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A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who have done studies in other parts of the country.

The audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study released by the California city on Wednesday.

"The audit in San Francisco is the most detailed and comprehensive that has been done - but it's likely those numbers are comparable nationally," Diane Thompson, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, told Reuters.

Across the country from California, Jeff Thingpen, register of deeds in Guildford County, North Carolina, examined 6,100 mortgage documents last year, from loan notes to foreclosure paperwork.

Of those documents, created between January 2008 and December 2010, 4,500 showed signature irregularities, a telltale sign of the illegal practice of "robosigning" documents.

Robosigning involves the use of bogus documents to force foreclosures without lenders having to scrutinize all the paperwork involved with mortgages. The practice was at the heart of the foreclosure scandal that led to a $25 billion settlement between the U.S. government and five major banks last week.

The banks have never formally admitted any wrongdoing. A Wells Fargo spokesman said, "We have acknowledged we didn't always follow our policies in the foreclosure process. We found some areas where there were deficiencies in our process."

It is expected that the $25 billion settlement will include no admission of wrongdoing by the banks.

Home loans have dropped 33 percent from a 2006 peak that was fueled by generous loans, often to people with dubious credit records. Nearly 11 million Americans now owe more than their homes are worth.

Thingpen said the San Francisco audit, which was commissioned by the city's assessor-recorder, Phil Ting, was not an exceptional case. "Where there's smoke, there's fire, and we're beyond the smoke stage. There's fires in county recording offices across the country."

John O'Brien, the register of deeds for Essex County in northwestern Massachusetts, conducted an audit of loans issued in 2010 and found 75 percent of the assignments to be invalid and a further 9 percent questionable.

LOAN REPACKAGING MUDDIED OWNERSHIP

One of the major problems that has emerged in the foreclosure crisis is that it is far from clear that many lenders foreclosing on properties actually own the loans and have the right to take action against them.

In many cases during the housing bubble that burst in 2008, original mortgages were repackaged and sold to so many investors

that it is now unclear who actually holds the loans

O'Brien could only find the current owners of the mortgages he studied in 287 out of 473 cases.

In the San Francisco study, which studied properties subject to foreclosure sales between January 2009 to November 2011, 45 per cent were sold to entities improperly claiming to be the owner of the loan.

"It is not impossible that there are homeowners who are alleged to have defaulted on loans to which they never fully agreed to and, further, are being foreclosed upon by lenders that might not even own such loans," the report stated.

One factor that probably caused the particularly high 84 per cent rate of illegal foreclosures in San Francisco is that California is a "non-judicial" foreclosure state.

In other words, the foreclosure process does not need to be overseen by a judge. That left the conduct of lenders in California - one of the hardest-hit states in terms of foreclosures - largely unscrutinized until the robosigning scandal gained prominence in late 2010.

In judicial foreclosure states such as New York, some judges have been taking banks to task for submitting faulty foreclosure paperwork.

But Ray Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School and an expert in housing law, said foreclosure fraud had been as rampant in judicial states as non-judicial ones.

"This number around 80 percent is not a number we have not seen before," Brescia said, referring to both the issuing of faulty loans during the housing bubble and the foreclosure crisis that followed.

"There have been a very high level of irregularities across the country." http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/02/17/Foreclosure-Abuse-Ra
mpant-Across-US.aspx#page1 are no words for how much this infuriates me...we've been demonstrating on the front steps of San Rafael's City Hall, which is where the daily auctions of foreclosed homes takes place. It's hard, makes all this protesting more personal to see people come up and beg them not to sell their homes, come up with papers showing they'd paid what they were supposed to--just after their home was bought at auction and they're told "there's nothing we can do"...and more.

Bastards; I hope they KEEP investigating and the banks are held to account MORE--that first one was a drop in the fucking bucket, little else!

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JPMorgan Chase also admitted to illegally foreclosing on the families of 27 active-duty military members earlier this year and has very publicly attempted to give the families back their homes or compensate them for damages if the house was sold.

The bank also agreed to pay $27 million in cash to about 6,000 active-duty service members who were overcharged on their mortgages. Though illegal foreclosures may be some of the most egregious examples of lenders mistreating service members, banks have wronged members of the military in other ways. An October lawsuit claims that 13 banks and mortgage companies charged hidden and illegal fees from veterans trying to refinance their homes.

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For example, in an amazing instance, Bank of America/Countrywide has caused to be filed a Notice of Default against a consumer who did not miss any payments justifying the issuance of any default notification whatsoever.

Additionally, thousands of consumers were allegedly told by Bank of America/Countrywide employees and/or agents that they will all have to “wait” in order to be allowed to modify their loans. Bank of America/Countrywide further represented to consumers that they would not be penalized for failing to make mortgage payments or any property-related payments, and indeed, told the consumers that it is beneficial for consumers to fall further behind in their payments because that will “make it easier” to modify the unreasonable adjustable loans. Instead, the moment that consumers fell three months or more in arrears (as ordered by the bank) the bank immediately began foreclosure proceedings by filing notice of defaults and backing consumers into a corner with zero options and at the mercy of the lender. These types of foreclsore practices are illegal and unethical. http://obamasavemyhome.com/?p=146 unethical, it's the ILLEGAL parts they have ADMITTED TO.

If anyone doesn't like the sources, they were just the first up on Google; there are myriad places you can find the same information from sources on the right, left, middle, government, etc., etc. THEY PLAYED ILLEGAL GAMES. It's as simple as that.

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BOSTON — The Attorney General's Office has filed suit against five national banks for their roles in allegedly pursuing illegal foreclosures on properties in Massachusetts, as well as deceptive loan servicing.

The lawsuit was filed today in Suffolk Superior Court against Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and GMAC. It also names Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc. (MERCS) and its parent, MERSCORP Inc., as defendants.

“Our suit alleges that the banks have charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law,'' Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement. "Our action today seeks real accountability for the banks illegal behavior and real relief for homeowners.”

In the complaint, Coakley claims these five entities engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices in violation of Massachusetts’ law by: Pervasive use of fraudulent documentation in the foreclosure process, including so-called “robo-signing; foreclosing without holding the actual mortgage (!!Don'tcha love THAT one??); corrupting Massachusetts’ land recording system through the use of MERS; and failing to uphold loan modification promises to Massachusetts homeowners." http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/breaking/x1622882178/Attorney-Genera
l-sues-5-banks-for-illegal-foreclosures

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It has been happening all over the country, and some people trying desperately not to blame the banks are simply adjusting their blinders to let NO light in at all.

From the very beginning,

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In spring 2010 news stories begin to emerge detailing erroneous foreclosures and evictions, including banks variously foreclosing on homes which were paid for without a mortgage, accidentally foreclosing on the wrong home, and providing fraudulent documentation in courts

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Remember robo-signing?

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Robo-signing is a term used by consumer advocates to describe the robotic process of the mass production of false and forged execution of mortgage assignments, satisfactions, affidavits and other legal documents related to mortgage foreclosures and legal matters being created by persons without knowledge of the facts being attested to. It also includes accusations of notary fraud wherein the notaries pre and/or post notarize the affidavits and signatures of so-called robo-signers.

On July 18, 2011, the Associated Press and Reuters[11] released two reports that robo-signing continued to be a major problem in U.S. courtrooms across America. The AP defined robo-signing as a "variety of practices. It can mean a qualified executive in the mortgage industry signs a mortgage affidavit document without verifying the information. It can mean someone forges an executive's signature, or a lower-level employee signs his or her own name with a fake title. It can mean failing to comply with notary procedures. In all of these cases, robo-signing involves people signing documents and swearing to their accuracy without verifying any of the information."[12]

In 2009, attorney Tom Ice pointed out the wide-scale practice of robo-signing in depositions taken of GMAC's Jeffrey Stephan and other robo-signers.[13] News outlets reported that on September 14, 2010, Jeffrey Stephan testified that he had signed affidavits which he hadn't actually reviewed on behalf of Ally Financial Inc.[6][14] This revelation led to increased scrutiny of foreclosure documentation. The practice was apparently common in the mortgage industry.[6] In following weeks, the robo-signing revelation other large banks have come under fire for employing robo-signers as well, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.[15]

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Wikipedia

Remember MERS?

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The Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, known as MERS, is a privately held company that operates an electronic registry designed to track servicing rights and ownership of mortgage loans in the United States.[16][17] As of the crisis 62 million mortgages are held in the name of MERS,[18] and MERS has initiated thousands of foreclosures in the United States, claiming to be the mortgagee of record. Lawyers have contended in court that MERS has no legal right to initiate a foreclosure, because MERS does not own the loans in question. U.S. lending laws state that only the owner of a loan can initiate a foreclosure.

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Wiki

It's not about people taking out mortgages they can't afford; it's about totally ILLEGAL actions by the banks in which they broke the law...sometimes in multiple ways...and quite LITERALLY stole people's homes. To blame the people who lost their homes is...well, something from an alternate universe. I'm guessing this was an instinctive reaction to diss whatIput up, because whatever I put up must be wrong/stupid/leftist/ignorant/something...I just find it hard to believe even he is THAT ignorant!