the news article, the lawsuit in Florida alleges that MERS doesn't comply with state property laws and has cost cities and counties millions in unpaid recording fees. The lawsuit seeks class status, meaning that all 67 counties in the state, including Miami-Dade, could join the lawsuit.

One of the biggest problems with MERS is that when a mortgage is sold, the information is put into the system, but no assignment is recorded. This has come to light in recent years because if a homeowner faces foreclosure, county clerk records likely won't say that the bank, a trust of investors or another lender altogether actually owns the note on the house.

Banks make money off the interest that homeowners pay, but they also make money by bundling mortgages together and selling them to investors so those investors can reap the benefit of the interest paid. In many cases, banks haven't been able to tell who actually owns the mortgage when they file a foreclosure on a house.

Duval County Clerk Jim Fuller sued Merscorp Inc. on Oct. 31 alleging civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment and fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation. The lawsuit requests that MERS not be used in Florida and a court hearing to determine if MERS properly tracks note transfers in its system.

Merscorp responded that a promissory note has never been required to be disclosed in the public record and that the MERS system isn't a replacement for public land records. A spokeswoman said the system isn't competing or hiding records from what is filed publicly.

A few days earlier, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, sued MERS claiming that it engages in deceptive trade practices. That lawsuit claims that MERS records and records from 100 foreclosures in a Delaware county in 2010 have large disparities.

It's obvious that MERS has its issues and that banks have relied on this private, unofficial system for trying to take away people's homes. These mistakes can be used to the homeowner's advantage, however. Showing that lenders have made critical mistakes and are using inaccurate information in support of a foreclosure is one of the best defenses to keeping a person in his or her home.

Lenders have made many critical mistakes throughout the housing crisis and foreclosure debacle. As they say, the best offense is a good defense, and proving the banks have tripped up is the best way to overcome them trying to take away a person's house.

Continue reading "Florida Clerk Sues MERS For Using Invalid and Inaccurate Filings in Miami Foreclosures" »

Carl Richards, author of a new book and a financial analyst by trade, recently wrote an article in The New York Times detailing how he lost his home, despite a life of helping people make money.

The last few years have been very difficult for many Americans. Job losses, poor financial decisions and other factors have led to a historic number of foreclosures in Miami, throughout Florida and nationwide.

As Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have seen, many people are stuck in the same situation. Whether rich or middle class, employed or recently laid off, this is a problem that crosses cultural, racial and socioeconomic lines.

There are a variety of ways to deal with a foreclosure. The worst way is to simply let the banks roll over you by not fighting back, refusing to try to stay in a home that is special to you. It is also not advisable to try to deal with a bank by yourself.

An experienced and skilled lawyer can advocate on behalf of a homeowner and help save the house from foreclosure, especially if there are identified mistakes in the process, such as robo-signing and falsified documentation.

Richards wrote that he was a financial adviser and a certified financial planner, making good money. In 2003, housing prices were high in Las Vegas, where they lived. They planned on looking to buy, but budgeted for $350,000, based on their salary and bills.

But after speaking with a real estate agent, before long they were looking at houses listed at $500,000 or more, despite their reservations. They noticed that other couples, younger than they, were lining up to look at these houses and he wondered how so many people were making so much money.

They ended up buying a house in a nice neighborhood for $575,000 and tried to negotiate, but the owners wouldn't have it. The couple put nothing down and borrowed 100 percent and could have had more, they were told, because of a steady and rising income.

The financial adviser admits he shouldn't have bought a house with a 100 percent loan. He said he felt secure knowing that so many others were doing the same thing. He should have done an independent review of the numbers before signing on the line, but he didn't.

Richards and his family got caught up in materialism, comparing their spending habits to that of their neighbors, despite knowing that they were taking out new lines of credit because they were spending more than they were making.

And things began spiraling downward from there. As the economy began crumbling, he had clients breaking down in tears because their portfolios were declining significantly. His clients were looking for advice and he didn't have much to offer at a time when his finances were in trouble, too.

He had also recently gone out on his own, and his income depended on how much money he was making for people, which was not a lot. Health insurance and property taxes were increasing and the family began using credit cards as a stopgap.

Battling the moral fight of not paying for a house he agreed to pay for, Richards and his family stopped paying for their house. They could no longer afford it and felt it would be better to move back to Utah, where most of his clients lived. They would attempt a short sale or loan modification.

The bank agreed to a short sale and the family was able to rent a house in Utah. In the article, he laments that he could be part of the reason why the economy has faltered and many people have lost their jobs because of actions like his.

Continue reading "Financial Expert Loses His House and Tells How to Avoid Foreclosure in Miami" »

Many were thrilled to hear that all 50 state attorneys general and federal authorities were negotiating with the large U.S. banks to punish them for their robo-signing misdeeds, fabricated documents and stepping on some homeowners' rights.

This came after every U.S. state filed lawsuits against the banks, claiming these actions were a violation of homeowner rights and were illegal. But, according to The New York Times, it appears the settlement will do little to punish the corporate banks that ran fast and loose, causing the Great Recession that affected nearly everyone in the country.

According to a recent article, the newspaper reports that sources have said the settlement will cost about $25 billion, which seems big on the surface. But under the agreement, banks would only pay about $3.5 to $5 billion, paid by about a dozen financial institutions.

The majority of the difference would be in the form of credits to banks that consent to lower the amount owed on mortgages owned or serviced for private investors. It's unclear, the newspaper reports, how many credits, but negotiators would come up with a formula. It is amazing that banks, who made record profits, would be let off the hook by the government despite their actions.

While Miami foreclosure defense lawyers didn't hold out great hope that these settlements would make a large impact, many others did. One would expect that the 50 attorneys general would have done more to help the many homeowners struggling with foreclosure in Miami and elsewhere in South Florida.

While $5 billion is a lot of money, spread over several companies it won't exactly sting. In comparison to the damage done to our economy, the world's economy and the many homeowners who lost their jobs and homes, it's merely a slap on the wrist.

It is hoped that bank officials will care enough about the penalty to stop the practice in the future. But there is also concern that there are documented incidents in recent months that robo-signing still exists, even as banks held off on filing mortgage foreclosures for a number of months.

The article also states that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans will be excluded from the settlement. Only loans on the banks' books are involved. Banks are expected to dole out $1,500 to homeowners whose homes were lost to foreclosure. For those cases where there was no fraud alleged, it's free money for nothing. For those who were rolled over in the process, it means nothing.

The rest would be split between the federal government, state bank regulators and other support systems. Sensing this is a sham of a deal, officials from Delaware, New York, Massachusetts and Nevada have dropped out of the talks, coming to the conclusion, rightly it appears, that this isn't going to do anything to help their constituents.

Continue reading "Banks Look to Get Away With Misdeeds in Home Foreclosure Cases" »

The New York Times recently wrote about a Buffalo, New York, law firm that holds an annual Halloween party where its employees dress up and work in their costumes.

Amazingly, pictures allegedly from last year's party submitted anonymously to the newspaper show the lack of compassion on behalf of the lawyers that represent banks and lending institutions in foreclosure cases. In one picture, two women "dressed" as homeless people with one holding a handmade sign mocking homeowners whose houses were taken away.

If this indeed true, these examples make it clear that some lawyers hired to work for big banks apparently don't care about homeowners stuck in foreclosure. We are hopeful we do not see this cavalier attitude in a Miami foreclosure or other South Florida foreclosure situation.

As Miami foreclosure defense lawyers know, there are banking institutions that appear not to care whether a homeowner will keep his or her home or go homeless after a foreclosure.

Banks have found it more profitable to proceed with foreclosure, spend money to put the house up for auction, take the amount they get at auction and attempt to go after homeowners for a deficiency judgment -- the difference between the auction price and the original loan.

Deficiency judgments can put homeowners in an even more difficult spot. That makes it even more important that they consider challenging the banks on the authenticity of their loan documents and whether they can prove who owns the note on the house after it has been sold time and time again.

The article goes on to report on the contents of the photos provided to the newspaper, including a mock homeless camp of foreclosure victims, a mock "estate" of the law firm's victories in foreclosure cases, and other shots at homeowners who are struggling with foreclosure.

The newspaper reports that the law firm is under investigation by the New York attorney general and has recently agreed to pay $2 million to resolve a Department of Justice investigation into "misleading pleadings" and other wrongs.

Don't think this is the type of thing happens only in New York. There are big law firms right here in Florida that are unwilling to work with homeowners and in some instances treat them poorly. This is why homeowners fighting foreclosure in Miami must act aggressively. Rather than sitting back and trying to deal with the bank on their own, they must take a more forthcoming approach.

Banks and the lawyers they hire to represent them have in the past made up documents that didn't exist. This is immoral and unlawful and yet it has happened. Law firms are being investigated by state and federal authorities for this very type of offense.

Homeowners deserve to have every right upheld in a foreclosure proceeding. They shouldn't be forced out of their home unless the banks are able to prove with 100 percent certainty who owns the house, what the total amount owed is and who actually owns the note on the loan.

Continue reading "Halloween Costumes Mock Home Foreclosure Problems" »