Topic: Late coming "assignments of mortgage" / MERS

[sylvester37]

This past August, I noticed an "assignment of mortgage" record filed with the county on my home. I think I may have read the document wrong due to some confusion in news back then, and the fact I was just approved for help on my past due mortgage via Hardest Hit.

The assignment basically "assigns" the mortgage from the original lender to BOA. Now, the original lender has not owned the mortgage since 2004. It was also sold to countrywide before BOA took it over, and no "assignments of mortgage" had been recorded by anyone until this one.

I now believe this assignment was probably "prep work" the bank was carrying out to start foreclosure. Based on some research, I'm finding that this very late coming assignment of mortgage could be a red flag of lien problems and other issues that might help me defend a foreclosure.

As my temporarily help via the hardest hit program will be winding down soon, I'm trying to get together some strategy on what to do both long and short term to save my home. I'm wondering what the assignment might mean as far as the bank's intentions for foreclosure, and what other steps I could take to start defending myself now.

Thanks for the help!

[HarryC]

It almost certainly is the bank preparing to file a foreclosure.

My (late) assignment of mortgage was recorded at the courthouse about a week before the bank filed its foreclosure suit.

What state are you in?

[CleaningUp]

I agree that the banking could well be preparing for foreclosure.

That assignment from Countrywide to BoA is going to be difficult to challenge because the sale of CW to BoA was approved by the regulators.

However....


Any assignment written up by Countrywide BEFORE they were taken over would be fair game, since CW was more than just sloppy with their documentation.

[Fighting Irish]

Assuming the chain of title to the mortgage had been registered, would it have gone OC--Countrywide--BoA?

And, based on what you wrote in your OP, the assignment shows OC--BoA?

Hmmmm.

What does that say to you?

Seems pretty attackable to me.

Seems pretty illegal, FWIW.

What are the dates on the newly minted assignment?

Did you save the paperwork you received back in 2004, when Countrywide bought your mortgage? Or when it went from Countrywide to BoA?

Any documentation that you have to prove that the assignment is fraudulent would be helpful.

I believe that someone in another thread talked about starting their very own class action suit against a bank in a somewhat similar situation. If this were
my issue, I'd find everything I could that I had for documentation (payments to the OC, to Countrywide, papers noting the changes in mortgagees, etc, and
take myself to a real estate attorney who likes the idea of representing a class who BoA is trying to defraud.

[sylvester37]

Assuming the chain of title to the mortgage had been registered, would it have gone OC--Countrywide--BoA?

And, based on what you wrote in your OP, the assignment shows OC--BoA?

Hmmmm.

What does that say to you?

Seems pretty attackable to me.

Seems pretty illegal, FWIW.

What are the dates on the newly minted assignment?

Did you save the paperwork you received back in 2004, when Countrywide bought your mortgage? Or when it went from Countrywide to BoA?

Any documentation that you have to prove that the assignment is fraudulent would be helpful.

I believe that someone in another thread talked about starting their very own class action suit against a bank in a somewhat similar situation. If this were
my issue, I'd find everything I could that I had for documentation (payments to the OC, to Countrywide, papers noting the changes in mortgagees, etc, and
take myself to a real estate attorney who likes the idea of representing a class who BoA is trying to defraud.

Well this is where I'm confused, just as with the liens we were discussing earlier.

You hear a lot of "that's illegal" kind of stuff with these new scammy mortgages, but it's hard to find specifics and even more difficult to find stuff that a judge would actually accept as defense against foreclosure.

The documentation you are asking about is fairly simple as I understand it. I believe somewhere in this house I have the documents I took from the closing. However, when it comes to recording all the transfers of mortgage occurred without any "assignments of mortgage" as I stated in the OP.

The date on this one late coming assignment was current as to when it occurred, but certainly seems to be incorrect or even fraudulent to me. One, the mortgage was never assigned from the original lender to BOA. It was sold to Countrywide back in 2004, and the rest was the history many of us know about BOA taking over the Countrywide mortgages. Two, all of this happened many years ago and not when the assignment was recorded.

Again, I'm in a quandary as to what to do about all of this. The class action seems far fetched as far as saving my home, which is my primary goal.

[CleaningUp]

Tell us the assignment chain.  Names please.   If you don't want to use names, use letters.

Your confusion is not helping us get a sense of what has happened.

[sylvester37]

Tell us the assignment chain.  Names please.   If you don't want to use names, use letters.

Your confusion is not helping us get a sense of what has happened.

Sorry, I thought I made that clear. If I understand what you are asking:

KB Home Mortgage TO Countrywide TO Bank of America

I believe there was also some "interbank" transfers made with Bank of America regarding BAC and the various divisions that , I guess, handled the Countrywide loans taken on by Bank of America.

The only document of "assignment of mortgage" is the one described here. "KB Home TO Bank of America". In my understand, this isn't really correct since the mortgage was assigned and serviced for several years by Countrywide, after it was sold to Countrywide by KB Home Mortgage. Put simply, the mortgage was never REALLY assigned from KB Home to BOA and certainly no assignments were REALLY made this past August. That's just what the dubious document states.

It seems to be the late coming "assignment of mortgage" is some attempt by BOA to have a recording that they are the bank handling my mortgage. I say this because if you were to look at the public records, you'd only see one document and warranty deed pertaining to my original mortgage with KB Home. That is until this recent dubious "assignment" ....

I hope this answers your question clearly. Thanks.

[sylvester37]

One more thing I think is pertinent. This is the name of the assignee. Not kidding, and it seems pretty ridiculous.

Bank of America, N.A. Successor by Merger to BAC Home Loans Servicing LP FKA Countrywide Home Loans Servicing

Perhaps this long assignee name is what BOA and the banks are up to nowadays to "patch up" their mistakes. Perhaps this is legal. Of course, I don't know. However, the name of the assignee curiously looks like a "run on sentence" of the assignment chain for the home! Only thing missing is the original lender (KB Home) which is listed on the document.

[CleaningUp]

The broker flipped the mortgage to Countrywide.  Countrywide was merged with BoA.  End of story.

The rest is just shifting it from one pocket to another.

[sylvester37]

The broker flipped the mortgage to Countrywide.  Countrywide was merged with BoA.  End of story.

The rest is just shifting it from one pocket to another.

Back to the original point, more or less.

Are there any laws or guidelines generally in place regarding the timeliness of recording mortgages and assignments of mortgage? It still seems to be near the core of this issue, and other noteworthy cases I have been reading about.

To put in a case even simpler than mine. Let say Bank A extended you a mortgage about 10 years ago. Bank A "assigned" your mortgage to Bank B about 8 years ago. Recently, Bank B decides it wants to foreclose, but "oops" they have no recorded assignment and no official record they own your mortgage.

So, as we are seeing the banks just run to the records and play "catch up" whenever they please via recording assignments for stuff that happened years ago. Since the simple assignment documents don't reflect this activity, it would seem to me that having no requirement for timeliness of recording would open the door for fraud.

How does the court know the untimely assignment is legitimate? I can't see how they can, and I suspect most judges have simply been ignoring this fact along with others in order to rule in favor of the banks.

[Fighting Irish]

The laws for registering mortgages would be found on a state by state basis.

That's the kind of research that you or I could do, to save money with the attorney.

[sylvester37]

The laws for registering mortgages would be found on a state by state basis.

That's the kind of research that you or I could do, to save money with the attorney.

OK. I was speaking generally. As in, do any states have such requirements for timeliness of recordings? I wonder if something like this would be explicitly stated in the law, as it's a kind of subtle point.

[Fighting Irish]

Some do: there are states where, if a lien against title isn't filed within a certain number of months, it can't be filed.

Even in those where assignments don't necessarily have a particular time limit, it could certainly be argued that filing an assignment 7 years late is excessive.

[sylvester37]

Some do: there are states where, if a lien against title isn't filed within a certain number of months, it can't be filed.

Even in those where assignments don't necessarily have a particular time limit, it could certainly be argued that filing an assignment 7 years late is excessive.

Good point! In this case, I like that word "excessive" In reality, that's exactly what it is.

[CleaningUp]

You will have to find a law that supports that "excessive" is "illegal".

You will also still have to overcome the validity of the underlying transaction to create the situation where the amount owed is not due and payable.