Banks Break Into Homes, Not Always Legally

Banks Accused of Illegally Breaking Into Homes
TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words &ldquo...;

Banks Accused Of Breaking Into Homes
Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions New York Times: TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the word...

Banks to Homeowners: Were In Ur Houses, Changin Ur Lockz
Photo: iStockPhoto Bank of America might be on edge about what would happen if BrianMoynihanSucks.com gets into the wrong hands, but they're not afraid to look like the bad guy. According to a federal Lawsuit, Bank of America not only wrongfully foreclosed on Mimi Ash's ski home, but they also broke in, changed the locks, and threw out all her possessions, including a wooden box inscribed with the words Together Forever that held the ashes of her late husband, Robert. Alan Jaffa, chief executi...

Janice Hermsen's "Stop paying your mortgage?"(1) politically incorrect but true.
"Stop paying your Mortgage?"(1), Janice Hermsen's take on the future of Nevada's Homeowners, may sound a little crazy to some. Yet, the title itself is the only solution many owners are left with. The author begins with a mention to the new year, although she is not wishing you happy holidays. She rather throws in your face the sad reality awaiting around the corner. Recent data does not support the idea of any improvement any time soon. Janice's depiction of Bank of America's unfair play(2) is ...

Florida Home Sales and Prices Slide in November
Existing Home Sales fell 15 percent in November compared to a year ago, and prices dipped along with them, according to a report released Wednesday by the Florida Association of Realtors. The median sales price for a home was $132,700 last month, down 5 percent from November 2009. The voluntary Moratorium on Foreclosure filings imposed by Mortgage companies in recent months delayed closings on some properties and impacted sales activity, the FAR report states. Companies like JP Morgan Chase and ...

More on the FDICs Fight Versus Other Bank Regulators on Servicer Abuses; Rep. Miller Backs More Aggressive Action
We’ve mentioned that the FDIC has been pushing to reform the securitization process, including imposing standards on servicers. That has put it at odds with the bank-friendly Treasury and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the SEC has proposed securtization reforms but of a much more modest nature than the FDIC’s). This behind the scenes battle is heating up further because Dodd Frank calls on bank Regulators to draft new rules to improve the operation of the Mortgage secur...

What Will It Take?
By John Ballard When I saw a Tweet linking this story my first response, of course, was RT. But then it hit me: This is obscene. Stories such as this are proliferating like rats in a landfill. This is not one of those local stories that clutter the news -- Drug Busts, apartment fires, C-store robberies, police chases, Traffic Jams... This is a national plague that has been unfolding over what will soon become three years. Have we have become so deaf and blind to the wholesale ugliness of it al...

Federal Reserve Blocks New Foreclosure Regulations
WASHINGTON -- Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper Foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute. The new regulations ...

Banks are after your homes and your furniture
Bad economy.  No one has any money.  Forecolsures.  Greedy politicians.  Greedy Bankers.  Have you met any yet here in Collin County?  How's your personal economy? I know a few that had their homes foreclosed on and there are a few in my neighborhood that I don't know.  So far, there are over 10 pages of homes being foreclosed upon in our county but I haven't seen or heard of any banks breaking into homes as is represented in the New York Times for a home in Tr...

Bank Break Ins Leading to Litigation
Even though banks piously insist that every one of their Foreclosure actions is fully justified, evidence in the court system continues to prove that claim to be false. We pointed out this sorry development in October, that of banks entering and changing the locks on homes they had not foreclosed upon. Per a report from the Sarasota Herald Tribune: The process of banks hiring people to break into homes, even when occupied, is just the latest oddity of the messy Foreclosure crisis in Florida. S...

When banks burglarize
When Bank of America bought Countrywide, did it know that as a consequence it would start being associated in the public mind with meltwater reeking of rotten halibut? In Texas, Bank of America had the locks changed and the electricity shut off last year at Alan Schroit’s second home in Galveston, according to court papers. Mr. Schroit, who had paid off the house, had stored 75 pounds of salmon and halibut in his refrigerator and freezer, caught during a recent Alaskan fishing Vacation. “La...

In a Sign of Foreclosure Flaws, Suits Claim Break-Ins by Banks
Source: New York Times By ANDREW MARTIN TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, R

Wells Fargo agrees to modify California ARM loans
Wells Fargo Bank has agreed to make $2 billion in loan modifications for California Homeowners with risky pay-option, adjustable-rate Mortgages that Wells purchased from other banks, and to pay $32 million to 15,000 borrowers who had similar loans and lost their homes to Foreclosure, according to an agreement with the California Attorney General's office. "Customers were offered adjustable-rate loans with payments that mushroomed to amounts that ultimately thousands of borrowers could not aff...

"I Wish the Law Had Worked": A Dispatch from the Land of Unintended Consequences
Once upon a time, people seeking Loan Modifications got screwed by lawyers who promised to save their homes, took a few thousand dollars, and disappeared from the face of the Earth. Then the light of Regulation shone upon California and a Task Force was convened, Legislation was devised, and everyone smiled when it passed by an overwhelming 36-4 in September 2009. Now, this: Lawyers throughout California say they have no choice but to reject clients [seeking help with Mortgage modifications] be...

Banks Now Recapturing Sentimental Value in Foreclosures
As the Foreclosure crisis grinds on, home-repossession horror stories continue to multiply and in some cases sharpen to a fine point. For example, it's may prove pretty tough for Bank of America to shake off a little anecdote from today's New York Times. It starts with Mimi Ash, a woman who says BofA wrongly foreclosed on her. The usual tropes of Foreclosure horror come into play: a return home, changed locks, missing possessions. But then there's a unique little twist: When she finally got in...

Preeti Vissa: An Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas?
This time of year conjures up traditional images of family gatherings, cozy fireplaces, shared meals and happy exchanges of presents -- images of home, security and friendship. But millions of Americans who have had their homes foreclosed or who are in imminent danger of Foreclosure have no such sense of security, and in many cases no real home. Far too little is being done to help them. It seems like Ebenezer Scrooge is running Christmas this year. But it doesn't have to be this way. I've wri...

More Illegal Foreclosure Bank Break-Ins
I wonder if you could go to a Bank CEO’s home, break into his house, and throw out all of his personal possessions — family heirlooms, photos, awards — then claim a paperwork error. That is the excuse they have been using: “In an era when millions of homes have received Foreclosure notices nationwide, Lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing. And in the wake of the Scandal involving shoddy, sometimes illegal paperwork that has b...

Weekly Audit: Republicans Poised to Declare War on Welfare State
Senate Republicans scuttled a Bipartisan $1.2 Trillion dollar spending Omnibus Bill last week. Now, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is scrambling to pass a temporary funding bill to keep the Federal Government’s lights on. The GOP abruptly pulled the plug on the omnibus, a massive piece of Legislation that Republicans and Democrats had collaborated on for months. Why? Because the Republicans want to start over in the next session of Congress when they will control the House and pick up...

C&L; Opening Bell, 12-23-10
Ho, ho, ho, C&Lers! There have been lots of naughty people in the financial industry this year! But instead of a lump of coal, many of them are getting a big Bonus check in their stockings! Let's take a look at some of the yuletide cheer they've been spreading lately! When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions wer...

Obama's Off to Hawaii Returning to DC Jan. 4
From Hawaii's newspaper: President Barack Obama departed Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility in Maryland at 1:53 p.m. Hawaii time on his way to Honolulu to begin his Hawaiian Vacation. The president departed the White House at 6:34 p.m. after wishing a Merry Christmas to staff and media gathered for his departure. Obama, wearing a long black coat to ward off the frigid Washington, D.C., temperatures, was accompanied by personal aide Reggie Love and other Staffers. Obama is scheduled to arriv...

'Grinches' caught on cam destroying decorations...
LA Canada FLINTRIDGE (CBS) — One grinch wasn’t enough. Police in La Canada Flintridge are on the lookout for two grinches…well, actually make that two young men in baggy sweatshirts. Officials say the two young men vandalized a family’s outdoor Christmas decorations and display. But the decorating-damage-duo might not have the last laugh. The homeowner caught the act on tape. The home, on Indianola Way, was decked with stuffed animals and a holiday sleigh. The h...

Washington, American Samoa are worst U.S. markets for insurers
American Samoa and Washington, D.C. were the worst U.S. markets for insurers in 2009, as Foreclosures and a Tsunami in the South Pacific triggered customer payouts. Insurers in Washington spent 49 percent more on claims and other expenses than the $1.6 billion they collected in premiums last year, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said today in a report. In American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the South Pacific, carriers paid out more than 13 times the $85,000 of premiums they ...

Wells Fargo Agrees to $2 Billion in Loan Modifications
Source: Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to provide loan modifications worth more than $2 billion to California Homeowners who have “pick-a-pay” loans, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said. Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. home lender, also will pay $32 million to borrowers whose homes were lost in Foreclosure, Brown said today in a statement. Pick-a-pay, or pay option adjustable-rate Mortgage loans, allowed borrowers to make payments at various levels, according to Brown. The highest l..

Misc: Ernst & Young accused of fraud, Banks accused of illegal break-ins
by CalculatedRisk on 12/21/2010 10:14:00 PM Two stories: Lehman's Accounting was fishy. The other is a real fish story ... • From the NY Times DealBook: Cuomo Sues Ernst & Young Over Lehman The New York Attorney General on Tuesday sued Ernst & Young, accusing the Accounting Firm of helping Lehman Brothers, its client, “engage in a massive Accounting Fraud” by misleading investors about the Investment Bank’s financial health.• From Andrew Martin at the NY ...

Existing Home Sales Come At 4.68 Million, Miss Estimates Of 4.75 Million, Home Inventory At 9.5 Months Supply
home sales, which came at 4.68 million units, a slight improvement to the almost all time lowest number posted in October (4.43 million), a miss to expectations of 4.75 million, and 27.9% off the cyclical peak of 6.49 million from November 2009, when the first-time buyer Tax Credit expired, and was shockingly not extended. The data follows this morning atrocious MBA numbers which showed a plunge of 18.6% in Mortgage applications, and 24.6% drop in refinancings. But if you listen to Goldman, the ...