Franken urges reform on foreclosure ‘robo-signing’

Big Fan of Al, voted for him, think he does great work.
BUT
not to sound cold or anything….the facts are the facts and they are very black and white, either you have made your payment or you haven’t. If homeowners are not making their payments, just like if one were to quit making their car payments, the home will get taken. The robo signing thing is bad but it won’t change the fact that they haven’t made their payments and will only drag this mess out further.

God I hope Dennis doesn’t side with me, he is a big fat poophead.

Looks like someone got around to telling Al that his idea of government-run internet wasn’t going over well so he’s moved on to his next topic … that he knows even less about.

Chad, it is one thing for the homeowner to be behind on his mortgage and quite another thing for the “mortgage servicers fraudulently signing affidavits to execute foreclosures, when they have zero personal knowledge of the individual borrower’s situation.”

There are a lot of honest homeowners who lost or are losing their homes regardless of how much built-up equity through no fault of their own such as loss of job, inability to find that new job in time, illness/disability, high medical expenses, natural disasters and such. It is painful for these people; I would not be so quick to judge. Life is never that black and white.

Lane,

I am independent, no party affiliation, and do sympathize, and those scenarios you described are all tragic and legitimate.

Let’s take the “Robo signing” out of this.

Answer this question, if you lend your own personal $$$$ to someone to buy a car our home, at what point do you say enough is enough, you haven’t paid me and I need to exercise my right to take the collateral and recover as much as I can….Do you honestly think in the big picture foreclosures happen over night??????
In MN, you have to be 6 months behind before a sheriffs sale happens and you have an additional 6 months after that to remain in the home.
Some banks in MN are like 12-18 months behind in even initiating a sheriffs sale, so basically people are living rent free and in those intances I feel that is enough time to find other living arragements.

There is no easy answer but I’m sorry a mortgage is simply a collaterlized contract between a borrower and a lender, and if you dont make the payments the lender has the right to take the collateral back.

>There is no easy answer but I’m sorry a mortgage is simply a collaterlized contract between a borrower and a lender, and if you dont make the payments the lender has the right to take the collateral back.<

No argument here…. But – said lender must abide by proscribed laws when legal actions are taken, else those actions are "illegal". The lender also must "come to court with 'clean hands'." Any reclaimation of collateral must be done in accordance with existing laws and with strict compliance of "due process."

What the writer may not know is that a nation-wide fraud is afoot. Lenders using what is effectively an "automated database" named Mortgage Electronic Recording Services (MERS) has effectively surplanted the centuries old private property public records system in every county in our nation.

The "reason" given by MERS for the creation of this "monster" was to avoid paying for recording fees due to local governments. The effect is that "clean title" may not exist for any landowner whose home was financed and was instructed by the banks to assign questionable property "rights" to MERS. The loss of "true ownership" of property and the systematic destruction of our nation's long-established property title law is a "Big Issue"!

All homeowners who are being directly affected (even if they are not in foreclosure) are those who are being told to make payments to an entity that refuses to prove any "right to receive monies" or, if necessary, the right to "reclaim the collateral."

No homeowner should be forced to make payments to a party who did not finance the note unless there has been a legal assignment of all rights to that note and the underlying security as evidenced by a mortgage or a deed to secure debt."

Much of this is "legalese" but in our nation (until now) we have been a nation "under law" and all partes to every legal dispute are bound to obey that law if they claim benefits therefrom.

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I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but isn’t it perjury to sign an affidavit swearing you own a mortgage when, in fact, you have no idea?

Wouldn’t hiring people to commit this kind of perjury on a large scale fall under the Rico Act as a pattern of criminal activity?

Where’s Eric Holder? Why hasn’t anyone been arrested?

I am curious.

Suppose the sheriff’s sale netted more than what is owed on the defaulted mortgage. Are the excess funds placed in escrow to be released to whomever files a claim on that money in court – homeowner, second mortgage company, whoever?

I do not think the mortgage holder is entitled to those excess funds.

Hmm, lots of opinion out there but this mess is too big for sound bites or one liners. The robo -signing problem constitutes simple fraud and should be treated as such. The real problem arises when the debtor, clearly in default of his loan, cannot be foreclosed on because the lenders have so fouled their own nest that there is no one with the authority to proceed. That’s is level one of the problem. Level 2 is most likely recreating a system of property law that is nearly moribund as a result of the banks, lenders and courts playing fast and loose with procedures that had worked for two hundred years or more. Level 3 is getting control of the companies (banks, mortgage companies, etc.) that are acting merely as servicers of the loan and thus do not have any motive to help anyone other than themselves. There is a reason the government backed modification program is a complete failure. It is to the servicers benefit to stretch out foreclosure proceedings and never agree to final modification when they continue to rake in huge profits and, because they are not the holder of the note or mortgage have no money at risk. The result is homeowners who think they have a modification only to find out months (or even years) later that they do not and are being foreclosed on even though they have never missed a payment. Solve the robo -singing problem and the mess continues on.

Al,
By the way….ALL the Banks claim to be from Minnesota too!
At least when they are “Stealing” the homes by Paper Fraud
here are only 2 a links – decide for yourself AL

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/175_114/foreclosure-challenges-1020961-1.html

http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/12/07/why-do-banks-mers-use-lender-processing-servicess-minnesota-address/

Thanks for caring (Seriously)….but instead of joking that homeowners are insulted and mistreated with Robo-Letters – the same received by an important senator. (Remember you’re no longer a comedian in your current role)
WHY DON’T YOU instead – READ and RESEARCH one of the SERVICERS biggest fraud perpetrators) from YOUR STATE (Minnesota)
LPS -(FRAUDE – L- ENT Processing Systems.
1270 Northland Drive
Mendota Heights, MINNESOTA 55120
Al- Who cares that the banks (Ally and JPMorgan) sent you a robo-letter. They don’t own the mortgage in the first place, if they do, it is claimed to have been assigned from Minnesota’s LPS or the servicers LPS employee or the Foreclosure Mill law firm’s robo-attorney signature fraud. Again start with LPS and not the banks who have been lying, directly, to you and at all the senate hearings…every step of the way. Did you really believe Feinstein and Dimon….while they were preparing for another round of million dollar bonuses?

Chad, sounds like your not fully up to speed on this massive scam. I suggest you look farther into the whole way this SCAM was unleashed on the American Public.

Its aw whole lot more than people not being able to make payments. Laws are made for all, for everyone. Just because they were called To Big To Fail, does not give them the right to break the law of our counrty.

Please read this link. http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/executive-accused-of-mortgage-securities-scheme-everyone-has-been-paid-at-least-once-100-cents-on-the-dollar-plus-fees-and-profits-now-they-want-your-house-too-are-you-going-to-let-that-happen/

Chad, it isn’t black and white. Sometimes the banks or servicers have committed fraud. There have been instances of houses being lost to foreclosure when the owners didn’t have a mortgage.

Isn’t it nice we can (not being sarcastic) have this conversation, disagree without being disagreeable and deal with crazy right wingers bringing up completley pointless arguements (thats a shot at you Dennis, I know you are to dumb to realize this) and yes I think this whole mess is a scam except for the fact that either you make your payment or you don’t and if you don’t there are serious consequences (again not trying to be cold)

P.S. Dennis you always duck my question, name 1, just 1 freedom/ civil liberty/ right that we have lost since Obama won the White House……still waiting Dennis

The robo-signing is just another indication of just how badly the “free market” can, and does, fail when enough money is involved.

Main street will continue to be in a revolving recession until the foreclosures drop to normal levels. Each foreclosure and distressed sale represents the destruction of wealth and a weakening of the consumer economy.

The very scale of the problem makes due process problematic. If everyone exercised their legal rights, it would freeze the housing market and flood the courts. If not, then the mortgage holders would dump so much of the losses they bear responsibility for onto the working class that it could restart the recession.

There are no easy solutions, there are no cheap solutions, there are no fair and just solutions. There is only the very high cost of free-market corruption.

Thank you, Al, for trying to do something to right the ongoing wrongs that hurt the country.

Al Franken isn’t any more astute than when he was in ‘Trading Places’ – he really gave baggage handlers a bad name in that movie. Still does.

If you want to speak intelligently to the ‘fraudclosuregate’ issue then check out the following – an entertaining insight into the Deadbeat v Bankster debate.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8320643/

I wonder if my last post will last longer than before my 1st was taken down………..guess freedmon of thought and speech only goes so far………….as long as we all agree with the ‘party’ line.

First-time comments go into a queue for moderation, Sal G, so I’m just getting to it now. Sorry your gem of a comment didn’t immediately go live.