“This type of modification does not beg for a lender’s permission but is delivered as an ultimatum: Force me out if you can. Any moral qualms are overshadowed by a conviction that the banks created the crisis by snookering homeowners with loans that got them in over their heads.”

In my practice, I’m seeing more and more of this thinking.  People have other financial problems that need tending and are willing to risk losing their property in order to get their feet under them.

“Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners’ association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500.”

In Texas, a homeowner’s association and a mortgage company, so long as the mortgage has proper language, can foreclose without a hearing.  The deprivation of process is clear.  Let’s hope it doesn’t happen in Florida.

Originally found here.

Yesterday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which covers South Florida, adopted the Second DCA’s ruling.  In pertinent part, the court stated:

“In the instant case, th e endorsement in blank is unsigned and unauthenticated, creating a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Aurora is the lawful owner and holder of the note and/or mortgage. As in BAC Funding Consortium, there are no supporting affidavits or deposition testimony in the record to establish that Aurora validly owns and holds the note and mortgage, no evidence of an assignment to Aurora, no proof of purchase of the debt nor any other evidence of an effective transfer.”

In short order, the Fourth DCA is telling the banks to actually prove ownership after transfer or lose the case.  Great news for homeowners.

“Now one judge in Florida has ruled there was “fraud” by a bank in a foreclosure case, raising questions about how banks — and so-called foreclosure “mill” law firms that work for banks — are attempting to claim homes from borrowers in default. Here’s the WSJ story….

The Florida case, U.S. Bank v Ernest Harpster, was dismissed last month by Judge Lynn Tepper of Pasco County after she found that an “assignment of mortgage” filed in the case, which was meant to show how U.S. Bank obtained ownership of the mortgage, was false. The document (seen at the bottom of this link) was dated 2007 but the judge found it was created in 2008.”

Check out the story for some great links.

Here is the White House information sheet on this and the new Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which applies to fraud investigations of loans.  Of course, this law will come a little too late for some, but we’ll see.