Those on Wall Street, however, are largely unsympathetic, insisting that possible errors in the foreclosure process are beside the point, that the process begins only when a borrower starts missing mortgage payments … from Wall Street Blames Homeowners

What a crock of manure that statement is. Banks initiate foreclosures even when homeowners are current. The banks are evicting homeowners despite flawed documentation, and that is not beside the point!

The MSM is finally covering robo closers and law firms whose business is the churning of paperwork forcing homes into foreclosure without the proper review of paperwork. Banks are lying about their procedures and mistakes.

If you think fraudulent or phony bank foreclosures are something new, you’d be wrong. This has been going on for years.What is new is that the public along with many public officials are waking up to the fact that the banks have been deceitful and dishonest about the foreclosure process and have been screwing homeowners for years.

I know, because Chase tried foreclosing on me 9 years ago. It was an outrageous act on the part of Chase. Had it not been for a courageous, aggressive attorney, Tom Stubbs, who knew how the bank’s foreclosure process operated I would have lost my home.

This is a synopsis of what happened.

I had refinanced my home with a local bank a few years prior. The local bank, in turn, sold the mortgage to an entity called Cenlar. I made my payments to Cenlar for two years when I received a notice that Chase would now be my mortgage company. In the interim I received written notices and voice mail messages left by Cenlar saying to continue paying as always, until the transition was complete in 90 days. Shortly thereafter Chase began sending me acceleration notices. Since I’d never been late paying my mortgage, I didn’t know what an acceleration notice was.

Acceleration notices or not, I was sure since I hadn’t even received my first statement from Chase (and I continued to pay Cenlar) that there had to be some kind of mix up and it would be easily resolved. WRONG!

The day I received the foreclosure notice I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. How could I be in foreclosure if I’d made all my payments on time? I immediately called Chase and was told by their customer service department that they couldn’t talk to me since I was in foreclosure! Say What? I was told to call the law firm handling the matter.

I called the firm and told them I hadn’t missed a payment… there had to be a mistake… I could prove this with copies of canceled checks. I faxed the information over to the voice (clearly unimpressed and disinterested) on the other end of the phone … sure once the canceled checks were received this would put an end to it. WRONG, again!

What made matters even worse is that in Georgia (unless the laws have changed), a homeowner only has 30 days to resolve the matter! Thirty days! What if I had been traveling when the notice arrived, or had been sick, or any number of other situations that could have chopped that 30 day time frame into impossible response time? Without the aid of my attorney my house would have been sold on the Court House steps to the highest bidder.

Here’s some of what I learned.

• Chase didn’t have to prove I missed three payments and defaulted on the mortgage! Chase only had to say I defaulted! Imagine … no proof was required!
  
• Once that foreclosure train started I couldn’t do a thing to change it myself. Having a lawyer was a necessity!
• Chase didn’t care what the truth was and their law firm didn’t care what the truth was. All they wanted to do was to get the paperwork done!
  
• In Georgia, if you miss even one payment a bank can send acceleration notices to foreclose.
  
• Since it was assumed that I was a “deadbeat” I was treated disrespectfully by Chase and their partner’s in crime.
  

When everything was finally sorted out, it turned out I hadn’t missed a single payment. During the Cenlar/Chase transition I had made an extra payment! I was one payment ahead yet Chase was determined to foreclose with faulty paperwork!

No apology was ever rendered. Let me say again, this happened 9 years ago when we weren’t in the midst of a foreclosure crisis like we are today.

My favorite mortgage company, Chase, accidentally evicted here:

Judi Moser said her life is as shattered as her precious crystal. “It’s about 150 years old and it’s gone,” she said, talking about her now-broken crystal bowl.”Who would let people come in and just destroy a lifetime of things,” asked Moser.

SLIDESHOW: Woman Accidentally Evicted

She showed Channel 2 Action News reporter Richard Elliot what’s left of her life after deputies and crews evicted her from her home of 29 years, only to put it all back when they learned the bank made a mistake.”And then they said, ‘Oops, wrong, we made a mistake. Let’s put everything back,” said Moser. Moser said it all started when she hit some tough times and called her mortgage holder, Chase Bank, to make a home loan modification. She said she was approved and sent Chase $4,000.But, she said, Chase never processed the paperwork, which caused a mistaken foreclosure in February, and last week’s eviction.

And again here by Bank of America

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. When Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home last December, he paid cash. But seven months later, he was surprised to learn that Bank of America had foreclosed on the house, even though Grodensky did not have a mortgage.

Grodensky knew nothing about the foreclosure until July, when he learned that the title to his home had been transferred to a government-backed lender. “I feel like I’m hanging in the wind and I’m scared to death,” said Grodensky. “How did some attorney put through a foreclosure illegally?”

Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.

Here another story that sounds familiar

“The bank made a mistake,” De Leon said, between tears. According to De Leon, after Washington Mutual sold his mortgage to Chase Bank in 2008, his $35,000 loan turned into a $350,000 nightmare. “Chase started rejecting my $350/month payments, and demanded $2,000 per month,” explained De Leon.

Want to really get pissed, go to Foreclosure Fraud and read some of the stories of banks that don’t give a damn about their business practices or their customers.

Other resources include Shame the Banks where the banks out of control behavior examined in detail and Bloggers Against Chase. Stories going back to 1998 here.