October 2009

JPMorgan Chase&Co. and two other investment banks have agreed to pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit over their contribution to investor losses in the collapse of American Business Financial Services Inc., the bankruptcy trustee’s lawyer said Friday. The banks, [...]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — During the housing boom, mortgage lenders were doling out the dough, giving loans to people who could never have qualified before. Now, homeowners and government officials are increasingly taking these institutions to court, alleging unfair and [...]

The vast majority of people in Nassau County who default on their subprime loans go through the foreclosure process without legal representation, according to a New York University study on foreclosures released this week. The lack of legal help puts [...]

If it’s this hard for a housing counselor, what is the poor homeowner supposed to do? “Call a nonprofit, HUD-approved housing counselor,” say all the government brochures and broadcast public service announcements. But housing counseling agencies like ours cannot possibly [...]

During an interview with Sean Hannity, Michael Moore laments the mortgage fraud that’s been caused by banks and lenders, and suggesting Hannity is blaming victims of the mortgage crisis for not knowing any better, Moore says it’s “like asking a [...]

Increasingly, homeowners with good credit and no late payments are making what appears to be a strategic decision to walk away when their home’s value falls below what’s owed. “The American consumer has had a long-held taboo against walking away [...]

Some lawmakers, however, worry that the FHA may be doing its job too well — enabling too many people with shaky finances to get loans, and in effect setting up a potential repeat of the housing bubble fueled in part [...]

Here we go again with all the regulatory silence and wishful thinking by banks that preceded the first mortgage meltdown. Meltdown part II could be in the making as defaults rise in the commercial real estate sector. Behind closed doors, [...]

For many of Wachovia’s struggling mortgage borrowers, getting a loan modification with Uncle Sam’s help is still out of reach. Richard Bell, a Pick-A-Pay mortgage borrower at Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) unit Wachovia, says he needs a government-assisted mortgage [...]

California attorney James Parsa of the Parsa Law Group has been ordered by the State Bar to stop practicing law effective immediately on October, 16, 2009. Mr. Parsa was operating a large loan modification firm out of Orange County since 2008 [...]

Complaints about the federal loan modification plans continue to pile up, as do foreclosures. Darrell Goldberg of Chicago says he has been waiting since April for the packet of paperwork promised to him by CitiMortgage. Lori Gonzalez of Fox River [...]

Hotel foreclosures in California more than tripled in the first nine months of this year as business travelers and vacationers cut spending. Foreclosures including the 400-room St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point climbed to 47 in January through [...]

The Floreas’ modified mortgage payment was $584 per month. In late June 2009, the Bank of America sent a statement to the Floreas indicating their monthly mortgage payment is $924 — the initial mortgage payment amount, Legal Aid Society lawyers [...]

Last month the California Bar announced a formal investigation of 16 licensed attorneys that are suspected of possible fraud. Yesterday, the State Bar of California filed petitions against two of those attorneys to officially put them out of business during the [...]

SENIORS AND THEIR HOME EQUITY THREATENED AS SUBPRIME LENDERS, ABUSES APPEAR IN REVERSE MORTGAGE MARKET National Consumer Law Center Report Released at News Event with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill BOSTON, MA///Oct. 6, 2009///Abuses and abusers from the subprime mortgage market [...]

The Government Accountability Office – GAO – in July found that the Treasury was short staffed and had hired only half of the employees necessary to monitor the loan modification program. Taxpayer dollars bailed out the banks from bankruptcy, now [...]

The nation’s foreclosure crisis has swamped lawyers for the poor, leaving thousands of low-income homeowners across the country without legal assistance that could save their homes. Legal offices providing help to the poor are turning away many who have been [...]

President and Vice President of Financial Service Firms Sentenced in Metropolitan Money Store Mortgage Fraud Scheme Father and Daughter Who Served as Officers of Mortgage Foreclosure Consulting Companies Responsible for Over $6 Million in Losses Under the Scheme, Including Almost [...]

Wells Fargo spends millions lobbying against pro-citizen bills like the Employee Free Choice Act, the Foreclosure Prevention Act (S 2636), and House Bill 3609, which would allow judges to modify mortgages.  Where is the bailout for Wells Fargo customers & [...]

But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. [...]

Having legal help can be the difference between people keeping their homes and being evicted. A lawyer can stop foreclosure proceedings or put enough pressure on lenders to get them to rework the terms of the loan. A lawyer can [...]

Sunday evening Phoenix police shoot and kill distraught homeowner who refused to leave his foreclosed home This is a sad story of a man not accepting his fate of losing his home or deciding to make one last stand. I would [...]

On the really difficult days, Darleen Burbridge talks to the urn that contains her husband’s ashes and sits on a mantel inside her New Springville home — the one she is trying to save from foreclosure even though she’s sure [...]

Cook has started making sense of things as part of a growing movement of nearly 80 homeowners in Marin and Sonoma counties facing foreclosure and fighting back. United under the guise of “Don’t Get Mad, Get Even,” the group has [...]

Troubled homeowners may be losing a major lifeline: so-called short sales. To get bad loans off their books and spur home sales, lenders have been forgiving the difference between the outstanding mortgage balance and the purchase price. Banks were never [...]

Several companies in the Treasury program have been cited by judges or regulators for having engaged in improper behavior with their customers. They include Select Portfolio Servicing Inc., a Utah-based company formerly known as Fairbanks Capital Corp.; Countrywide Home Loans [...]

Orion Wisness tried to control his temper as a Wells Fargo representative delivered the bad news: No, Wisness did not qualify for a new federal program that would give him a break on his monthly mortgage payments. Five months had [...]