Archive for the ‘Roy Oppenheim’ Category
Friday, April 27th, 2012
Survey: Mortgage Foreclosure Scams Surge
Not only is America’s foreclosure crisis still going strong, it now comes with even more fraud and deception.
With heightened media coverage surrounding the recent national mortgage settlement and refinements to government assistance programs, experts say selling “the schtick” has only become easier for criminals. But there are red flags consumers can watch out for when trying to determine whether or not an organization is legit.
First, homeowners should never have to pay anything up front for a loan modification or information on how to negotiate with their lender, says Roy Oppenheim, whose Florida-based law firm Oppenheim Law has handled more than 1,000 mortgage and foreclosure fraud cases over the past 5 years.
“If you’re paying upfront to a non-lawyer who’s claiming they can modify your loan, that’s a big scam,” Oppenheim says.
Read More from US News and World Report
Short Sales Soar as Home Foreclosures Fall
The foreclosure crisis isn’t over, but a new trend in real estate sales could be the light at the end of the tunnel for many borrowers and lenders. Short sales, which occur when homeowners sell their homes for less than what they still owe, outpaced foreclosures for the first time ever in January,according to a new report from Lender Processing Services, Inc.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this month that mortgage servicers will be required to review and respond to short sale offers within 30 days and make final sale decisions within 60 days. The new requirements, which take effect in June, have kept lenders busy expanding and training the staff needed to catch up with growing short sale demand.
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Tags: american homeowner preservation, banking, defense attorneys, economics, finance, foreclosure, foreclosures, home foreclosure, in the news, law firm, laws, lawyers.com, loss mitigation, MERS, mortgage, mortgage foreclosure, national mortgage, oppenheim, Oppenheim Law, personal finance, Real Estate, real property law, Roy Oppenheim, senior partners, short sale, tv reports, us news and world report, usa today
Posted in Mortgage Scams, Oppenheim Law: In The News, Roy Oppenheim, Short Sales | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
If there was anything positive that came out of the prolonged discussions between the states and the banks on the mortgage servicing settlement, it was that banks were reluctant to go full steam ahead in the foreclosure process while talks were ongoing.
But even before the settlement was announced, we saw signs that pointed to more foreclosures in 2012.
According to RealtyTrac, there were 24,783 foreclosure filings in the state of Florida in January, a 14% percent rise from January 2011, the first year-over-year increase in over a year.
Now that the settlement has been agreed to, the training wheels are off.
It’s petal to the metal folks. One thing that the settlement does for the banks is provide them a blueprint for how to proceed in the foreclosure process without getting their fingers stuck in the cookie jar.
Which means borrowers will once again have to defend themselves just as rigorously as they did pre-robosigning.
I’ve been asked if the settlement changes my advice to homeowners, to which I reply, ABSOLUTELY NOT!
You must continue to stand your ground. If you are in foreclosure or about to enter foreclosure, I will say what I have always said, you must fight the banks and force them to kick you out of your home.
The settlement may have changed the rules for the banks, but it shouldn’t change the rules for you, the homeowner. The banks will not transform into wonderful and charitable companies just because the settlement might penalize them.
Make no mistake about it, they will continue to come at you and come at your hard.
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Tags: banking, economics, foreclosure, foreclosure process, foreclosures, homeowners, Loan Modification, loss mitigation, mortgage, mortgage services, mortgage settlement, mortgages, Oppenheim Law, personal finance, Real Estate, real property law, realty trac, robosigning, Roy Oppenheim, settlement, short sale, stand your ground, subprime mortgage crisis
Posted in Bank Fraud, Foreclosure Defense, Mortgage Settlement, Principal Reduction, Robosigning, Roy Oppenheim, Underwater Mortgage | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Just like Waldo, a copy of the mortgage settlement is awfully hard to find.
The dust has finally settled on last week’s mortgage settlement.
It dominated the news cycle once the details of the agreement broke. I spent the bulk of my day a week ago talking to the media and weighing in on it’s significance.
But there is one clear question that I haven’t heard anyone been able to definitely answer yet.
Has anyone seen the darn thing, in it’s entirety? I sure haven’t!
I’ve seen press releases from the states, plenty of summaries, and an extensive statement from Attorney General Eric Holder. So there are details that are out there. But the document itself?
Right now Waldo is easier to find.
No formal agreement has been filed with the courts and we hear it may not even be completed!
And according to my friends at the Crew of 42 Blog, Congress hasn’t seen a copy of it either.
Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings is quoted in Crew of 42 as saying he wasn’t concerned that he hadn’t seen a copy and that he trusts his attorney general.
Color us slightly more skeptical.
A website was set up explaining the details of the settlement the day it was announced, but where the actual settlement is supposed to be it just says coming soon.
For a government that prides itself on being transparent, this just can not stand.
President Obama may be reengaged and all signs point to him being back on the side of the homeowner, but there are plenty who remain unconvinced and this doesn’t exactly help.
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Tags: agreement, Attorney General, copy, foreclosure, mortgage, mortgage settlement, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim, settlement, waldo, waldo robosigning
Posted in Foreclosure Defense, Mortgage Settlement, President Barack Obama, Robosigning, Roy Oppenheim | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Yesterday’s robosigning settlement that all but one state ultimately signed off on, was far from perfect.
Let’s make that perfectly clear.
Depending on what you have read, you might be outraged, you might be relieved, you might be overjoyed. And the target of your wrath or sympathy might depend on your own personal perspective.
But make no mistake about it, yesterday was a day of reckoning, for me, and much more importantly, for the people I represent.
Yes, the banks got a slap on the wrist and the money they are trickling back to the homeowners won’t make up for the systemic fraud these lenders engaged in, and make no mistake it was fraud at the highest level.
I wish I could personally put the handcuffs on each CEO who allowed robosigning to occur.
But here’s the silver lining, now we have a reengaged President, who is anxious to see the job done. We have Eric Schneiderman on the case, and he is going full-speed right at the banks.
They may have not gotten the flogging they deserve, but I am optimistic that they surely will.
Conservatives can blame the borrowers all they want, and certainly not all were faultless. But the banks were the grown-ups here, they should have known better. They had the chance, in the midst of the housing boom, to stop, take a breath and take a look back at what they had done.
They didn’t.
The truth is no amount of money would have been enough. And since we can’t put the banks in jail, they got what was in essence a very public shaming. And people’s eyes were opened. What you have now learned, can not be unlearned.
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Tags: barack obama, chicken little, eric schneiderman, federal investigation, Oppenheim Law, president, President Obama, reckoning, robosigning, robosigning settlement, Roy Oppenheim, settlement
Posted in Bank Fraud, Big Banks, Eric Schneiderman, From The Trenches, President Barack Obama, Robosigning, Roy Oppenheim | 5 Comments »
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the economy at Shaker Heights High School,Shaker Heights, Ohio, Jan. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
We really haven’t seen President Obama insert himself directly into the housing crisis, but there are rumblings that he may do just that during Tuesday’s State of The Union address.
The fact is that is what homeowners have been clamoring for. A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 58% of Americans want the government to do more to help people keep homes.
According to HousingWire, Ohio senator Sherrod Brown told reporters today that there was evidence that Obama would address the robo-signing case which involves several major banks. A North Carolina congressman even said there were rumours that Obama would announce a settlement, something HUD secretary Shaun Donovan suggested last week was ‘very close’, as we mentioned in our Week In Review on Friday.
For the record, Obama’s press secretary refused to confirm any details, saying only that the President was “focused on the issue of housing”.
Between Dononvan’s comments and the recent white paper sent out by the Federal Reserve, it seems that more and more top government officials are finally realizing how important the housing market is to our economic recovery, not to mention their own political survival.
This is not news to us here at the South Florida Law Blog.
In the Huffington Post last September, Roy Oppenheim called housing the “thousand pound gorilla in the room” in the 2012 election, as many of the states with the highest underwater mortgages, such asFlorida, are also key electoral swing states. The pressure on Obama to be more aggressive on the banks is growing in Washington, and it’s about time.
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Tags: barack obama, foreclosure, gallup poll, housing and urban development, housing crisis, HUD, Huffington Post, president, President Obama, principal reduction, republican, Roy Oppenheim, shaun donovan, sherrod brown, state of the union, usa today, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Federal Reserve, Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Foreclosure Defense, Huffington Post, Obama, Roy Oppenheim, The Wall Street Journal | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
Banks will need to clean up their circus “act” in 2012 when it comes to
Florida foreclosure cases thanks to a series of stinging decisions handed down by the
4th District Court of Appeals that could be the gift that keeps on giving for Florida homeowners.
The court finally realized the banks must have the proper authority before they proceed in the foreclosure process. For years
I have been saying the banks have systematically been cutting corners in the foreclosure defense process by not having the requisite power to bring their cases.
In this most recent case,
Robert McLean vs. JPMorgan Chase, Chase, which was seeking to foreclosure on McLean’s Broward County home, claimed the note from the borrower was “lost, stolen or destroyed.” I call shenanigans on that claim. The truth is banks were in such a rush to move forward that they just never bothered to check their own paperwork.
McLean sought to squash the foreclosure because he said that
Chase ultimately could not prove they were the owner of the note. In fact the assignment of mortgage, which is a document which indicates that a mortgage has been transferred from the original lender, which Chase produced to the court was signed three days AFTER the first foreclosure complaint was filed by the bank.
The 4th DCA, in our eyes, had no choice but to reverse a lower court’s decision and side with the homeowner. As the saying goes, possession is nine tenths of the law, and in this case, Chase was left holding an empty bag. The court noted that if there was “substantial doubt about the note” that the bank should dismiss and refile the case, and it was clear from Chase’s lack of concrete proof that they had no legal standing in this case.
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Tags: 4th district court of appeals, banking, district court, Florida mortgage, foreclosure process, foreclosures, happy new year, homeowners, JP Morgan Chase, Oppenheim Law, Real Estate, real property law, robert mclean, robert mclean vs jp morgan chase, Roy Oppenheim
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida Supreme Court, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 30th, 2011
In our last blog we talked about the stories that resonated with Roy Oppenheim in 2011, but what stories mattered to you?
We reviewed the most popular stories on the South Florida Law Blog this year and came up with our list of the top 10 posts for 2011
# 10 — Florida Deficiency Judgments FAQs . . . By Popular Demand
Some of Oppenheim Law’s most popular videos and blog posts this year were on the topic of deficiency judgements. Understanding deficiencies and the Florida rules which pertain to them are key to avoid getting a deficiency judgment.
The unpaid mortgage debt associated with a residence is a deficiency. A bank can foreclose and force a judicial sale of a home if the mortgage borrower fails to pay the associated mortgage debt. The deficiency is the difference between the proceeds from the sale and the remaining mortgage loan balance. A deficiency can also result from a short sale, which is an alternative to foreclosure.
The rules pertaining to deficiencies differ from state to state. In Florida, if the bank is successful in obtaining a deficiency judgment, it will be recorded in the public records and collectable for up to twenty years. To avoid the possibility of getting a deficiency judgment, before deciding to walk away from your home, hiring a good foreclosure defense attorney is necessary.
#9 — #Fail – Government Plan to Help #Florida Homeowners
At first glance, it looked like Florida foreclosure victims were finally getting the help they need from the feds. Reading the fine print it looks like if we had to describe this in one tweet word: #fail.
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Tags: 2011, deficiency, deficiency judgment, foreclosure, foreclosures, judgments, law blog, law review, loss mitigation, mortgage, mortgage loans, Oppenheim Law, Roy Oppenheim, short sale, South Florida, South Florida Law Blog, subprime lending, subprime mortgage crisis, top 10
Posted in Florida foreclosures, Florida Law News, Florida real estate, Florida short sales, Foreclosure Defense, Foreclosure Fraud, Roy Oppenheim | 1 Comment »
