JPMorgan Chase congela 56,000 ejecuciones hipotecarias

J.P. Morgan Chase freezes 56,000 foreclosures

The Washington Post

J.P. Morgan Chase issued a freeze on 56,000 foreclosures on Wednesday, acknowledging that some employees may have signed off on documents submitted in support of them without proper review.

Chase spokesman Tom Kelly said the company has requested that the courts not enter judgments in pending matters until the company has had time to re-examine the filings "to verify that the affidavits and other documents meet the standard of personal knowledge or review where that is required."

"While Chase does not expect find any factual problems and that customers have been harmed, but if we do find any cases we will take appropriate action," Kelly said.

In May, a Chase employee named Beth Ann Cottrell said in a sworn deposition that she and her team signed off on up to 18,000 foreclosure affidavits and other documents a month without reviewing them thoroughly.

Another mortgage company, Ally Financial--the nation's fifth largest lender--on Sept. 20 halted evictions and resale of repossessed homes in 23 states. Jeffrey Stephan, a document processor for the company, admitted that he had signed off on 10,000 pieces of foreclosure paperwork a month without reading them.

State attorneys in at least nine states have announced investigations into the matter.

By Ariana Eunjung Cha | September 29, 2010; 5:07 PM ET

Jueces en Florida niegan casos a favor de bancos

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Florida’s Kangaroo Foreclosure Courts: Judges Denying Due Process on Behalf of Banks

Florida is ground zero of the foreclosure crisis. In addition to being one of the epicenters of the housing meltdown, it has also become the jurisdiction where local lawyers have been the most effective overall in unearthing how servicers and foreclosure mills have engaged in widespread document fabrications and use of improper affidavits to foreclose.

This abuse of contracts and legal procedures matters because the courts are the last bastion of defense of the individual. Even libertarians, who keenly oppose government mission creep, give courts an elevated role as a protector of rights.

Given the success that local attorneys are having (it has reached the point where the state attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into three so-called foreclosure mills operating in the state), pushback by the mortgage industrial complex was inevitable. The old saw about “best government money can buy” now looks to apply to the courts, the one area most people assume to be relatively free from tampering by well funded interests.

The New York Times did report on this development, but its account was such a pale version of what is happening on the ground as to give readers a distorted picture.

These new foreclosure-only courts are special creations of the Florida legislature, funded separately from the usual court system. They are manned by retired judges, which means in many cases they are not familiar with real estate law.

FUBAR Mortgage Behavior: Florida Banks Destroyed Notes; Others Never Transferred Them

FUBAR Mortgage Behavior: Florida Banks Destroyed Notes; Others Never Transferred Them

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Before we get to the meat of the post, I have a fun project for readers. Just as “whocoulddanode” has become inextricably linked to the excuses for the failure to see the housing crisis coming, we need a new tag phase for the hopeless tangled mess that the folks who screwed up mortgage securitizations have foisted on Americans. Conceptually, FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) is accurate, but it is pretty antique as far as slang goes, so we need a new term. Ideas encouraged.

But to give readers the latest report of modern FUBAR, mortgage edition, let us continue with the sorry saga of “Where’s My Note?” For the benefit of newbies, what everyone calls a mortgage actually has two components: the note, which is the borrower IOU, and the mortgage (in some states, it’s called a deed of trust) which is the lien on the property. In 45 states, the mortgage is a mere accessory to the note; you must be the real party of interest in the note in order to foreclose.

The pooling and servicing agreement, which governs who does what when in a mortgage securitization, requires the note to be endorsed (just like a check, signed by one party over to the next), showing the full chain of title, and the minimum conveyance chain is A (originator) => B (sponsor) => C (depositor) => D (trust). The endorsements also have to be wet ink; no electronic signatures permitted.

I’ve had a lot of anecdotal evidence to support the idea that these procedures, which were created in the early days of mortgage securitizations, were simply not observed on a widespread, if not a universal basis. My sense is that the breakdown in practice was well underway by 2004, but it may have taken place earlier. For instance, a group of over 100 lawyers in a loose network around Max Garndner, a North Carolina bankruptcy lawyer who has taken a serious interest in this area, now has a standing joke that the first one that finds a deal where the note was correctly endorsed must bronze it and hang it on their wall. In other words, in none of the cases this large group has seen were the notes transferred to the trust properly.

Titulos usados por Jeffrey Stephan de GMAC

FORECLOSURE FRAUD – TITLES USED BY JEFFREY STEPHAN OF GMAC

Posted by 4closureFraud on September 17, 2010

Jeffrey Stephan,  who actually works for GMAC Mortgage Corp. in Montgomery County, PA, signs thousands of Mortgage Assignments each month as an officer of other banks and mortgage companies in order to transfer mortgages TO GMAC.

In Florida, the law firms that regularly present documents signed by Jeffrey Stephans as “proof” that GMAC has standing to foreclose include The Law Offices of Marshall Watson, The Law Offices of David Stern and Florida Default Law Group.

Stephan has admitted in depositions that he has no personal knowledge of the facts of documents he signs, does not verify the facts, and often does not sign in front of a notary (though the documents are eventually notarized).

Titles used by Jeffrey Stephan include the following:

NYT: Florida tiene una respuesta rápida al desastre hipotecario

September 4, 2010

Florida’s High-Speed Answer to a Foreclosure Mess

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and GERALDINE FABRIKANT

TEN days from now, a four-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in Middleburg, Fla., is scheduled to be auctioned off at the Clay County courthouse, 25 miles south of Jacksonville.

A judge who recently took over their foreclosure case has ordered Rodney Waters; his fiancée, Terri Reese; and their four children to leave the home they bought in 2006.

Mr. Waters, a supervisor at a local packaging company and the family’s sole breadwinner, fell behind on his mortgage two years ago after his property taxes jumped unexpectedly. He now owes $264,000 on the house; a similar home down the street sold for $138,500 in February.

The predicament of the Waters-Reese family is common in Florida today. The state routinely sets new records for foreclosures — in the second quarter, 20.13 percent of its mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, a national high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And with housing prices still in a free fall, almost half of all borrowers in Florida owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, says CoreLogic, a data firm.