Chase to restart foreclosures in the next few weeks

Chase has indicated that it plans to restart foreclosures in the next two weeks.

JPMorgan has also separately stopped 127,000 foreclosures in 40 states, up from 115,000 disclosed last month, while it reviews those files to correct any errors in the documents, Scharf said. JPMorgan will begin re-filing paperwork in a few weeks, he said.

Refiling Process

“It’s going to take three or four months or so to get all these documents re-filed,” Scharf said. “It’s state by state. It’s not just the affidavits that have to be re-filed.”

He said the bank doesn’t yet know what the latest foreclosure problems will ultimately cost the company, which is in talks with state attorneys general investigating whether banks have improperly seized homes. “The delay itself could cost us up to a couple hundred million dollars a month or so just in additional work that has to get done,” Scharf said.

One example of parallel foreclosure reversal

Kudos to the attorney that got a homeowners foreclosure reversed in Florida.  From this story we learn two things:

1. Chase often says it will do one thing but then does something else.
2. The courts finding in this case shows that by doing this, Chase is practicing fraud, misconduct, and misrepresentation.

In other words, Chase is in the wrong here and it is worthwhile to go after them legally for this.

Since February 2010, JP Morgan Chase promised to provide a mortgage modification to my client. They promised to stop the foreclosure proceedings and allow him to stay in the home. My client acted in good faith the entire time, trying to save his home from Foreclosure using the trial modification system as we set up in every modification case. Then, without ever telling my client they were moving forward, Chase went ahead and behind his back got a Summary Judgment. This gave Chase the right to sell my client’s home at Judicial Auction.

When my client was sent a copy of the Summary Judgment, he called the Bank to ask why they were not giving him the promised trial mortgage modification. The Bank assured my client they were giving him a modification and would suspend the sale so that the Trial Modification could go through. That is not what happened. What Chase actually did was sell the house at a judicial sale behind my client’s back. When my client informed us of the way Chase had treated him we felt this was an atrocity. We immediately filed a Motion to Vacate the Summary Judgment based on Fraud, Misconduct and Misrepresentation. Today we had the hearing on my motion. The Judge Ordered the Summary Judgment be vacated (overturned). My client gets to keep his house!

Read the rest of this story …

Verbal vs written modification

This particular case, where Keith and Sharon Lilley accepted a verbal modification of their mortgage and then were foreclosed upon by Chase, was unfortunately dismissed by the court.

They “applied for modified terms on their mortgage loan with a 125 page fax on April 30, 2009.”4

In June 2009, the Lilleys accepted a verbal modification of the mortgage, and made payments as agreed under the modification through November 2009.

On November 20, 2009, JPMorgan sent an Acceleration Writing (Notice of Intent to Foreclose) to the Lilleys.

The lesson here is don’t trust what isn’t written and properly signed.

The latest foreclosure defense

In a blow to banks, a circuit court in Florida ruled that banks must provide evidence of ownership when foreclosing on a property.

While not net enough of a legal precedent to provide a solid defense nation-wide, this is a very promising path to pursue of you want to delay your foreclosure, especially in cases where Chase practices parallel foreclosure while not giving homeowners access to the government sponsored  HAMP opportunities they are entitled to.

2-weeks late gets a harsh letter from Chase

Is this Chase’s new tactic to get people to stop defaulting on their mortgages, hit borrowers with the full nastiness as soon as they are even a little bit late and scare them into paying?  In case anyone is wondering, the average time from first default to foreclosure these days is almost two years, so if your bank sends you a letter warning you of the consequences of non-payment, consider that as well.

Wouldn’t it be something if they sent a letter nasty letter to someone who was late due to Chase applying their mortgage payment to someone else’s loan?

I’m 2 weeks behind on my mortgage payment, today I received a 4 page letter from Chase(my mortgage lender)stating that I have breached my contract and what action next they are going to take..can this be real ????? 2 weeks behind I’m reciving this type of letter??

I’m so confused and scared, this is not the first time I get a little behind on my mortgage payment but I’m up to date as I always have.  I feel like these people are waiting like wolves on homeowners to make any mistake so they can come and take their homes.

I’ve lived in my house for over 5 years now never had a problem paying my mortgage but just like anyone else can run a week or two behind waiting to get paid or whatever else it could be, how can we fight these heartless predators ??  JPMorgan Chase is their names.

Loan modification nightmare in detail

There are of course no shortage of stories of frustrating ineptitude on Chase’s part for people attempting to get a loan modification.  This one in particular is so good because it is so detailed.  The more detail about your experience you document the better.  If this were happening to me, I wouldn’t stop with posting this on sites like the Ripoff Report, but would be filing a complaint with the BBB, sending a copy of this to all my elected officials, file a complaint with Chase’s regulators, and contacting my local newspaper and TV consumer advocates.  Unfortunately banks like Chase have a pretty strong lobbying effort; it takes a lot of complaints being made public to counteract that.

1.  We were told that we are the perfect candidates to receive this so called “loan modification”  (and still are)

2.  We started the proceedings after my husband had lost his job in 2009 and we had several unexpected medical conditions pop up

3.  I started a new business in 2008 and it is just getting off of the ground

4.  We had never missed a house payment prior to applying for the modification

5   We never missed a house payment during the proceedings of the loan modification “trial period” in which they lowered our house payment by about 1k per month.

6.  In October of 2009 We went online and downloaded the application, filled it out in it’s entirety, which took 15 hours of our time to gather and fax.

7.  We had to keep calling to try and get answers on what was happening with the modification, because they would not call us.  However their debt collectors called continually.

8.  We were never able to get a hold of someone who spoke proper, understandable ENGLISH, and could never get a hold of the same person twice… it was literally like pulling teeth to get any answers.

9.  When we finally were able to speak to someone in ENGLISH, they said we were still missing some papers (which we weren’t, because there was a check list and I am meticulous when it comes to files and paperwork) and they told us we would have to start from the beginning and re-fax everything again.  This time we had to re gather current data, so it took another 10 hours of our time and some of the application papers had changed, so we had to redo everything and fax again

10   Another month goes by and we phone Chase and again they claim missing paperwork, due to the fact that the people receiving the faxes are in another state and that they may have lost the papers during transmission….so this time I told them to send me an overnight package and I will send a copy via FedEX.

11.  All along the way they were reassuring us that we were perfect candidates for the modification, giving us hope that things would be fine and the paperwork time was worth it.  I have several letters they sent us telling us how much they wanted to “help us”.

12.  In June of 2010 they sent us a letter stating that our loan modification was “Denied” BECAUSE WE HAD NEVER MISSED A HOUSE PAYMENT AND THEY SAID WE MADE TOO MUCH MONEY IN 2008. HOWEVER… THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN GOING BY OUR 2009 RETURNS!!!  and that we were now in default of a past due amount of the 1k for each month of the “trial period”

13.  At this point we decided to put some money into trying to sell our home and hired a listing agent, while still making our house payment.

Read more …

How one borrower has avoided foreclosure for 8 years

Borrower Joseph Lents has been able to forestall foreclosure (and hasn’t made a payment) for 8 years now on his Washington Mutual loan.  How did he do it?  He simply asked the bank to produce the promissory note, which they repeatedly could not, and without the actual promissory note, Judges have repeatedly ruled that the bank can’t foreclose.

I’m not necessarily condoning people ducking responsibility for their commitments, but when banks like WaMu/Chase repeatedly stack the rules against customers to maximize fee income, and refuse to be reasonable or competent in working with people to obtain loan modifications they are entitled to under federal law, it it nice to see a little bit of that going back to the banks.

The bad record keeping that seems to be the cornerstone of the current foreclosure paperwork crisis also has some uncomfortable implications on how well Chase manages the small details of the rest of its business, which according to the many stories we’ve posted here, they don’t seem to be very good at.

Understanding the FHA mortgage probe and the foreclosure crisis

Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently made comments about the banks problems with foreclosure procedure, including the use of robo-signers and improperly reviewed foreclosure files.  In his comments, he stated that no-one is losing their home when they shouldn’t be because of these problems.

His comments are directed at whether people are losing their homes because of mistakes.  But as the Federal Housing Administration’s recent probe into this mess clarifies, that isn’t the thing we should be looking at.  The FHA has plainly stated that five large mortgage servicers (i.e. banks) are not following the proper procedure to work with people to keep them in their homes, especially helping people to qualify for a loan modification that they are entitled to under FHA rules.  In short, the servicers are failing to help people get loan modifications they should be getting.

Does that ring a bell?  We’ve seen a huge number of stories about the endless impediments people experience when trying to get a loan modification with Chase.  In fact, Chase’s own reporting of both the number of temporary modifications and especially permanent modifications granted (it isn’t many compared to the number of loans in trouble) clearly points the finger at either a broken or intentionally difficult process.  Furthermore, Chase’s admission that they practice parallel foreclosure when someone applies for a loan modification clearly shows their interest is not in helping the borrower.

The FHA isn’t specifying who the five servicers they’ve found in violation of the rules, but I suspect that Chase may be one of them.