If you live in an area hit hard by the collapse of the housing market, you might have received a letter from a company promising that if you join other struggling homeowners in filing lawsuits against your lender, you can get mortgage relief, a cash reward and maybe even the title to your home. What it doesn’t mention is that you could end up being scammed out of thousands of dollars. [More]
foreclosure fracas
Credit Union Decides To Clear Out Foreclosed Home Five Days Early
By 8.9.11
An Oregon woman who had recently moved out of her foreclosed home had been told by her credit union that she had until this Friday to clear her remaining property out of the home. But that didn’t stop the lender from sending out a moving company this past weekend to take her stuff away anyway. [More]
Judge Orders HSBC CEO To Explain "Frivolous" Foreclosure Motion
By 7.6.11
When HSBC failed to prove it even owned the Brooklyn home it was attempting to foreclose on, the judge in the case not only dismissed the bank’s foreclosure motion but also ordered the CEO of its North American division to give an in-person explanation of why he shouldn’t penalize HSBC for what he calls a “waste of judicial resources.” [More]
New Federal Program Offers Underwater Homeowners Loans They May Not Have To Repay
By 6.29.11
With millions of homeowners still having difficulties catching up to their mortgage payments, the federal government continues to look for ways to stem the tide of foreclosures. The latest effort provides loans of up to $50,000 that some homeowners will never have to repay. [More]
Bank Of America, Chase, Wells Fargo Penalized By Treasury For Really Sucking At Loan Modifications
By 6.10.11
Yesterday, the Treasury Department released a scorecard of just how well (and poorly) the largest mortgage servicers are doing at meeting certain benchmarks of its Making Home Affordable program. Not surprisingly, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase — the three largest servicers — were called out for needing “substantial improvement,” meaning that the banks will not receive millions of dollars in federal incentives until they get their acts together. [More]
Bank Of America Threatens To Foreclose On Homeowner If He Doesn't Pay $0.00 ASAP
By 6.8.11
Oh, Bank of America… will you never cease to amuse/amaze/horrify us? Yet another computer glitch from this year’s Worst Company in America runner-up had one Massachusetts homeowner scratching his head when he received a foreclosure notice from BofA warning him that his property would end up in foreclosure if he didn’t immediately pay the amount of $0.00. [More]
Regulators Hatch Plan To Pay Back Victims Of Bad And Illegal Foreclosures
By 4.21.11
It’s no secret that foreclosures in America have been a royal mess. Missing paperwork, faked documents, turbo-charged courts that just rubberstamp foreclosure orders, robosigners, the list goes on. Along the way, a number of homeowners have gotten foreclosed on improperly and, in some cases, even illegally. So regulators are putting together a plan for grand-scale recompense. They’ve laid down decrees that servicers have to start following the law, for really reals this time, banks need to hire outside firms to review their foreclosure actions between 2009 and 2010, and then pay back their victims. [More]
Middlemen Blocking Mortgage Mods
By 4.1.11
Homeowners trying to get loan mods often run into resistance by banks who say they’re powerless because they need to protect the interests of investors. But ProPublica reports a recent lawsuit uncovered a document where, when HSBC polled investors, a majority of those responding say they favored letting the loans being modified. [More]
Georgia Jury Awards Soldier $21 Million Over Mortgage Mix-Up
By 3.23.11
A Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army went up against a terrifying enemy — the mortgage industry, in the form of PHH Mortgage Corporation — in court and came away victorious after a jury awarded him $21 million for his troubles. [More]
Foreclosure Filings Hit 3-Year Low In February, But Don't Get Too Excited Yet
By 3.10.11
The latest report from RealtyTrac on foreclosures shows a precipitous drop in the number of foreclosure filings between January and February, and that the total number of foreclosures in February was the lowest since February 2008. If you only want to hear the good news, stop reading now. [More]
Bank Of America Admits It Shouldn't Have Put Customer In Default After She Paid Mortgage Off
By 3.1.11
Here’s a happy update to the story of the Illinois woman who got trapped in the Bank of America labyrinth after deciding to pay off her mortgage more than two decades early. [More]
Bank Of America Demands Mortgage Payments From Yet Another Non-BofA Customer
By 2.22.11
Bank Of America is really making a last-minute run to secure a high seed in the upcoming Worst Company In America tournament. As if there weren’t enough evidence in its favor, here’s the story of yet another customer who found herself trapped in the BofA maze, even though she has never had a mortgage — let alone a single account — with the bank. [More]
Man Uses Minivan To Show How Much He Hates Bank Of America
By 2.18.11
While everyone else needs to e-mail us their nominations for this year’s Worst Company In America tournament, we’re pretty sure this California man’s minivan counts as one vote for Bank of America. [More]
Congress Issues Subpoena For Info On Countrywide's VIP Mortgage Program
By 2.17.11
Let’s look back to the summer of 2008, when it was revealed that Angelo Mozilo, the curiously orange former CEO of Countrywide, had the company offer below-market “VIP” mortgages to certain politicians and other influence peddlers. Fast forward to the present, where Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has issued a subpoena to Bank of America, looking for related documents, e-mails and names. [More]
New York State Guarantees Legal Assistance In Foreclosure Cases
By 2.15.11
While defendants in criminal cases are guaranteed lawyers, folks involved in foreclosure cases either have to go out of pocket for a lawyer or try to fend for themselves. Now the state of New York has become the first state to guarantee legal representation to all residents involved in foreclosures. [More]
5 States Accounted For 51% Of Foreclosures In 2010
By 1.13.11
2010 was a record-setting year for foreclosure filings in the U.S., with almost 2.9 million properties being forecloses on nationwide. But more than half of those filings happened in California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois, or Michigan. [More]
Bank Of America Reaches $2.8 Billion Settlement With Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Over Bad Mortgages
By 1.3.11
The folks at Bank of America continue to feel the sting of all the bad mortgages they acquired when they adopted Countrywide in 2008. The bank has agreed to pay a total of over $2.8 billion to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to settle claims over questionable loans sold to the two government-sponsored enterprises. [More]
BP Dumps Huge Oil Slick On Bank Of America To Earn Title Of 2010's Biggest Business Debacle
By 12.30.10
In what will probably come as a surprise to no one, Consumerist readers have overwhelmingly selected the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the biggest business debacle of 2010. [More]
