I have trouble getting worked up over this one. The people were foreclosed on because they hadn’t payed their mortgage payments. Perhaps this moved them out of their house faster than if their paperwork was clogged up in the works, but they didn’t get evicted from their homes because of some paperwork mess-up. They got evicted from their homes because they couldn’t pay the payments they owed to fulfill a contract they had signed.
You’ll get worked up if the government bails out the bankers again as a result of the various investors in these securities supposedly backed by mortgages cram the securities back down into the bankers’ throats.
The issue is not the forclosure and legal technicalities.
The issue is the ability of the “lender” (holder of the note) to be able to legally convey clear title to subsequent property owners. If the title is flawed (as many are, especially MERCed notes) title companies are going to be very reluctant to issue a title policy. No title policy in many cases, no loan.
I have seen several reports where the homeowner is current on payments, is falling on hard times, then request a loan modification like HAMP. The homeowner is told by the bank that the only way they can get the loan mod is if they miss payments. So the homeowner obliges. The bank then begins the HAMP paperwork AND THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS at the same time.
What follows is quite disturbing, the bank never processes the HAMP request and then another department at the bank forecloses.
Also have seen where someone buys a foreclosure for cash and then is foreclosed on because a different lender is claiming to own the home.