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Mortgage Papers and Foreclosure

It's easy for a homeowner's payments to fall through the cracks.

A A A Comments (4) By Craig Malisow Wednesday, Apr 1 2009

...continued from page 4

Day after day, Wells Fargo's mortgage-servicing employees have to listen to people who say they just need an extension, or argue that they made last month's payment on time but it was held, and now there are late fees. They say they wish they had the couple extra bucks.

Prime, subprime, Alt-A — it seems like anybody can feel the crunch. Like Wells Fargo. In October 2008, the bank was having a hard go at it and just needed a few bucks to make it through the next few months. Can happen to anyone. Fortunately, they didn't have to deal with foreclosure, because they could turn to a rich uncle for help. It's good to know people. That uncle floated them $25 billion.

Daniel Kramer

Nancy Perez bought the house so her kids, Ian and Isabella, could enjoy their own bedrooms and a big backyard.

Photos by Daniel Kramer

After the first fire, the Spring Branch house was salvageable.

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Allyn 04/10/2009 8:36:00 AM

In regard to Lucy's comment, canceled checks are largely a thing of the past. It's very likely that the majority of loan payments that are received by mortgage servicers nationally are electronic: submitted via the servicer's website, or through online bill paying services offered by the homeowners' banks. Another portion are processed as debit card or even credit card payments, or "check by phone" payments (both of which come with a hefty fee, as noted in the article, $10 - $20 a month or even more). So there is no concrete and discrete paper trail, like a canceled check that has a date written and an endorsement and an imprint from the receiving bank. The best many homeowners could hope to produce if they had to prove their payments would be their statements from the mortgage servicers themselves or bank statements. The former, however, would not validate a claim that one servicer incorrectly held a payment that should have been forwarded, and the latter would only show that a payment had been made, not that it was made at the right time, to the right people, or what happened to it afterward.

Barbara Ann Jackson 04/03/2009 5:30:00 AM

re: Fraudulent Foreclosures, Illegal Seizures & Evictions, 1099 fraud upon the IRS An investigation is needed for the FORECLOSURE FRAUD which is causing people to FALSELY lose ownership of their properties and become evicted; it cheats Investors, and certain mortgage companies. This fraud occurs when debt collector attorneys deliberately file judicial foreclosures under names of defunct mortgage companies, or companies which do not own the promissory notes, effecting illegal seizures. Those collectors charge fees far beyond "Acceleration Clauses," thereby making it impossible for borrowers to recover their properties or bring current mortgage arrears. Foreclosure fraud also enables mortgage companies like Wells Fargo Bank to file with the IRS false 1099-A's and 1099-C's and receive unlawful tax write offs and tax credits. SEE: www.lawgrace.org/2008/08/08/my-august-8-2008-statement-to-the-louisiana-secretary-of-state-office-of-financial-institutions-concerning-wells-fargo-irs-and-mortgage-frauds-sham-foreclosures-and-judicial-collusion-and-national-app/. Also, some unscrupulous debt collector attorneys are committing fraud in Bankruptcy Court by filing sham "lift stay" motions via use of movants which lack STANDING. Incredibly (through use of another's identity), the foreclosure "plaintiff" is actually sometimes the disguised collector. SEE: http://chuckgallagher.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/foreclosure-fraud-an-interesting-variation-of-mortgage-fraud-comments-ethics-speaker-chuck-gallagher/. Collectors make even more $$$ from protracted litigations for "Unfair Debt Collection Practices," etc. (*Example of foreclosure litigation in: "Super Future Equities v. Wells Fargo Bank, et al.") Foreclosure frauds makes possible real estate FLIPPING frauds. SEE: www.lawgrace.org/2008/09/14/lehman-brothers%E2%80%99-mortgage-troubles-nationally-evidence-of-foreclosure-fraud-deception-and-conspiracy-with-wells-fargo-deceptive-judicial-filings/. Barbara Ann Jackson Law & Grace, Inc.

Lucy 04/03/2009 5:12:00 AM

While I do not doubt that mortgage companies are staffed by idiots, I dont understand why its so difficult to prove loan payments. There should be canceled checks from the bank that can be tallied to show the amount paid. If the payments that were held by the servicers had not been cashed, Ms. Perez should have noticed that when she balanced her personal accounts and acted accordingly. But if she is saying that they did in fact cash the checks and not forward the payments properly, why cant she contact her bank and get the canceled checks to prove it?

Matthew Jessick 04/02/2009 4:28:00 AM

Very well written article. Thanks!

Mortgage Papers and Foreclosure

It's easy for a homeowner's payments to fall through the cracks.

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