If you read this blog regularly, you know that I represent a variety of people in South Florida who are facing foreclosure proceedings on their homes. Please be sure to read this if you’ve already lost your home, because you may be entitled to receive compensation if your home was wrongfully taken away based on false assertions in Court documents .

We’ve just seen an important development that affects both active, and more importantly, wrongfully completed foreclosure proceedings. The latest news alleges fraudulent practices at some of the lending institutions that have been processing huge volumes of foreclosures. The Sun-Sentinel says the root of the problem is the “slip-shod handling of mortgage documents, uncovered in several South Florida cases, (that) has been standard practice among firms that process and file mortgage cases”.

Just look at what’s surfaced this past week:

• To investigate mishandling, both GMAC and JPMorganChase have suspended all of their current foreclosure activities in 23 states, including Florida. Bank of America has suspended foreclosures in all 50 states.
• Old Republic National – one of the country’s largest title insurance companies – has now stopped writing title insurance policies on many homes foreclosed upon by Bank of America, GMAC Mortgage or JPMorganChase.
• The latest news has added yet another issue, which we have been discussing for some time now, to the list: Does the bank really own the mortgage?

Here’s the issue: Lenders file affidavits in foreclosure proceedings that must be signed by one their representatives, verifying personal knowledge about certain facts in the case. But due to the extraordinarily high volume of foreclosures in recent years, many of the large lenders have faced thousands upon thousands of foreclosures every month. In order to process that volume quickly much of the work was handled at rapid speed and in some cases by third parties who received the foreclosure paperwork from the lenders. Several representatives of these lenders have now admitted that they typically did not have the personal knowledge about each of the mortgage holders that they assured as they signed each of the thousands of affidavits.  Also, there are allegations of improper notarization of documents.

Even if it’s been a few years now since you lost your home in a foreclosure, keep in mind that there is no statute of limitations on lender fraud on the Court. In other words you may be able to seek a remedy, including money damages or waiver of a deficiency judgment, by going after the lender and challenging their foreclosure proceedings against you.  The bank may not have had the right to evict you from your home.  A wrongful eviction and foreclosure violates State and Federal laws. The violation of those laws is the basis for homeowners seeking damages from the banks.

If you or a loved one has experienced a foreclosure in South Florida, please contact me for a no-obligation assessment of your situation. If it appears that you do have a case, you may not pay a legal fee unless we prevail.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, you can either post a comment to this blog, contact me, Larry Tolchinsky, a Florida foreclosure attorney, by email, or call me at (954) 458-8655 and I will be happy to answer your questions.  I offer a free initial consultation.

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