This past week we have seen the Securities and Exchange Commission initiate a civil fraud suit against former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with allegations that with knowledge, misleading statements were provided to investors about higher risk mortgage loans, including subprime loans. Investors' welfare, according to the allegations, was jeopardized with false comfort of exposure to these risky loans. Incomprehensible numbers are detailed of portfolio holdings growing from approximately $141 billion dollars in December 2006 to $244 billion dollars over the next eighteen months."[...]
When a homeowner is faced with the indignities attendant to mortgage arrears, foreclosure worries and the very real prospects of losing a home, business or investment property, the better practice is to call an attorney. Very often and of particular note, this advice is rarely given by the lenders, mortgage servicers and banks in the course of dealing with the mortgage arrears. In the majority of such situations, the first conversations are often with the attorneys representing these institutions whose stated intentions are to take your properties in the foreclosure process."[...]
For better or worse, those who happened to venture into the meaning and purpose of defending their homes and businesses against foreclosure may have now realized, against this overwhelming strain, a post-HAMP modification benefit designed to create the comprehensive solution to mortgage default, arrears and mortgage foreclosure."[...]
Many of the new callers and clients to our law firm, RUBIN & LICATESI, P.C. are looking at a possible foreclosure on the mortgage of their residence, investment property or business. Debt, financial hardship and failed loan modification submissions are daily topics of client calls and office meetings. Long Island courts are engaged in close to 30% of all foreclosure cases pending in New York State and thousands more of our neighbors, friends and community members sit on the threshold with mortgage defaults and heavily debt laden properties. Before you underestimate your strengths and the possible solutions to your problem, consider the obvious- it's time to do something & call our law firm!"[...]
Mr. Beau Biden, the Attorney General for the state of Delaware, was quoted in the October 30, 2011 New York Times, Sunday Business section, by Ms. Gretchen Morgenson. "Rules matter....A homeowner has the obligation to pay the mortgage on time and lenders must follow the rules if they are seeking to take away someone's house through foreclosure." Ms. Morgenson comments..."Abiding by the rules has not been the modus operandi in the foreclosure arena. That's why any settlement must be tough, truly beneficial to borrowers and monitored for compliance. Otherwise, the deal would be another case where our government let the big banks win while Main Street loses."[...]
The confirmed and startling rejoinder of this swiftly moving foreclosure current by insurance companies, pension funds, charities, and large scale institutional investors with multi-million and perhaps billion dollar lawsuits against the big banks for damages resulting from the purchase of the mortgage backed bonds and securities is enormous. "Every layer of this onion you peel is rotten,” says Talcott Franklin, a Dallas lawyer who is representing the 129 year old Catholic charitable organization, the Knights of Columbus, and other investors in lawsuits against banks.[...]
There is a certain distrust of the risks occasioned when meeting with an attorney. Understandably, many of our new callers and clients have suffered the indignities of failed trial modification payment plans at the hands of their mortgage lenders and servicers. So many others have lost thousands of dollars dealing with alleged modification companies and out of state attorneys who similarly fail and fall flat on their promises. These disappointments clearly dictate the fate of so many homeowners who stall in their plans to save their homes. They cause so many families a definite sense of discouragement in seeking private counsel to assist in the modification and foreclosure defense process so readily available today. [...]
Many homeowners unacquainted with the law in general and foreclosure procedures in particular often make mistakes when mortgage actions are pending. Richard Rubin, senior partner at the law firm of Rubin and Licatesi details some of the common mistakes homeowners make in trying to deal with foreclosure and lender tactics.
Often, homeowners ignore the “blue booklets” filed by lenders. Rubin says, “Many don’t even take a glance at these blue covered booklets, naming Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit// Collateralized Mortgage Obligations// as trustees, along with a variety of other unknown structures who have brought this lawsuit to foreclose your mortgage and sell your home at public auction. It’s just another absent minded decision and another unattractive choice which will ultimately fuel the lender's foreclosure passion. It doesn't have to happen this way.”
The answer, Rubin points out, is for homeowners to find qualified legal representation a nd fight the actions against them. As he says, "Interference in this process, energy devoted to saving your home, and seeking an attorney re-engages the process and levels the playing field."[...]
The monstrous circumstances of foreclosure on a home and business, on the family, neighborhood and nation and the after shocks, pain and suffering, all serve as a clear bell and sober, compelling reason to lower the target for successful loan modifications and dismissal of mortgage foreclosure actions.[...]
The Dow Jones industrial average took a nose dive last week, shedding over 700 points. A small town in Rhode Island filed for protection under the federal bankruptcy laws of the United States of America. Our nation's credit rating was downgraded while our White House and Treasury Department leaders publicly criticized the ratings move by Standard & Poor's as fundamentally flawed and amateur.[...]
What would happen if the United States Congress held hearings and investigated illegal foreclosure practices by the largest banks? This month, experts and government leaders testified in such a proceeding. Despite the well publicized robo-signings, MERS improprieties and serious delinquent foreclosure practices, our leaders' actions continue to support the stalling tactics causing an uninterrupted stream of identifiable foreclosures.[...]
The borrowers lined up by the millions, in line with the encouragement and establishment of loan programs which enabled billions of mortgage loans, sub prime and prime products to close and fail. There is overwhelming evidence to support the idea that those in the know, at the very highest levels of government and finance, moved these efforts without care for the consequences of these loan programs. Many of my clients and new callers find their home and business loans unaffordable precisely because of these practices. [...]
Through a series of disconnected transactions and undocumented events, an originating lender has disappeared and you have been serviced or sued by an unknown entity of some form. Perhaps it's a trustee or an LLC, now claiming status as a current holder and creditor, now entitled to take your house or business property in a foreclosure action. [...]
The answer, without the necessity for the question first, is that there are profound and significant breakages in the real estate market, and the administration of solutions to fix it are collapsing and show difficult short falls for the new callers and clients in our law firm. [...]
Our suburban and city ways attract complex thought patterns, unbridled sleep disturbances and hours of wasted worry and concern over foreclosure actions destined to cause loss of homeownership and commercial properties, mounting mortgage arrears and debt beyond one's wildest imagination. A most useful and incisive rule of thumb attributed to a 12th century philosopher known as Occam and often referred to as Ockham's razor reads: "Of two competing theories, the simplest explanation of an entity is to be preferred." [...]
With over 230 years of history since this was written, with rich experience, unparalleled freedom and democracy matched by no other country in the world, we survive in the harshest economic times known to most. For many, the foreclosure crisis, mortgage debt, arrears and default notices are quite common occurrences. The panic of homeownership losses, process servers and foreclosure lawsuits runs at a pace beyond our wildest imagination. [...]
As a general rule of thumb, the new callers and clients who visit our law firm are now requested, and required, to bring complete copies of their court records and files to their scheduled consultation. For those who have been named a defendant in a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit, the consequences of proceeding without knowing the other party in the lawsuit are enormous. Who is the plaintiff? Why is the plaintiff suing and how does the plaintiff stand in the lawsuit? [...]
Carl Jung, a well known, quoted and respected Swiss psychologist conceived an idea in the 1920's, remarkably some ninety years prior to the foreclosure tsunami now facing our nation, neighbors, friends and communities, known as "meaningful coincidence..." a notion that "Two causally unrelated actions occur by chance in a meaningful manner.." It is likely that then, as now, the debate raged against this concept, with some arguing that such coincidence of unrelated and unlikely things ought and should happen frequently, without the need to define such a result as a coincidence.[...]
In respectful consideration of certain events this week, I have thought of the careful indifference of the surviving spouse in a failed partnership. Perhaps during the marriage, the folly of saving memories and memorabilia could be optimistically ventured. But eventually, the lion tamer will leave a widow. Cover to cover, the end result was certain. Some might even say that at the very moment of success, the tables turn against you. [...]
Nearly 300 years ago, and as is reported, a Mr. Thomas Fuller passed along a most significant message which is so very poignant in our circles and law firm hallways....."The greatest oaks have been little acorns." This serves to encourage each new caller and client, faced with [...]
....and it is also quoted "It is the duty of Government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right." These quotes are attributed to William Gladstone, an influential 19th century British statesman and prime minister [...]
Continuing sad news (perhaps an omen for upcoming reports and events in this weekly blog from Rubin & Licatesi, PC) shows foreclosure data detailing a booming business for Long Island process servers and lender's attorneys. Over 700 new [...]
For millions of Americans, feeling alone with their mortgage arrears, diminishing income, job loss, process servers and mortgage foreclosure lawsuits, the uprising in anticipated solutions has not happened. [...]
"Congratulations! You are eligible for a Home Affordable Modification. As previously described, if you comply with the terms of the Home Affordable Modification Trial Period Plan we will modify your mortgage loan and waive all prior late charges that remain unpaid......"[...]
Locally and throughout our cities and suburbs, we suffer the effects of a severely declining home valuation process. Few need clarification of this fact. Fewer homes sold last year, but of those closed transactions, foreclosures and short sales represented the biggest share.[...]
"It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. No man would be a Judge, upon the condition of being obliged to be totally a Judge” - An observation of Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1775 [...]
Our nation and state must limit the unsustainable mortgage foreclosure legal activity, mortgage arrears and loan modification failures. Period. No one can seriously doubt that the continued record level of notices of default, summons and complaints and [...]
Conflicting opinions on any subject remain undebatable. To judge how one's life is progressing, look no further than your partner, co-workers, friends and neighbors; with each a conflicting opinion. Perhaps this is when the call and visit to our law firm presents a sustainable option when faced with mortgage [...]
What do you expect when the dog barks at the doorbell? One downside is the knowledge that eventually, when a family enters the mortgage default arena, a process server will arrive with a summons and complaint, a thick stack of paragraphs and allegations by a bank that sometimes bears little, if any[...]
