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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

Central Florida Loan Modification Firm Agrees To Fold After State AG Probe Into Complaints Of Alleged Deceptive Trade Practices

Posted on April 04, 2009
In Orlando, Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports:Organizers of Orlando-based Homestead Protection Services LLC have agreed to disband the operation and pay more than $25,000 to settle a state investigation into suspect "foreclosure-rescue" services, state authorities said Friday...

South Florida Region Leveled By Hurricane Andrew Now Being Devastated By Foreclosures

Posted on April 04, 2009
In Homestead, Florida, The Associated Press reports:Seventeen years after Hurricane Andrew leveled much of southern Miami-Dade County, a different kind of storm is devastating households here: foreclosures. In certain ZIP codes in places like Homestead and Florida City, around 25 percent of the homes are in one stage of foreclosure or another...

Connecticut Contractor Charged With Defrauding Couple Out Of $66K For Home Improvement Work

Posted on April 04, 2009
In Trumbell, Connecticut, The Connecticut Post reports:A Monroe contractor has been charged with defrauding a local couple of $66,000 for a home-improvement project. Jeffrey Picataggio, 40, of Countryside Drive, surrendered to police Monday after being told there was a warrant for his arrest...

Second Mortgages A Major Sticking Point In Effort To Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure As Subordinate Lienholders Fight To Keep From Getting Stiffed

Posted on April 03, 2009
The Wall Street Journal reports:The Obama administration's $75 billion effort to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure has hit a stumbling block: a fight over how to aid borrowers who have more than one home loan. The Treasury Department, scrambling to address the problem, is trying to persuade lenders to forgive or greatly reduce so-called second liens...

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State Orders Unlicensed/Unauthorized Loan Modification Firm To Stop Performing Services

Posted on April 03, 2009
In Sacramento, California, Central Valley Business Times reports:A Fair Oaks-based company called 2nd Chance Negotiations Inc. has been ordered by the California Departments of Corporations and Real Estate to stop performing loan modification services...

California Man Says "Prove It" To Multiple San Diego-Area Mansion-Stealing, Deed Theft Allegations; Local Authorities Notice Phony Deed Filing Trend

Posted on April 03, 2009
In San Diego, California, XETV Channel 6 reports:A 43-year-old man pleaded not guilty [last week] to numerous counts in an alleged real estate fraud case in which the perpetrators allegedly filed deeds under the guise of a religious order. Terry Lee Herron, 43, was charged with conspiracy to file false documents and conspiracy to commit forgery, said Deputy District Attorney Marlene Coyne...

Customer Complaints On Loan Modification Firms From Around The Country

Posted on April 03, 2009
The following links are to stories on financially strapped homeowners reporting problems with loan modification companies they hired to help resolve their mortgage problems:Mansfield, Ohio: More foreclosures means more scams, experts warn. Anson and Michelle Hare were behind on their mortgage payments last spring...

State High Court Orders Pennsylvania Attorneys To Ante Up Add'l $25 In Registration Fees In Support Of Legal Aid System

Posted on April 03, 2009
The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced:The Pennsylvania Supreme Court [Thursday] ordered a $25 increase in the annual registration fee for Pennsylvania lawyers, the first such adjustment in eight years. Funds from the increase are to be used for legal aid programs to assist individuals unable to afford legal services...

Foreclosure Mediation Begins To Takes Hold On Staten Island

Posted on April 03, 2009
On Staten Island, New York, the Staten Island Advance reports:[A] new state law that went into effect late last year is changing how courts handle the foreclosure crisis by requiring judges to schedule mandatory settlement conferences between lenders and homeowners who received subprime and exotic mortgages -- the kinds of loans that triggered a national and global economic crisis...

Alleged Deed Theft Scammers Pocket Proceeds From Mortgage On Victim's House, Say Cops; Owner Loses Home To Foreclosure, Now Faces Eviction

Posted on April 02, 2009
In Oshawa, Ontario, The Toronto Star reports:Police say imposters with a forged driver's licence stole Lana Morrison's home-ownership title to get a loan. Then the thieves defaulted on the loan.(1) Now, despite a pending fraud trial, a Toronto trust company wishing to recoup its money is trying to evict Morrison and take her house...

Minnesota Title Agent Faces State Regulator's Embezzlement Charge; Accused Of Pocketing $230K+ In Real Estate Closing Proceeds

Posted on April 02, 2009
From the Minnesota Department of Commerce:The Minnesota Department of Commerce has summarily suspended the real estate closing license, resident insurance producer license and notary public commission of Kuntee Singramdoo and charged her with embezzling over $230,000 in real estate closing proceeds and using the money to pay off her own creditors or her family members' creditors...

Undercover Probe Into Massive Repair Scheme Allegedly Overcharging Homeowners For Shoddy, Inadequate Work Yields Financial Settlement

Posted on April 02, 2009
From the Office of the California Attorney General:Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) have finalized an agreement that will stop a massive service and repair scheme that unfairly overcharged thousands of Californians for "shoddy and woefully inadequate" home repair work...

New Wisconsin Law To Reduce "Tenant Blindsiding" In Foreclosure Actions

Posted on April 02, 2009
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:[A] new state law passed as part of the recent budget adjustment bill now protects the rights of tenants during foreclosure. The law requires that landlords provide a written notice to tenants or prospective tenants when foreclosure action begins, and again when the deadline expires for the landlord to pay to avoid

Financial Squeeze On HOAs, Condos Continues As Unit Owners Fail To Pay Maintenance Fees While Lenders Drag Feet On Foreclosures

Posted on April 02, 2009
In West Palm Beach, Florida, WPEC-TV Channel 12 reports:Foreclosures do not only affect the folks who lose their homes, but more and more, neighbors are also taking the brunt of a home lost on their block. They're having to pay extra in association fees...

Housing Advocates Caught Flat-Footed As Fannie, Freddie Fail To Extend Moratorium On Foreclosures, Evictions; Program Quietly Allowed To Expire

Posted on April 02, 2009
The Washington Independent reports:A ban on foreclosure sales and evictions from houses owned by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which began as a high-profile effort just before the holidays to keep people in their homes as the government tried to come up with homeowner rescue plans, is over...

Pennsylvania Homeowner Uses "Produce The Note" Self-Help Strategy In Attempt To Fend Off Foreclosure

Posted on April 01, 2009
In Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, KDKA-TV Channel 2 reports:A Lawrence County man is trying a new strategy to save his home. Mark Strohecker, of Ellwood City, is a former firefighter who is on disability. When his adjustable rate mortgage jumped, he was unable to make payments...

Foreclosure Sale Called Off As KC Homeowner Files Suit Alleging Fraud In Lending Process

Posted on April 01, 2009
In Kansas City, Missouri, The Kansas City Star reports:Sherrita Richardson?s home was to be taken in foreclosure on Monday, making her just one more American caught in the nation?s widening foreclosure crisis. Instead, Richardson became a rare statistic...

Sloppy Underwriting, Probable Fraud Driving Surging FHA Default Rates In Florida?

Posted on April 01, 2009
The Wall Street Journal's Developments Blog reports:While FHA serious delinquencies have soared since last summer, nowhere is that more true than in Florida, at least according to the Monthly Report to the FHA Commissioner for January (released last week)...

Florida AG: Mortgage Fraud Crisis Like A "State Of Emergency"

Posted on April 01, 2009
The Tampa Tribune reports:As more Floridians face losing their homes to foreclosure, more crooks emerge to take advantage of them, and the state's attorney general says the problem has become a crisis. [...] "This mortgage fraud crisis is similar to a state of emergency...

Ohio AG Indicts Two in $38M+ Mortgage Fraud Involving Seven Apartment Complexes

Posted on April 01, 2009
From the Office of the Ohio Attorney General:Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray's Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission announced today the indictments and arrests of two men alleged to have perpetrated one of the largest mortgage fraud schemes ever in Franklin County...

IRS Publication 4681: Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Reposessions & Abandonments

Posted on March 31, 2009
Those who are trying to figure out how to handle the tax ramifications of a cancellation of debt on a short sale, foreclosure sale, loan modification, or any other debt cancellation might want to consult IRS Publication 4681: Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Reposessions and Abandonments...

California AG Declares War On Loan Modification Scams; Will Target Bogus TV, Other Mass Media Ads Offering Useless Deals

Posted on March 31, 2009
In Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Times reports:State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown pledged Saturday to investigate and prosecute businesses that charge struggling homeowners fees to help get more favorable terms for repayment of their mortgage loans...

Lenders Abandoning Foreclosure Actions In Some Markets; Dilapidated Collateral Not Worth Repossessing; Homeowners Left On The Hook For Code Violations

Posted on March 31, 2009
In South Bend, Indiana, The New York Times reports:[C]ity officials and housing advocates here and in cities as varied as Buffalo,(1) Kansas City, Mo., and Jacksonville, Fla., say they are seeing an unsettling development: Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal ? from legal fees to maintenance ?

Illinois Woman Charged With Felony Theft In Alleged Loan Modification Scam

Posted on March 31, 2009
In Sherman, Illinois, the The State Journal Register reports:A Sherman woman has been arrested in connection with an alleged real estate fraud scheme, including trying to sell property she did not own and conducting a mortgage rescue scam, authorities said...

Real Estate Agent Charged In Staten Island Gas Station Heist; Used Phony Deed To Transfer Title To Client's Business Property To Son, Say Cops

Posted on March 31, 2009
The following excerpt appeared in a recent NYPD Daily Blotter column in the New York Post:A real-estate agent was busted after he tried to steal a million-dollar Tompkinsville property from the owner, sources said. Mike Odeh, 53, was hired by the owner to sell a gas station on Bay Street and Hannah Street, the sources said...

Report: Supply Of Publicly Funded Legal Aid, Pro Bono Services "Entirely Inadequate" To Meet State's Needs

Posted on March 31, 2009
Buried at the end of a New York Law Journal article on a new volunteer attorney initiative to assist unrepresented defendants in civil cases [credit for the idea for this program attributed to former New York Court of Appeals' Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye](1) is this excerpt on the state of publicly funded legal aid and pro bono services in New York:In a report earlier this month, the Office of the

Buying Residential Mortgage Loans? Documentation Issues & Risks Increase As "Produce The Note" Strategy Gains In Popularity

Posted on March 30, 2009
An article on mondaq.com advises that:Investors considering the purchase of residential mortgage loans should include on their diligence checklists verifying the mortgage loan documentation to ensure they will be in a position to enforce the Note and realize on the mortgage if necessary...

Court Orders Temporary Shut Down Of Miami Loan Modification Firm; Company Directed To Refund Upfront Fees Within 90 Days

Posted on March 30, 2009
From the Office of the Florida Attorney General:Attorney General Bill McCollum [Friday] obtained a temporary injunction against Lincoln Lending Services, LLC and owner Rita Gomez, prohibiting the company from engaging in any type of consumer-debt related service or mortgage modification service and from taking payment from consumers for such services until further order of the court...

Ex-Subprime Mortgage Peddlers Now Running Loan Modification Scams

Posted on March 30, 2009
Bloomberg News ran a lengthy story describing how loan modification scam artists have popped up all over the country. Many of the players are described as out-of-work real estate professionals who peddled subprime mortgages during the boom who are now pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance fees and disappear or bleed their victims by charging monthly payments...

Assignee Liability Essential In Enforcement Of Lending, Consumer Protection Laws

Posted on March 30, 2009
A recent op-ed column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution by William J. Brennan Jr. of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, the founder and director of Atlanta Legal Aid?s Home Defense Program, makes an observation on a weakness in Georgia state law in connection with the enforcement of lending and consumer protection laws:Many consumer advocates support the lending law revisions in Senate Bill 57, but

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