I’m more concerned over the title to my house. Its through Countrywide, I now make payments to BOA.
If BOA has somehow screwed this up, and I don’t have clean title to my house if I try to sell it....well, lets just say I’ll be upset.
Anyway, I think the story is more than ‘banks were sloppy, so stop foreclosures’...it could affect the liquidity of alot of houses.
“I’m more concerned over the title to my house. Its through Countrywide, I now make payments to BOA.
If BOA has somehow screwed this up, and I don’t have clean title to my house if I try to sell it....well, lets just say I’ll be upset.”
I agree with this. I too would be pissed if I my title was screwed up and I couldn’t sell. That is a different issue than what Kartographer brings up which is the subject of “deadbeats” - people who are in foreclosure because they couldn’t handle their payments. Even those with loan modification problems are tacitly admitting they couldn’t handle the initial payment.
This could happen to me, too. I could lose my job and become unable to pay my mortgage. But that doesn’t mean I should just get my house for free if the bank screwed up the title. That’s ludicrous.
The right answer would be for the bank to incur all legal costs while repairing the title problem, assume all mortgage payments once the title problem has become apparent and the owner can no longer sell, and any reasonable damages resulting from the inability to sell. This may or may not amount to the cost of the house *if* a big job was on the line and you had to move, for example.
But I think in most cases it will not be.
Moreover, if the house is in foreclosure, it should have zero impact on the person being foreclosed upon. It should affect the banks ability to resell the house. I know some legal sharks are going to vehemently disagree (”How can they foreclose on something to which they don’t hold a clear lien???”) If that’s the case - and there is no clear owner of the property anymore - than maybe we should kick out the people living there, too. After all, if the title and liens are so muddled, who can even say they have a right to be there in the first place?
Oh, but that will never happen.
I'm in an identical situation with a rental property - was Countrywide, now BOA. I would think that the title insurance I paid for on closing would protect me more than it would the bank, but who knows.
Apparently last year BofA bought Wilshire Credit and so BofA became my servicer. I sent a RESPA letter last month requesting that they confirm they have my wet ink note and who was the “owner” of my note. They sent me a letter telling me that Aurora MSF Lehman owned my note. Thought they went bankrupt in 2008? They also sent me a copy of my Note - only 4 pages. (I have 5 pages in my file). There are no endorsements so they haven’t really proven to me that Aurora MSF Lehman (defunct co.) owns my loan. What a mess.