Bank of America to Freeze Home Foreclosures

Bank of America, in an e-mailed statement, said it would "amend all affidavits in foreclosure cases that have not yet gone to judgment." This news could mean tens of thousands of homes in foreclosure would be in limbo for months or, if the defaulted homeowners hire lawyers, years. A spokesman for B of A said that they were uncertain how many cases the lender currently had in court and provided no timeline or explanation for the freeze.

The foreclosure moratorium is likely help homeowners but further fuel the fire over the unscrupulous foreclosure tactics of the big lenders. It's probably a perfect time for many of these homeowners to contact a bankruptcy attorney or an attorney that handles mortgage litigation. California's attorney general, Jerry Brown who is currently running for Governor, said that Chase bank should stop any foreclosures in the state until it proved that it was following the law. He earlier made the same demand of GMAC who used to lend under the Ditch name. In California, mortgage lenders generally pursue foreclosures outside of the court system, so they are presumably still proceeding with evictions. Chase Bank declined to say whether it would comply with Mr. Brown's comments. For many home owners, hiring a bankruptcy attorney early in the foreclosure process makes sense if they want to avoid foreclosure or buy some time.

Chase said this week that it had frozen 56,000 foreclosure cases. GMAC, which is largely owned by the Treasury after receiving $17 billion in federal bailout money to prevent its collapse, has repeatedly declined to say how many cases it is halting. While it hardly seems fair that these big banks wrongfully foreclose on borrowers most consumers don't have the funds available to fight them. The problem for all the mortgage giants that have announced moratoriums stems directly from their understaffed loan modification departments and an attempt to deal with the number of foreclosures in their portfolio. "They took the TARP funds and apparently misappropriated them" say's one California bankruptcy attorney who asked not to have his name mentioned.

According to LPS Applied Analytics, a firm that provides mortgage data 2 million borrowers is in foreclosure. Another 2.37 million are seriously delinquent and waiting for their lender to proceed with foreclosure. Often times these notes are still owned by the lender but often, the banks are merely the loan servicer acting on behalf of the investor. Many of the loans are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage holding companies now controlled by the Treasury. In other cases the loans have been sold to private investment pools. It's concerning that our Treasury department is at the helm and apparently doing little do help.

Bank executives admittedly would sign thousands of affidavits a month as robo-signers attesting that they had personal knowledge that the facts of the case were as presented. The affidavits were prepared by foreclosure attorneys who were paid a flat fee, which also placed a premium on volume. When litigating attorneys started deposing these robo-signers, they acknowledged that they could not possibly have proper knowledge of all these files. The banks say this is a technicality and they will refile the proper affidavits. The attorneys say the practice is inappropriate and calls these cases into question.

Steven Feldman, a California attorney who negotiates loan modifications for borrowers, said the mess was predictable and probably inevitable. Banks made their money by making risky loans and then simply servicing them by collecting the checks every month. They were never prepared to deal with the labor-intensive problems of delinquency and foreclosure, and it shows. Feldman goes on to say, " The foreclosure crisis is now in its third year, and not having staffed up sufficiently to deal with the problems is criminal with the unemployment rate in California as well as across the country" Mr. Feldman said. "I mean, come on look at the unemployment rate; how hard would it be to hire ex mortgage loan underwriters to plunge through these files properly?"

As a California attorney who represents defaulting homeowners, Feldman goes on sayings the magnitude of the current troubles is obvious when homeowners under loan modification review for government programs with the lenders end up being foreclosed on when they think their getting a loan mod. That's why they need to hire an attorney, even when their lender tells them they don't. "We see it all the time; lenders escalate the foreclosure process even when the borrower is making their trial mod payments". What these people don't understand is they have signed away rights to future trustee sale date no notifications, says Feldman.

Feldman law Center has been in the game prior to the government HAMP and MHA programs. Armed with California bankruptcy attorneys and attorneys who are willing to sue lenders Mr. Feldman prefers a softer approach to get their clients loan modifications. When the lenders don't act fairly then it's time to talk to a litigating or bankruptcy attorney. With the current employment climate not getting any better the need for loan modification attorneys and bankruptcy lawyers is even more prevalent. To find out more about the government's HAMP program or to see if you qualify visit www.stopforeclosurelawoffice.com