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Foreclosure Notes 4/14/13 – 4/16/13

Foreclosure? This Calls for a Campout (Seattle Weekly News)

Upon order of the King County Sheriff, Jeremy Griffin was supposed to be out of his home by Tuesday at midnight. Instead, starting late last night, he has played host to members of Standing Against Foreclosure & Eviction, a group that grew out of the Occupy movement. They set up a large tent in his carefully tended garden, where a few people spent the night. By morning, several dozen people had gathered in front of his three-bedroom, which had been draped with protest banners, including a huge one reading “Foreclosure Free Zone.”

Minnesota via We Are Oregon (Facebook)

Rose Mcgee has won a settlement from Fannie Mae that will keep her in her home with affordable payments! The settlement comes after a year long campaign that inspired thousands around the county and was the impetus for the homeowner bill of rights which has just days left to be heard this session. Join us at the capitol tomorrow at 11am to celebrate Rose’s victory and demand that legislators pass strong legislation to protect thousands of other Minnesotans in danger of losing their homes!

Estate administrator sues big banks for wrongful death, elder abuse, breach of contract and other charges.
(AlternNet)

An elderly man “succumbed to the pressure” of losing his home to Wells Fargo and died at a court hearing fighting the bank’s wrongful foreclosure, his estate claims in court…

Delassus died at 62 of heart disease after Wells Fargo mistakenly held him liable for his neighbor’s property taxes, doubled his mortgage payments, declared his loan in default and sold his Hermosa Beach condominium, according to the complaint.

A BATTLE WON (Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign)

… but the war continues. Today Ms. Hughes gave Strategic Acquisitions a taste of their own medicine when their ex-parte motion was denied for hearing today. Ms. Hughes eviction of the people who tried to steal her home has so far been upheld by the courts. The look on the commissioner’s face as she took the spot of the plantiff was priceless.

Tell the Bankers that the People are Too Big To Fail (Occupy Wall Street)

Join Occupy Homes, dozens of underwater homeowners, and hundreds of allies from across the country as we take action and risk arrest at the Department of Justice.

Bring Justice to Justice Rally: May 20th @ 1pm Gather: Freedom Plaza, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW – March to Department of Justice @ 1:30pm…

Home defenders, as well as faith and community leaders will rally to Bring Justice to Justice – demanding an end to the “too big to jail” policy, and relief for families and communities devastated by the financial crisis and foreclosure epidemic.

Wasted Wealth: The devastating cost of the foreclosure crisis. (Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign)

Sometimes a simple picture dialogue is worth a million words…this is telling to the discrimination and predatory lending effects on our communities…it will not change if we choose to stay silent…

Foreclosure Notes 5/9/13 – 5/14/13

California Homeowner Bill of Rights blocks BofA foreclosure (Housing Wire)

A California man successfully halted a foreclosure sale on his property using… the Homeowner Bill of Rights to obtain a court injunction against… Bank of America… the injunction alone may cost BofA/Recontrust upwards of $60,000 when calculating in attorneys fees and expenses…

The new case in question – Singh v. Bank of America – was filed by a borrower who accused BofA… of violating HBOR’s ban on dual-tracking.

And the foreclosure follies march on (Daily Kos)

I think the bigger story is that a landmark case against the nation’s banks for being as crooked as f–k, as careless as f–k, as incompetent as f–k and not incidentally as unrepentant as f–k was deemed a problem solved when the banks agreed to give the sum of three or four thousand dollars to each American family the banks had wrongfully evicted from their own goddamn homes. That’s not a settlement – it wasn’t at the time, and still isn’t. In certain Wall Street-backed neighborhoods you might find higher dollar figures on the “REWARD–LOST DOG” signs. Four thousand dollars for being booted from her own home by a crooked bank?

Foreclosure defense movement stalls evictions (Workers World)

Coldwater, Mich., a town of 10,000 in the western half of the state, is no place one would expect to see a protest demonstration. These days, however, foreclosure defense activists go where they are needed. They have come May 3 to Coldwater from around the state to keep Matthew Murray and Beverley Murray and their two daughters in their home.

Spanish region at odds with EU over efforts to alleviate evictions crisis (The Irish Times)

In April, the Socialist-led government of Andalusia, one of the regions worst hit by the recession with a jobless rate of 37 per cent, issued a decree that sought to ease the pressure on those struggling to make payments. The decree allows certain homes in the region to be expropriated from banks for three years, to protect poor families from eviction. It also establishes fines for banks that fail to put empty homes on the rental market…

In response, the European Commission has warned the Spanish government that such measures are not compatible with the country’s commitments related to EU funding.

Mortgage Catch Pushes Widows Into Foreclosure (New York Times)

Geraldine Bates lost her husband to kidney failure last year. Now, she has fallen behind on her mortgage payments and is terrified that she will lose her home in Jacksonville, Fla.

Ms. Bates, 70, is caught in a foreclosure trap that is ensnaring widows across America: she cannot get help lowering her payments until her name is added to the mortgage note, but the lender says she must be current on payments before that can happen.

US Bank walks away from foreclosure on Aurora woman (Denver Post)

US Bank on Friday backed down from its efforts to foreclose on an Aurora woman whose federal court battle against it has taken on the constitutionality of Colorado’s foreclosure laws…

Brumfiel tried to challenge that US Bank didn’t prove it had the right to foreclose on her house because it had not shown how it acquired the rights to her loan and or that it had been assigned the deed of trust to the loan. Brumfiel eventually waived her right to the hearing and signed a stipulation that she was likely to lose, mostly because Colorado law allows foreclosure lawyers to sign a statement saying – without having to prove – that their client, typically a bank or other lender, properly has the note and deed of trust. It is that law Brumfiel is challenging in federal court, saying it violates her 14th Amendment right to due process.

Foreclosure Notes 5/6/13 – 5/8/13

BofA settles another mortgage lawsuit but is facing a new one (Los Angeles Times)

“If you are a homeowner facing foreclosure, time is your greatest enemy,” Schneiderman said at a news conference in Manhattan. “Every day wasted waiting for a bank to respond, or for your chance to resubmit documents, is a day homeowners fall further behind, accumulate more fees and more interest. These delays often make the difference between a family staying in their home or being displaced.”

Housing Is For Everyone (HousingIsForEveryone)

HIFE launched on May Day 2013 as a network of individuals and organizations committed to carrying out the work of Housing Justice in Portland Oregon.

Basic principles:

1) Everyone has a right to shelter that is safe and livable – Housing is a Human Right

2) Keep people in their homes – stopping foreclosure, unjust evictions

3) No more empty homes – there are more than enough houses and apartments for everyone but living spaces are left empty while people go without shelter.

We are here to make the above agreements a reality in our city. We will unite with other organizations and individuals to accomplish this work collectively. We call on all supporters and allies of housing justice to join with us to take action until Housing Is For Everyone!

N.Y. to sue BofA, Wells over compliance (San Francisco Chronicle)

Last week, a federal judge for the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting Bank of America from carrying out a foreclosure sale in West Sacramento because the borrower, Kevin Singh, was in the process of seeking a modification. The judge, Morrison England, found the sale would have violated the provision in the bill of rights prohibiting dual tracking.

“This is the first written opinion I am aware of” in a case brought under the bill of rights, said Kent Qian, an attorney with the National Housing Law Project.

Occupy Protesters Shut Down Wells Fargo Over ‘Fraudulent Foreclosures’ (City Watch LA)

Upset with Wells Fargo’s foreclosure practices, protesters held a demonstration Wednesday that briefly shut down one of the bank’s branches in downtown Los Angeles.

The action was organized by Occupy Fights Foreclosures, an Occupy Los Angeles subcommittee that has been assisting homeowners fight what they consider are fraudulent foreclosures.

About 80 activists, which included foreclosed homeowners, stood in front of the bank’s entrance for a half hour before joining the nearby May Day demonstration held by the Southern California Immigration Coalition.

“Too many families are being thrown out into the streets,” said Carlos Marroquin, an organizer for Occupy Fights Foreclosures. “Wells Fargo has already paid over a billion dollars in settlements because of their predatory lending practices. It goes to show you that they are not ashamed of what they do.”

Is There A “Zombie House” In Concord Near You? (Concord Patch)

It’s not exactly “Night of the Living Dead,” but there are apparently nearly 2,000 so-called “zombie houses” in the East Bay right now.

Foreclosure Notes 4/30/13 – 5/06/13

Fannie Mae Evicts Family in Foreclosure, Then Installs Armed Guards (Truth Out)

The family was evicted, but their home is not empty. A force of armed private security guards from McRoberts Security was immediately installed in Debbie Austin’s home. The guards have been on 24-hour duty in the home ever since… Since the Austins’ January eviction, Fannie Mae has spent nearly $50,000 of essentially public money to keep one home empty.

Photo of house with security guard.

Paltry settlement checks insulting to foreclosed homeowners (Occupy Homes MN)

Frank and Kristina were hoping for some reparation after losing their dream home, going bankrupt, and damaging their credit, but were met with disappointment when they received a check for $300…

Colleen McKee Espinosa went into foreclosure after Citibank refused to accept her payment on the due date after falling two months behind on her payments. She received a settlement check for $300. Citibank’s error cost her over $18,000 in fees..

May Day 2013, Shut Down Wells Fargo! (Occupy Fights Foreclosures )

Occupy Fights Foreclosures would like to invite you to a major Wells Fargo action happening on May 1st!

Wells Fargo is a foreclosure king against the workers, undocumented communities, low-income communities, the elderly, and the disabled.

Harolyn Rhue is a homeowner whose home we are currently defending against Wells Fargo. She is a disabled woman, whose home was fraudulently foreclosed on and sold even though she had over $175,000 of equity on it and was always faithful with her mortgage payments.

New Yorkers Speak Out Against Bank of America, Wells Fargo (NEDAPNYC Youtube )

A series of short videos with a title beginning “New Yorks Speak Out Against…”

New York to Sue Wells Fargo and Bank of America Over Settlement Violations (New York Times)

New York’s top prosecutor plans to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo over claims that they violated terms of a $26 billion mortgage settlement, his office said on Monday…

Since October 2012, Mr. Schneiderman’s office has documented 210 separate violations involving Wells Fargo and 129 involving Bank of America.

Foreclosure Notes 4/25/13 – 4/29/13

Error claims cast doubt on Bank of America foreclosures in Bay Area (Center for Investigative Reporting)

Despite recent settlements with state and federal regulators and a new California law that tightens rules for the mortgage industry, banks and their subsidiaries continue to file invalid documents and foreclose on properties to which they appear to have no legal right, an analysis of thousands of pages of property records and wrongful foreclosure lawsuits shows…

During the past five years, 184,000 Bay Area properties went into default; last year, the value of these loans exceeded $11.6 billion…

Despite the new state law requiring Bank of America to provide Rodriguez with a single contact to answer questions about his loan, the documents show he has been assigned seven different contacts since January.

Bank “Zombie Title” Rises, Hurting Communities and Borrowers, as OCC and Fed Sit Pat (Naked Capitalism)

…this abuse has skyrocketed since 2010, when the GAO estimated that abandoned homes ranged between 14,500 and 35,600. They ((zombie foreclosures)) are now pegged at 35% of the one million homes in foreclosure.

While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion (Rolling Stone)

The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire “independent” consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks…

All of this just confirms what we already suspected about the foreclosure settlement. This whole enterprise was conceived by the government solely as a means of dealing with the explosive problem of containing the private liability of these “systemically important” companies. Not only are we not prosecuting these firms anymore, we’re also actively in the business of protecting them from litigation.

In Spain they are all indignados nowadays (The Guardian)

…the powerful use the language of shame to keep us impotent: unemployment and debt are the fault of the individual alone, they say, and social sadness a private affair. This is no doubt why María Dolores de Cospedal, general secretary of the ruling Partido Popular (PP), recently boasted that its supporters “would go hungry” rather than fail to pay their mortgage…

Cospedal was targeting the Mortgage Victims’ Platform, which, through its campaigning, is transforming the isolating stigma of eviction into a groundswell of popular outrage that is fuelling practical action.

SPAIN: DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE! DELAY OF YOUR MORTGAGE PAYMENT! 10 DAYS UP TO 90 DAYS! (Hazte Valer)

Introducing the action # HazteValer and not pay: 10 DAYS IN JUNE delayed PAYMENT OF ALL MORTGAGES. Delaying the payment of the mortgage is the strength we have as debtors.

((in Spanish; Google Translate seems to work well enough))

Forecloure Notes 4/21/13 – 4/25/13

Episode 08: Oakland, CA (Radical Resistance Tour)

OOFDG stuff starts about 5:40 into the video.

The Radical Resistance Tour (radicalresistancetour.tumblr.com) is an autonomous project by a group of Occupy Wall Street organizers. We’re touring the United States and interviewing activists, people participating in direct actions, and people working to create a dual power model. We want to show people who aren’t on the ground how people are being directly affected by decisions being made by corporations and governments that put profits over people and the environment. We want to inspire more people to fight back by featuring people who are already fighting back, and hopefully gain some shared wisdom by listening to how others are resisting.

Homeless Rights Act Says Homeless Can Sleep Outdoors Without Arrest (LA Weekly)

A new bill by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano would codify new rules for how authorities can deal with people on the street. He calls it the “Homeless Bill of Rights Act.” …

According to the latest language in the proposal:

The bill would provide that every person has the right to access public property, possess personal property, access public restrooms, clean water, educational supplies, as specified, emergency and nonemergency health care, confidentiality of medical records, assistance of legal counsel in specified proceedings, and restitution, under specified circumstances. The bill would provide immunity from employer retaliation, to a public employee who provides assistance to a homeless person.

Home Defense Picture in Minnesota (We Are Oregon)

Jaymie’s redemption period ends today, but if JPMorgan Chase thinks she, Sergio, and Paula are going anywhere, they’ve got another think coming. This is an Eviction Free Zone. We shall not be moved.

Anti-eviction advocates open foreclosed home for owner (LA Activist)

Another set of locks has been broken on a foreclosed home, this time for South Los Angeles resident Cathelene Hughes.

On Sunday, April 21, members of the Los Angeles Anti-Eviction Campaign broke the locks on Hughes’ home located on the 9800 block on South Wall Street.

“This feels great,” said Hughes, 72, who had been living with her aunt since the eviction. “When you don’t have your own place you feel like you’re displaced; you’re not comfortable. It’s just stressful.”

“It’s feeling good to come home,” she added.

House Passes Negotiation Before Foreclosure Bill (GoLocal Prov)

The ((Rhode Island)) House of Representatives passed legislation last week, sponsored by Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr. to require banks and lenders to make a good-faith attempt to negotiate with homeowners before foreclosing on homes in Rhode Island.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest to prevent foreclosure… Lenders are better off if they can continue receiving steady payments, even if they are a little lower, from the homeowner. Communities and our state obviously are hurt when houses are left empty and unattended. And of course, foreclosure is a huge loss for a family, who is then at risk for homelessness and has lost whatever investment they’ve made in their home. We need to ensure that lenders are doing their best to avoid foreclosing.”

Foreclosure Notes 4/17/13 – 4/21/13

Suicides Spark Eviction Resistance (In These Times)

An estimated 350,000 Spanish families (and possibly more) have been evicted from their homes, and the average house price has fallen by more than one-third…

The law allows banks to begin repossessing a house after just one missed mortgage payment and to seek full loan repayment even after repossession. Furthermore, neither bankruptcy nor death can erase mortgage debt…

…activists may be helped by a ruling from the European Court in March that found that Spain’s mortgage law violates European Union law.

The Fed’s Foreclosure-Relief Fail (The American Prospect)

Like far too many Americans, Debbie Marler of South Point, Ohio has her own foreclosure horror story. It involves one house, seven fraudulent mortgage assignments, three foreclosures, as many states, and five years. It ruined her career prospects, threatened her retirement security, and turned her life into what she calls “a living nightmare.”

This week, Debbie walked to her mailbox and found what the federal government considers appropriate compensation for this odyssey of suffering at the hands of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank.

A check for $800…

Adquately compensating homeowners was never a goal of the foreclosure reviews. For context, banks paid the third-party consultants who performed the reviews (and according to whistleblowers, helped deliberately minimize evidence of borrower harm) roughly $20,000 a pop, a windfall of $2 billion.

Line of Credit. Line of Lies. (Daily Kos)

I got a telemarketing call this morning from Wells Fargo… I asked her if she was with the money-laundering department… I asked her if she knew that Wells Fargo has foreclosed on dozens of homes that didn’t even have a mortgage… I asked her who in her bank fabricates the documents…

Occupy Activists Kicked Out of Fulton Government Building (Atlanta Progressive News)

Fulton County staff and a police officer escorted two activists with Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, an affiliate of the Occupy Movement, from the Fulton County Government Services Building on Industrial Boulevard, after the activists simply tried to attend a meeting involving a foreclosure case they have been working on…

Franzen told Atlanta Progressive News that Baskin had told them, “You are with Occupy and Occupy can’t be in this meeting.”

Beyond Procedural Justice: Finding Our Foundations in the Worst Case Scenario (Rochester Red and Black)

… The direct action work of defending against a foreclosure is a political statement, where the collective strength of the community has the ability to preserve someone’s material needs. Here the community both supports someone in retaining one of the most important parts of their life, and in doing so we see that we must violate both the laws and the assumption of capitalism just to meet someone’s basic human needs for shelter…

Zombie foreclosure statistics scary (Chicago Tribune)

There are about 302,000 “zombies,” according to RealtyTrac…

Q: Why haven’t the banks followed through with the foreclosures?

A: There are a couple of reasons. It’s a side effect of the increasingly lengthy foreclosure process. It just takes longer for banks to foreclose these days, in general. Secondly, there are situations where the banks intentionally decide it’s not in their financial interest to follow through with the foreclosure, even after they’ve started the process, because of the holding costs. That’s a big factor…