Many people have written asking for help with their foreclosures, following several articles I wrote on that subject. I’m not actively practicing law now, just writing, so I thought I would suggest some alternatives here. For legal help, you could try these websites –
http://livinglies.wordpress.com/in-trouble-right-now-press-here/lawyers-who-get-it-work-in-progress/
http://www.succeedwithloanmods.com/
For steps to follow if you want to do it yourself, try this –
http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2009/09/01/fight-foreclosure-make-em-produce-the-note-5/
Bobby Wilbert adds:
Please let your readers know about these sources for lawyers who fight foreclosures and who get it (some like me handle cases at no costs to clients). These lists have the best of the best in foreclosure defense –
http://maxbankruptcybootcamp.com/Boot_Camp_MasterList.pdf
http://naca.networkats.com/members_online/members/directorya.asp?token=
http://www.lsc.gov/map/index.php
Good luck!
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary
Ellen:
Please let your readers know about these sources for lawyers who fight foreclosures and who get it (some like me handle cases at no costs to clients). These lists have the best of the best in foreclosure defense
http://maxbankruptcybootcamp.com/Boot_Camp_MasterList.pdf
http://naca.networkats.com/members_online/members/directorya.asp?token=
http://www.lsc.gov/map/index.php
Thanks, I’ll add that! Ellen
Dear Ellen Brown,
Fantastic article and book (Web of Debt).
Concerning this article and it’s revelations, does one have to be in or close to foreclosure to reap these obvious benefits? I.E., The guy who is fortunate enough be able to pay bills on time, yet has discovered his bank sold the loan to MERS?
Thanks.
In my work I have only seen this issue raised defensively–when the mortgagee or servicer sues for foreclosure. I have never seen it done affirmatively. What would it be a complaint for a declaratory judgment? Action to quiet title? (Just thinking out loud.)
April Charney, the attorney who brought down the MERS regime with her novel theories, is waiting to see if she can get any of her clients title free and clear on this theory. I will keep you posted as her office is right next to mine.
I believe some of my mortgages are registered with MERS, although in Minnesota. For at least one of the mortgages, the customer service reps cannot tell me who holds the note. I’d love to have the loan and mortgage declared invalid and for the courts to release the lien.
Just an FYI, I’ve found this on the MERS site.
Click the link on “MERS Legal Primer” where you can see court cases in said states. Some were involving persons who had no foreclosure notices, yet were challenging the system (I’m sure MERS has cherry picked these cases, however). Some cases have Judges changing
the law in favor of MERS stating “although this has been seen as unfair lending practices in the past, it is now the way most mortgages are being handled.”
Note there are no cases later than 2007 though.
http://www.mersinc.org/Foreclosures/index.aspx
Bobby Wilbert,
I thank you for the reply, will look forward to any further contacts.
Take care.
I sued my lender back in March and I am not in default. It is a suit to quiet title.
I have a 15 page complaint and will be filing a 35+ page response to my Original lender and Mers’ Motion to Dismiss. I expect to win. Neither MERS nor my original lender have standing to contest my suit to quiet title (no financial interest in my mortgage at all) though they are the only names on the pertinent note and deed of trust and though my original lender, who is still my servicer, continues to demand payment.
I am sure they have lost my note as they have had six months to produce it and things would have been much easier if they had it.
I will send you a pdf of my complaint and a copy of my response to the motion to dismiss.
email me at davidgmillsatty@hotmail .com.
David,
I’ve attempted to email you, and get the following response:
“Mail Server Responded; Bad recipient address syntax
Please check the message and try again”
It appears there is a problem with the email address you left.
Hi… I just emailed April Charney… yesterday.. I figured I wouldn’t get a response… I KNOW she must be swamped with incoming correspondence.
I am a real estate agent in Florida that is knowledgable, I have worked as a legal assistant and can not seem to find a STINKING attorney with a brain in their head??? I have been drafting my own Complaint for a Quiet Title Action… I feel both LOST and FREE!!! ??? Any information or good direction you could point me in is MOST appreciated. I have MANY people that are friends, customers, family and I WANT TO FREE people. HELP!!
Hi, see my post on this blog, “Legal Relief for Distressed Homeowners,”
http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/legal-relief-for-distressed-homeowners/
Foreclosure sales in limbo over title issue
Expected ruling may complicate transactions
By Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | October 9, 2009
A court decision expected as soon as today could negate the validity of sales of thousands of foreclosed homes in Massachusetts, causing havoc for buyers and sellers and further stalling the housing market’s recovery in hard-hit areas.
At issue is proof of ownership at the time of a foreclosure sale. During the housing boom, millions of mortgages were bundled into bonds and sold to investors, a process that resulted in lengthy and twisted paper trails that can obscure ownership. Many lenders believed they could complete foreclosure transactions and later produce formal proof they held the mortgage.
That changed in March when Justice Keith C. Long of Massachusetts Land Court found that two foreclosures in Springfield were invalid because ownership of the mortgages was not clear at the time of the foreclosures.
Long’s ruling, which came as a shock to many who deal with distressed properties, called into question the ownership of hundreds if not thousands of foreclosed homes in Massachusetts, prompting some lenders to delay sales out of fear they could later be voided, title companies to balk at insuring them, and nonprofits to steer away from certain foreclosed homes altogether.
“There are thousands and thousands of titles that have gone through foreclosures with these late filed’’ ownership records, said Lawrence Scofield, an attorney with Ablitt Law Offices in Woburn, who represented plaintiffs in three consolidated Springfield cases ruled on by Long. “Judge Long is saying you don’t really own it. That is the real, overwhelming, economic effect.’’
Two of the plaintiffs asked Long to reconsider the ruling, and a decision is imminent.
Among those watching the case are Boston city officials, who say they hope Long will clarify title issues for homes that have already gone into foreclosure. In the meantime, the judge’s actions have stymied the city’s effort to buy as many as 20 bank-owned properties, hurting much-needed redevelopment efforts in neighborhoods plagued by foreclosure, officials said.
“It has put some properties in the state of limbo,’’ said Evelyn Friedman, director of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development.
While title issues can affect any home sale, Long’s ruling addressed procedures required under foreclosure law and therefore only affects properties foreclosed on by a lender. His decision builds on a growing national movement among housing advocates, courts, and some lawmakers to push lenders dealing with foreclosed properties to produce accurate documentation before deals are consummated.
Kathleen Engel, professor of law at Suffolk University, said the federal government should step in to help states deal with “toxic titles’’ that are clogging up the system from California to Florida. She said until recently few people were scrutinizing paperwork of foreclosing lenders, whose actions are causing problems for borrowers, investors, and municipalities. No matter how Long rules, she said, the problem isn’t going away.
“The fundamental problem is the paperwork was really shoddy,’’ said Engel. “The mess was created by Wall Street.’’
Locally, the Massachusetts decision has pitted advocates trying to revive neighborhoods against others trying to help homeowners stave off foreclosures.
Gary Klein, a consumer law attorney who filed a friend of the court brief in the case, said the real estate system placed “expedience and convenience’’ before the law. Providing home buyers with a “full set of procedural protections,’’ he said, is more important than comforting lenders who ignored the law. He said the lending community created the mess and it needs to fix it.
Klein said there is a benefit to the ruling for homeowners in trouble: It is slowing the foreclosure process, allowing them more time to try to save their homes. Indeed, since March, the number of foreclosure deeds has slowed, according to Warren Group, a Boston company that provides real estate data.
“There are probably at least a thousand families who are getting at least some period of temporary delay while lenders go back and get a proper paper trail,’’ said Klein, an attorney with the Boston-based law firm Roddy, Klein and Ryan. “Slowing foreclosures down allows people to get loan modifications and other relief.’’
The Springfield lawsuit was filed not by homeowners seeking to regain their houses, but by the foreclosing lenders who were trying to remove a “cloud from the title’’ of properties created because of where the lenders chose to publish foreclosure auction notices. A secondary issue was whether the notices – which did not officially name the mortgage holders – complied with the law, and that is what Long is concerned about.
The Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts, a statewide group with 3,000 members, joined the plaintiff’s attorney to ask the court to reconsider its ruling. Attorney Christopher Pitt, chair of the group’s Title Standards Committee, said many banks already have changed their procedures as a result of the March decision and are now coming to foreclosure-sale closings with completed paperwork.
But that doesn’t help people who already bought a foreclosed property from a bank.
“If a property has one of those arguably defective foreclosures in its back title, right now you may not be able to refinance or sell it,’’ said Pitt, who works for the law firm Robinson & Cole, which has an office in Boston.
In Springfield, the ruling scuttled purchases of two foreclosed properties in depressed areas, said Rudy Perkins, a staff lawyer with HAPHousing, a nonprofit that promotes affordable housing. As a result, Perkins said, the agency now steers clear of properties with similar title questions.
“There is a danger that if this can’t be resolved, those properties will stay boarded up,’’ said Perkins. “It killed the deals and, unfortunately, it is going to kill deals on other properties.’’
In North Andover, real estate agent Linda Kody said some banks have moved to redo a foreclosure rather than wait for Long’s decision. Others are not moving forward with foreclosures. Twelve pending sales in her office have collapsed recently, Kody said, and another 25 bank-owned property listings are on hold as lenders wait for a ruling.
“It is very upsetting,’’ said Kody, president of the real estate firm Kody & Co. Inc.
Biju Kachappilly, a father of two, is one of the many hopeful buyers awaiting the decision. Kachappilly said his pending purchase of a four-bedroom, $400,000 Colonial in Tyngsborough in April fell through over questions about the title. He still hopes to buy the home, but in the meantime is paying higher rent on a month-to-month apartment in Billerica after notifying the landlord of his plans to move.
“We are trying to buy a house and move our family there; it is good for the neighborhood and it is good for the town,’’ said Kachappilly. “Many families and houses are in limbo because of this decision.’’
Jenifer McKim can be reached at jmckim@globe.com.
hello Bobby Wilbert,
thanks a lot for the info you provide, it really helped me. may be useful also for others.
Update: On October 28, 2009, the judge dismissed my case. So I am making preparations for appeal. The judge decided my case was not ripe which means that he thought maybe I needed to have defaulted and was being foreclosed upon before I had a real “Injury.” Apparently, having a cloud on your title created by an unenforceable (lost) note is not sufficient harm. I don’t think he gets it yet and perhaps has some cognitive dissonance and just can’t believe this is all true.
I think he also thinks I am just trying to skip out on my mortgage. I think he still thinks I am a bad guy.
I am sure he is ignoring the law. But I could tell by his face that he was genuinely concerned by all of this. He listened intently.
During the hearing, opposing counsel, who wants to make me out as someone trying to game the system, made a serious mistake. She told the judge that all I had to do to confirm that Fannie Mae held my mortgage was go to Fannie Mae’s website and look up my loan. Well after the hearing I did, and Fannie Mae’s website clearly shows that Fannie Mae does not own my loan as my original lender, now servicer, has been telling the judge. OOPS! It took me all of five minutes to find out.
So Friday October 30, I filed a motion with the court to make payments into the registry of the court pending appeal and as part of my grounds I will be attaching a screen shot of the Fannie Mae web page which shows that Fannie Mae does not own my loan. Putting funds into the registry of the court is something a party, who owes money, but does not know who he owes, is something the courts commonly do. I will get to point out once again nobody knows who I actually owe and it would certainly be unjust to continue paying someone who can’t prove that I owe who they claim I owe.
So we will have a hearing on that next Friday It is uncommon to allow this though when you have lost at the trial level so I don’t expect the judge to allow me to do so, but he might.
I also will be filing a motion for reconsideration. The judge granted the motion to dismiss on the grounds of “ripeness.” This means he thinks I was not yet harmed. But this is very flawed. Anyone who has a lien on their property is harmed by it. A lien prevents or deters the ability to sell and it prevents using the property as collateral for a loan. So he is absolutely wrong on this.
I will also point out in my motion for reconsideration that the Defendants filed to discuss two of my causes of action and failed to prove these causes of action were not valid. These causes of action were not addressed in the Motion to Dismiss nor in the hearing so they will be new matters for consideration, not matters the judge has already considered.
In the meantime, we will be getting ready to go to the Court of Appeals, and after that, the Tennessee Supreme Court.
David,
I am interested in doing a quiet title action for my home too. Could you email
me your complaint and response to motion to dismiss? I agree with you in that if there is lien or encumbrance on your property that is invalid, this is an actual harm or injury that you have already sustained. Press forward with the appeal and I hope you win! It is important for you to be up to speed with the securitization process so you can explain to the judge in simple yet cogent terms how the process worked and how defective paperwork (note and mortgage assignments) go to the heart and substance of your claim and are not merely technical or a fly-by-the-wall argument, anymore than someone who sues for breach of contract but cannot produce the contract is hindered by a mere technical defect. Attorneys who refuse cases because they scoff at the “produce the note” strategy as a mere delaying tactic that will not prevent the foregone conclusion of eventual foreclosure are doing so mostly because of ignorance – because they don’t have a deep knowledge of how these mortgage loans were securitized, don’t understand the “true sale” concept and how the failure to properly and timely assign the notes and mortgages prevent a “true sale” which renders the party with a beneficial interest in the property hanging on a gossamer thread with most likely only an equitable claim (like unjust enrichment) to the money they advanced (the loan).
David,
Good for you! Keep fighting–the law, history, morality, etc. is on your side. Fannie Mae’s loan lookup tool did say they owned my loan even after MERS recorded a fraudulent assignment at my county courthouse from MERS to BAC Home Loans (original lender was Countrywide). That didn’t pass the smell test; filed suit for a temporary restraining order to stop foreclosure sale and got it–in Mississippi.
Freddie Mac also has a loan lookup tool. I don’t have the URL handy, but just do a Google search and it’ll come right up. But even if Freddie says they own your loan, they really don’t–the investors in Freddie Mac MBS do.
If you haven’t already, do check out the Living Lies site that Ellen recommended–it’s very useful and has lots of info and tons of strategies. But since you filed a quiet title action without even being foreclosed on, it sounds like maybe you’re already hip to Living Lies.
Bobby…excellent website, excellent information for folks who thought they were powerless against greedy bankers!
Keep up the great work!
Jim
Heres a video re: Landmark National Bank v. Kesler
That’s great! Tempts me to go back into practicing law.