Leave it up to our favorite "friends" again CORRUPT ATTORNEYS to throw 50,000 people out of their homes on foreclosure. Hope those dirty parasites can live with themselves capitalizing on the misery of others.
NEW YORK (AP) -- JPMorgan Chase has temporarily stopped foreclosing on more than 50,000 homes so it can review documents that might contain errors.
JPMorgan's move Wednesday makes it the second major company to take such action this month, underscoring a growing legal problem. The issue could stall an already overloaded foreclosure process.
Still, analysts don't expect the delays to reduce the number of foreclosures over the long run.
"It will probably slow things down for a couple months while these documents are reviewed," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. "It won't stop things."
But if the problems turn up at more of the largest mortgage companies, a foreclosure crisis that's already likely to drag on for several more years could persist even longer.
GMAC Mortgage LLC last week halted certain evictions and sales of foreclosed homes in 23 states to review those cases. The company said it found procedural errors in some foreclosure affidavits.
After GMAC's announcement, attorneys general in California and Connecticut told the company to stop foreclosures in their states until it proves it's complying with state law. The Ohio attorney general this week asked judges to review GMAC foreclosure cases. And in Florida, the state attorney general is investigating four law firms, two with ties to GMAC, for allegedly providing fraudulent documents in foreclosure cases.
The issue is also gaining attention on Capitol Hill. Last week, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. and two other lawmakers wrote to Fannie Mae, urging the government-controlled mortgage giant to stop working with so-called "foreclosure mill" law firms under investigation for document fraud.
"Why is Fannie Mae using lawyers that are accused of regularly engaging in fraud to kick people out of their homes?" the lawmakers wrote.
A Fannie Mae spokesman said the company is reviewing the issue.
JPMorgan acknowledged Wednesday that its employees signed some affidavits about loan documents without personally verifying the files. These affidavits verifies the accuracy of the loan information, including who owns the mortgage.
JPMorgan spokesman Kelly said the bank believes the information in the affidavits is accurate, and that the affidavits were prepared by "appropriate personnel."
The bank asked judges not to enter judgments against homeowners facing foreclosure until it completes its review of the problem. JPMorgan expects the process to take a few weeks.
The way mortgages are packaged and sold to many investors as securities can make it hard to determine who has the right to foreclose on a homeowner.
In some states, lenders can foreclose quickly on delinquent mortgage borrowers. But 20 states use a lengthy court process for foreclosures. They require documents to verify information on the mortgage, including who owns it. Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois are the biggest states with this process.
Christopher Immel, a Florida lawyer who represents homeowners, said people who already have lost homes could sue their lender, alleging errors in documents.
In August, a judge in Duval County, Fla., ruled that JPMorgan could not foreclose on two homeowners. The reasoning was that Fannie Mae carried the mortgage on its books and JPMorgan Chase only collected payments on the loan. JPMorgan Chase had identified itself as the owner of the loan.
More lawsuits could come soon.
In May, JPMorgan employee Beth Ann Cottrell said in a deposition that she and her staff of eight signed about 18,000 legal documents a month without reviewing every file. In a similar testimony, GMAC employee Jeffrey Stephan said he signed 10,000 documents a month without personally verifying the mortgage information.
"It's very realistic to believe that this is a standard practice in how they go about foreclosures in certain states," said Immel, whose law firm took Cottrell's and Stephan's depositions.
FOLLOW UP TO THIS ARTICLE 10/13/2010 SEEMS THERE IS A BIG INVESTIGATION INTO FRAUD PAPERWORK UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE*Officials in 50 states launch foreclosure probe
By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel, Ap Real Estate Writer
33 mins ago
.WASHINGTON – Officials in 50 states and the District of Columbia have launched a joint investigation into allegations that mortgage companies mishandled documents and broke laws in foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homeowners.
The states' attorneys general and bank regulators will examine whether mortgage company employees made false statements or prepared documents improperly.
Alabama initially did not sign on to the investigation. It reversed course after the joint statement was released.
Attorneys general have taken the lead in responding to a nationwide scandal that's called into question the accuracy and legitimacy of documents that lenders relied on to evict people from the homes. Employees of four large lenders have acknowledged in depositions that they signed off on foreclosure documents without reading them.
The allegations raise the possibility that foreclosure proceedings nationwide could be subject to legal challenge. Some foreclosures could be overturned. More than 2.5 million homes have been lost to foreclosure since the recession started in December 2007, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
The state officials said they intend to use their investigation to fix the problems that surfaced in the mortgage industry.
"This is not simply about a glitch in paperwork," said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading the probe. "It's also about some companies violating the law and many people losing their homes."
Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC Mortgage Unit, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. already have halted some questionable foreclosures. Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. have not stopped processing foreclosures, saying they did nothing wrong.
In a joint statement, the officials said they would review evidence that legal documents were signed by mortgage company employees who "did not have personal knowledge of the facts asserted in the documents. They also said that many of those documents appear to have been signed without a notary public witnessing that signature — a violation of most state laws.
"What we have seen are not mere technicalities," said Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. "This is about the private property rights of homeowners facing foreclosure and the integrity of our court system, which cannot enter judgments based on fraudulent evidence
Thanks for the above links, I hope that it is of help to people. We have way too many families in the USA being thrown out of their homes. what is the point?
ReplyDeleteIf the banks foreclose, these homes usually sit empty...............meanwhile a family is homeless somewhere.
Sounds like people have recourse with this latest information. Lots of fraud paperwork.