Roy Oppenheim’s commentary was originally published on Yahoo Homes! and is being redistributed on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.
The Independent Foreclosure Reviewis dead. Long live the Independent Foreclosure Review.
When word came out about this so-called “independent” process last year, few bought into it. I certainly never did, and most homeowners knew from the beginning that it lacked any pretense of integrity.
It essentially came out of last year’s $25 billion mortgage settlement, as a way to placate those victimized during the robosigning era. But the banks, if they weren’t in charge, still had their hand in how the program was plotted from the very beginning.
It was never independent, that was the biggest oxymoron if there ever was one. Banks hired the reviewers, who were basically unemployed ex-mortgage brokers; paid the reviewers; in some cases actually provided answers to them.
This program was a contaminated cesspool from the very start. It was unsalvageable, and it was never going to do anything for any true victims of foreclosure.
The whole thing was a hoax.
So as this latest $8.5 billion settlement with 10 of the largest banks and servicers goes public, perhaps the best news is this sham of a review process is going the way of Old Yeller.
The irony of course is that the banks, and not the homeowners, were the ones who pulled the trigger. They realized it was better to throw in the towel now than face their own mistakes.
The mistakes they once told us didn’t exist but in fact were so rampant that these reviews were taking too long and costing too much.
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