The Home Equity Theft Reporter: Real Estate & Property Law

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Real Estate & Property Law

The Home Equity Theft Reporter

Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues.
By r morris

Post Frequency: 25.7/day

Last Entry: September 06, 2017 at 04:02:00

As Million$ In Unpaid Real Estate Taxes Pile Up, City Reluctant To Foreclose, Seize Deteriorating Multi-Unit Residential Buildings

Posted on July 24, 2010
In New York City, The New York Times reports:Hundreds of buildings, from the South Bronx to central Brooklyn, whose renovation and rescue from ruinous debt were critical to the rebirth of blighted neighborhoods, are again in severe financial trouble. That poses a dilemma for the city, which began unloading the properties in the mid-1990s as part of an arduous effort to divest itself of thousands

Municipal Scandal Involving Shoddy Repairs Made Through City Home Improvement Program May Cost Family Its Residence

Posted on July 24, 2010
In Sandusky, Ohio, the Sandusky Register reports:The city?s housing scandal might soon deliver one of its biggest blows. It may cost a family its home. Later this month, the foreclosure process will begin on 902 First St., where Derrick and LeAnn Close live with their two children and Derrick?s ill mother...

Duo Accused Of NYC Summer Rental, Loft Living Ripoff Victimizing College Students, Others; Foreign Tourist Trio Left Stranded In U.S. Until Sept.

Posted on July 24, 2010
In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the New York Post reports:What seemed like a dream deal of spending the summer living in one of New York's hottest neighborhoods has become a nightmare for more than a dozen out-of-towners. Many of the victims - college students and young professionals - told the Post they were each duped out of thousands of dollars by two Brooklyn men posing as lease holders of a

Rent-To-Own Deal Leaves Tenant As An Unwitting Squatter Out $5K After Doing Business With Home Hijacker Claiming Adverse Possession To Vacant Houses

Posted on July 23, 2010
In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:Carole-Ann Higgs thought she was on a rent-to-own track when she signed up for a 12-month lease with the Wellington-based company Saving Palm Beach Homes Inc. In seven years, she was told, she and her husband would have a chance to buy the little home in Seminole Manor off Lantana Road as long as they took care of the property and agreed to

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Foreclosed Couple Refuses To Vacate $5M Bayfront Estate; Continues Pocketing Cash For Renting Premises Out For Weddings, Receptions

Posted on July 23, 2010
In San Diego, California, KGTV-TV Channel 10 reports:Residents in a Point Loma neighborhood are angry over the way a historic home that has been foreclosed is being used. The Bowman-Cotton House, a $5 million estate which dates back to the 1920s, overlooks San Diego Bay and is located at the foot of Nichols Street...

Racket Engages In "Paper Terrorism" Says Local Prosecutor About "Sovereign Citizen" Group Attempting To Steal Empty Houses Across North Georgia

Posted on July 23, 2010
In North Georgia, WSB-TV Channel 2 reports:DeKalb County prosecutors say they?ve cracked open an elaborate attempt to steal empty houses across North Georgia. Channel 2 Action News teamed up with police and the FBI to share information uncovered during a monthlong investigation...

Alleged Rent Scammer Charged With Theft By Deception After Pocketing $1,000 From Unwitting Tenant For Foreclosed Home

Posted on July 23, 2010
In Atlanta, Georgia, WXIA-TV Channel 11 reports:It's time to turn the table on landlords. They do background checks on you. We'd recommend you do background checks on them. Why? You could find yourself kicked to the curb after signing a lease. Shanitra Jones learned that the hard way...

Tampa Man Accused Of Commandeering Vacant Home For Sale & Renting It Out; Also Suspected Of Leasing Condos He Didn't Own To Unwitting Tenants

Posted on July 23, 2010
In Tampa, Florida, ABC Action News reports:An ABC Action News investigation has uncovered a bizarre alleged real estate scam where a local man is accused of breaking into vacant homes and renting them out to unsuspecting victims.***Robert Smith got a call from one of his former neighbors about the home [...

BofA Screw-Up Leads To Foreclosure For SW Florida Homeowner Having Valid Loan Mod Agreement In Effect; Bank Fails To Contact Its Lawyer To Cancel Sale

Posted on July 22, 2010
In Cape Coral, Florida, The News Press reports:Nicole DePuy thought she was one of the lucky ones when she walked out of Harborside Event Center on Jan. 27 with a loan modification that would save her home from foreclosure. After waiting hours to talk to her lender at the highly publicized event, the 40-year-old speech-language pathologist had been approved for a trial with the Home Affordable

Novice Auction Sale Bidder Fails In Conducting Due Diligence; Winds Up Holding The Bag, Spending $120K+ For Worthless Foreclosure

Posted on July 22, 2010
In Boulder Creek, California, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports:Roberta and Randall Strand thought they were getting a great deal on a foreclosure and helping their daughter and future son-in-law become homeowners. Instead they are holding a worthless second mortgage...

"People Who Do It Are Going To Jail" Says DA As Couple Accused Of Stripping Fixtures From Their Foreclosed Home Face Grand Theft, Extortion Charges

Posted on July 22, 2010
In San Jaoquin County, California, the Stockton Record reports:A married couple stand accused of stripping up to $100,000 in light fixtures, appliances, interior doors and more from their foreclosed Ripon home and then trying to sell the valuables back to the new owners...

NYC Launches Notification Program Targeting Deed Thefts By Scammers Recording Bogus Land Docs To Hijack Unwitting Property Owners' Title, Home Equity

Posted on July 22, 2010
In New York City, the New York Daily News reports:You can help catch a thief. The city has launched a new program to immediately notify property owners when scammers try to steal their holdings with a phony deed or a bogus mortgage or lien.(1)The Finance Department will send the alarm by e-mail, text message or letter to any owner who has filled out a simple online form at nyc...

BofA, JP Morgan Chase Bank Employees Cop Fraud Pleas; Admit Falsifying Info On Loan Applications For Mortgages That Wound Up In Foreclosure

Posted on July 22, 2010
In Florence, South Carolina, the Lake Wylie Pilot reports:Two former bank officials in South Carolina have pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Multiple media outlets reported 58-year-old Gary Albert Hager and 44-year-old Jill Diane Brennan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in federal court in Florence on Monday...

Maryland-Based Foreclosure Rescue Operator Gets Hammered With Multiple Court Awards In Favor Of Victimized Homeowners Duped In Sale Leaseback Rackets

Posted on July 21, 2010
Buried in a recent story in The Baltimore Sun reporting on a $700K court award in favor of an Elliott City, Maryland woman who accused foreclosure rescue operator New Town Properties LLC, lender Royal Financial Services Inc, and their principal Robert Hurd of stealing the equity in her home through a sale leaseback, equity stripping ripoff is the following excerpt on another case involving this

Foreclosure Rescue Operator Gets 7+ Years For Tax Evasion, Money Laundering In Connection With Equity Stripping, Sale Leaseback Peddling Racket

Posted on July 21, 2010
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:Timothy Lynn Beliveau is polite and pleasant, his lawyer told the judge, and that?s a reason to think he might turn his life around. ?Of course you?re pleasant and polite, you?re a con man,? retorted U...

Virginia AG Files Civil Suit Against Two Firms Allegedly Running Loan Modification Racket

Posted on July 21, 2010
In Virginia Beach, Virginia, The Virginian-Pilot reports:Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he has filed suit against two Virginia Beach-based mortgage modification companies that offered services to help homeowners prevent or avoid foreclosure...

Profitable Restaurant Helps Owner Get Free Lunch In Jail Time "Buy Down" In Mtg Scam; Court Guidelines Advise 41-Month Minimum, Judge Says 6 Is Enough

Posted on July 21, 2010
In Chicago, Illinois, The SouthstarStar reports:Attorney Michael Monico said the next six months will be difficult for his client James Garofalo, of Homewood. The former Homewood village trustee and local businessman was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme that included houses in several Southland communities...

BofA Accused Of Another Foreclosure Screw-Up; Northern California Couple Say They Never Missed A Payment, Claim Bank Wasn't Even Their Lender

Posted on July 20, 2010
In Kenwood, California, The Press Democrat reports:Keith and Julie Hanover felt like someone was trying to steal their home. Bank of America had started foreclosure proceedings on their house in Kenwood. Yet the Hanovers had never missed a mortgage payment...

Legally Blind 89-Year Old WW II Vet Faces Boot From NYC Residence Of 40+ Years After Being Victimized In Home Equity Refinancing Ripoff

Posted on July 20, 2010
In Springfield Gardens, Queens, the New York Daily News reports:World War II veteran Lucius Dorsey thought he'd seen the worst in people after being stationed in the Pacific in 1942. Now, more than 40 years after leaving the Navy, the legally blind 89-year-old vet is fighting a nasty battle on the home front...

Converted Courthouse Closet Now Used As Windowless Conference Room To Mediate (Non-Claustrophobic) Queens Foreclosures

Posted on July 20, 2010
In Jamaica, Queens, the New York Daily News reports:In the desperate battle to end New York's home foreclosure crisis, a windowless storage closet in a Queens courthouse serves as ground zero. The 6-feet-by-10-feet room has been turned into a conference room where banks and homeowners meet to work out their differences in a new statewide program aimed at keeping debtors from losing their homes...

Recent NJ Lower Court Ruling Stalling $1.38M Mortgage Foreclosure Could Affect Entire State If Challenged & Upheld On Appeal

Posted on July 19, 2010
In Atlantic City, New Jersey, The Press of Atlantic City reports:A ruling in Atlantic County by a state Superior Court judge may make foreclosure filings there and in Cape May County more difficult for lenders, requiring them to show they actually possess the mortgage note at the time they file...

Ex-Lawyer Faces 5 To 15 Yrs For Swiping $339K From R/E Closing Meant For Mtg Payoff; Lacks $50K Upfront Needed For Judge's Jail Term "Buy Down" Offer

Posted on July 19, 2010
In Carmel, New York, The Journal News reports:A former Southeast lawyer who served as a Patterson library trustee and on the Putnam Arts Council is being held in the Putnam County jail awaiting sentencing on the theft of $339,000 from a real estate closing...

Feds Hit Wall Street Firms w/ Subpoenas Seeking Docs Related To Crappy Mortgage Securities Bought Buy Fannie, Freddie; Firms Seek To Force Buy-Back

Posted on July 19, 2010
The New York Times reports:The [Federal Housing Finance Agency] announced last Monday that it had issued 64 subpoenas to a throng of unidentified financial services institutions, seeking documents related to mortgage securities that Fannie and Freddie bought from Wall Street during the boom years...

Title Insurance Underwriter Files Suit In Attempt To Wiggle Out Of Liability For Actions Of Alleged Sticky-Fingered Closing Agent In R/E Escrow Ripoff

Posted on July 18, 2010
In Dothan, Alabama, the Dothan Eagle reports:An insurance company is asking a federal judge to rule it should not be held responsible for covering the losses incurred by several families through alleged misconduct from an area title company. Tudor Insurance Company, through documents filed in U...

Recently Refinancing Homeowner/Couple Gets Hit With Notices From Two Different Lenders, Both Claiming To Hold Their Promissory Note

Posted on July 18, 2010
In Wichita, Kansas, KWCH-TV Channel 12 reports:Debbie Weber says it?s consumed her life. ?I was spending four and five days a week? hours working on this. My husband would come home and see me on the floor with papers and say Debbie you got to stop this,? says Weber...

Financial Advisor Charged In $500K+ Client Ripoff; One Victim Swindled Out Of Equity Loan Proceeds, Loses Property To Foreclosure

Posted on July 18, 2010
In South Lake Tahoe, California, cbs13 reports:A financial advisor is facing federal charges and decades in prison for allegedly stealing her clients' life savings to fund a lavish lifestyle. South Lake Tahoe resident Lori Zoval, 45, has been accused by the Department of Justice of stealing at least $500,000 and concealing the crime by sending her clients false documents and paperwork...

Tenants Fear More Of The Same As They Struggle To Hang On In Dilapidated Bronx Building Sold For 3rd Time In Four Years

Posted on July 18, 2010
In The Bronx, New York, Crain's New York Business reports:[Martha] Castro has called Apartment B on the ground floor of 1585 E. 172nd Street home for 22 years. Conditions were never perfect, but rats, leaking pipes and frigid, heatless winter nights turned into chronic problems around four years ago, not coincidentally just as the real estate bubble swelled...

Tenant Gets Caught In Middle Of Rent Grab Between Financially Struggling Condo Association & Deadbeat/Rent Skimming Landlord

Posted on July 17, 2010
In Sarasota, Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:Paula Salgado has faithfully paid the rent on her condo, which she loves, and she plans to keep paying. But she's concerned about what might seem like a silly question: Where the heck should she send the checks now? A new and sloppily worded Florida law puts that in doubt...

Neighborhood Evacuated After Home Buyer Of Recently Foreclosed House Finds Apparent Pipe Bomb On Premises

Posted on July 17, 2010
In Spartanburg, South Carolina, WSPA-TV Channel 7 reports:The Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office bomb squad was called to a home on Rock Springs Drive in Spartanburg Tuesday afternoon. The Westview Fairforest Fire Department evacuated part of the neighborhood, after the homeowner and some workers, discovered what appeared to be a pipe bomb below the house, complete with a fuse...

Cracked Slab Drives Residents Out Of 16-Story Sarasota Condo; Could Be As Long As Six Months Before Re-Occupancy Allowed

Posted on July 17, 2010
In Sarasota, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:To the list of things Florida homeowners have had to worry about ? hurricanes, sinkholes, termites, foreclosure, Chinese drywall ? add this: fears that your 16-story condominium might collapse. That has driven residents of the waterfront Dolphin Tower into indefinite exile, two weeks after a crack big enough to slide a hand through suddenly

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