Archive for March, 2011

Early “Fraud-closure” Warnings Ignored, Internal Fannie Mae 2006 Reports

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Black hat foreclosure has been an accepted practice since 2006? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

As Florida’s top prosecutor continues to investigate the state’s law firms for improper foreclosure work, a report has surfaced showing Fannie Mae was warned in 2006 of abuses in the way lenders and their law firms handled foreclosures, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The fraud-closure problem that’s been snow-balling could have been minimized, if only the government paid attention to documented reports!

This internal report, produced years before regulators began investigating the mortgage industry’s practices, said Florida foreclosure attorneys “routinely made” false statements in court attempting to process foreclosures more quickly.

The report said Fannie Mae officials “believe foreclosure counsel are sacrificing accuracy for speed” but did not name any firms, the Journal said.

How ironic that the government has essentially known of the fraudulent, illegal practices of banks and the mortgage industry for five years, and is still trying to fix these catastrophic wrongs. Essentially, this equates to fraud, perpetuated by the idea that you can privatize profits and socialize losses.

And apparently this is what you get when the fox is asked to clean up the hen house.

It is also interesting to note that after the government took complete control of Freddie and Fannie in 2008 amid soaring loan losses, Florida foreclosure filings soared to unprecedented levels. This report proves that the government is to blame for our real estate debacle as much, if not more, than the banks who have taken the brunt of America’s scorn for years.
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Broward County Order Gives Homeowners Short End of the Stick… Again

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Broward County Order Gives Homeowners Short End of the Stick… AgainBroward County homeowners now face an additional hurdle when trying to complete a loan modification or short sale to avoid a Florida foreclosure.

In Sun-Sentinel reporter Paul Owers’ blog House Keys, Owers discusses the ramifications of Broward County now requiring 10 days’ notice to cancel residential foreclosure auctions according to an administrative order signed by Broward Chief Judge Victor Tobin.

Prior to the Administrative Order, Broward foreclosure auctions could be cancelled only hours before the sale. Now, homeowners looking to cancel a home foreclosure in Broward County are forced to file a motion and be scheduled for a hearing at least 10 business days before the foreclosure sale date.

Oppenheim Law Real Estate Attorney and Legal Bogger Roy Oppenheim was quoted in the article saying, “This will have unintended consequences. Clearly, the homeowner gets the short end of the stick here.”

Effectively, this order limits the time homeowners have to negotiate a short sale or loan modification before their home is put up for auction. Before the order, these deals could be completed up to the last minute.

This order appears to be an attempt to eliminate the backlog of foreclosure cases by limiting the number of homeowners who cancel their foreclosure auctions.

“Roy Oppenheim gets it, and I agree with him,” said Ronald Scott Kaniuk in a comment to the blog. “Courts throughout the state are trying to expedite foreclosures in the mistaken belief that completing foreclosures – even if the process is flawed, improper or ill-advised – is better than having cases continue to proceed on a normal track like any other litigation.”
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Oppenheim Law Round up: Debtors’ Prisons, Bank Settlements and Florida’s Nuclear Plants

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

Could you end up in jail for not paying your bills? Is our country’s need for speed going to derail efforts to end improper loan-servicing and foreclosure practices? How do Florida’s nuclear power plants compare to those in Japan?

Those are just some of the questions being asked this week from top tier business and real estate reporters around the country. Most importantly, the answers could have profound effects on Florida’s housing market and our country’s economy.

Welcome to Debtors’ Prison, 2011 Edition

More than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who are behind on credit-card payments, auto loans and other bills to be jailed, according to The Wall Street Journal Business Writer Jessica Silver-Greenberg.

However lawmakers, judges and regulators are beginning to crack down on this practice analogous to the Shay’s Rebellion 2.0 Oppenheim Law described almost a year ago.

In Florida, training this week for dozens of new judges moving to courts with the power to lock up borrowers includes a session about potential abuses of debt-related warrants. “Before we take away a person’s freedom, we want to ensure that there are procedural safeguards,” said Peter Evans, a Palm Beach County, Fla., state-court judge who proposed the session.

A Swift Deal May Not Be a Sound One

This country’s need for speed derailed the mortgage industry, and that same breakneck pace is threatening to ruin a bank settlement being devised by state attorneys general relating to improper loan-servicing and foreclosure practices.

Gretchen Morgenson of The New York Times comments in her column, “While some might argue that a rapid approach will help borrowers, it is apt to benefit the banks far more.”
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As David Stern’s Foreclosure Mill Closes Down, a Miami-Dade Judge Dresses Down a Foreclosure Mill

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

 

 

On a recent Friday morning in Miami-Dade County, Judge Maxine Cohen Lando went on the record to dress down a foreclosure mill in such a fashion that it brought chills to any lawyer who is a member in good standing of the Florida Bar.

The foreclosure case was before the court because the defendant had brought a motion to dismiss the foreclosure with prejudice. The judge, having previously become annoyed with the bank and the bank’s counsel, had requested that there be an order to show cause. The judge was questioning the pleadings and wanted the foreclosure mill representing the bank to come forward and prove that they had not been involved with any inappropriate conduct.

 

 

The judge was clearly upset and said to the banks’ attorneys:

Counsel, this is all speculation. What we are here about is lawyers practicing law correctly. Lawyers reviewing the documents they submit to the court and making sure that they are correct before they are submitted. “It’s not my fault”, “this is a clerical error” and “the dog ate my homework” isn’t going to do.

The court went on to question what kind of supervision is going on at the foreclosure mills and whether the named partners were in any manner setting up the proper systems to ensure that quality work was being produced. The court specifically stated that legal work being dished out in a factory-like fashion may “be okay for you, but it is not okay for the court.”

The judge further questioned whether the attorneys gave legal counsel to their clients, stating:
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