Thousands of foreclosures are being scrutinized after employees at several major lenders approved thousands of foreclosure affidavits and other documents without proper evaluation. JP Morgan has suspended some 56,000 foreclosures after admitting some may have been authorized without proper review. Ally Financial, another major lender, suspended evictions in twenty-three states.
New York Supreme Court Justice, Arthur Schack sites “questionable practices” in a number of these foreclosure filings. To approve a foreclosure a lender must prove three elements: 1.) Proof of mortgage, 2.) owning the mortgage the day the case commences, and 3.) show there is a default by the borrower. The biggest problem Justice Schack states is proving ownership of the mortgage the day the case commences. Numerous problems have occurred as a result of sloppy paperwork with the assignments of these mortgages. This in turn, has caused problems for the bank, the borrower, and attributed to title problems with the new owner.
Andy Kroll, a reporter at Mother Jones, revealed that GMAC, a subsidiary of Ally Financial, relied heavily on what defense attorneys and critics call, “robo signers.” These employees sole job is to mass sign foreclosure affidavits. In GMAC’s case, depositions in Maine and Florida revealed that a robo-signer admitted under oath that he had no idea what he was signing, violating federal rules of civil procedure. It is required by law that an individual must have personal knowledge of what a foreclosure legal document says, which is now what is at the heart of the GMAC debacle.
The same law firm in Southeastern Florida deposed a similar employee within Chase Home Finance, opening the door for 56,000 of JP Morgan’s cases. This has caused many judges to go back and scrutinize banks that they feel utilized these questionable practices in pushing foreclosures through the system.
To read more about this story, please visit:
http://4closurefraud.org/2010/10/02/video-judge-arthur-schack-and-andy-kroll-on-foreclosure-fraud/
Foreclosure defense attorney, Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the Kingcade & Garcia, P.A. website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.
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