Wrongo! A person has to know that they are making the payment to the proper holder of the mortgage. If you owe Bob’s Bank for your mortgage, but you pay Mo Rosenfeld, there is no guarantee that your mortgage will ever be paid.
MERS acted to hide Mo’s name and address, so that your whole purchase of a home could be screwed up. PLUS, if your house declined to 50% of value, there is a chance that Bob’s Bank would prefer you refinancing at 60%, rather than lose it all. But MERS keeps you from know who the Mortgagee is.
You are left to deal with a servicing agent, who makes more money foreclosing you, than working out a better deal for the Mortgagee.
Everybody loses. Not to mention, every county that didn’t get their tax/fee when mortgages were transferred.
The Western System of recording property ownership is so ingrained and vital, that even the Nazis had to provide for how Dead Jews could transfer property down at the courthouse.
Except the guy that is going for the free house.
A person has to know that they are making the payment to the proper holder of the mortgage.
No, the person has to make the payment to the servicer (agent) for the note owner.
Three part test:
Did they sign the note?
Did they Get the money?
Did they pay it back?
If the answer to all 3 is yes, and they try to keep the house for free, then they are deadbeats and they get no sympathy from me.
When servicing is transferred (which isn't really that common) one gets a notice from the old servicer and one from the new.
The obligation is to pay the note, not the mortgage. There mortgage is merely collateral.
As to the county clerks not getting their cut, HARRIS COUNTY TEXAS v. MERSCORP INCORPORATED, , (5th Cir. 2015) https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1706183.html
Although some courts have approved charging MERS a higher recording fee.
You might want to also look at Martins v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, L.P., 722 F.3d 249, 254 (5th Cir.2013)
And since you are looking at the 9th Circuit, here's the 9th Circuit multidistrict litigation opinion. http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2014/06/12/11-17615.pdf