Don't worry, just because your neo-liberals and US/State Attorney General have not allowed justice in the subprime mortgage/foreclosure crisis and left you with an entire industry of real estate with compromised housing titles....they already have developed another way to get your money......INSURANCE AGAINST HOUSING TITLE CLAIMS CAUSED BY MERS AND FRAUD.
Regarding Basu's great urban migration:
The decision to start the great migration came in the 1980s when Reagan started the corporate empire-building/Ayn Rand style of globalization that has corporation as City State modeled from the Medieval/Renaissance days of the Merchant Class/Medici-style of social structure. This is the goal set by Reagan and the 1% of the time and indeed, Baltimore's Master Plan was written in the 1980s. The creation of government structures that centralized government power....as with the mayor having all the power and the use of quasi-governmental organizations to hide public policy writing. So, picture the City State with the mote and castle walls protecting the gentry and the peasants outside living subsistance lives with the gentry coming around annually taking much of the peasants wealth in 'taxes' and you see where these Baltimore and Maryland 1% are going. Now, I am not a raging right wing anti-tax Tea Party person.....I am a progressive democrat who loves to pay taxes for a strong social safety net and public services. What we have today are rising taxes....not for social services or public services but for corporate welfare and enrichment at the top. So, there is a problem with taxation but it has nothing to do with subsidizing the poor....it is subsidizing the rich. This is what City State Master Plans are all about!
The second reason for the great migration to create urban centers is that these urban centers are more easily protected from threats of terrorism or angry mobs of peasants. If you are going to be Visigoths looting the Treasuries at home and around the world....you will make people angry and will need to protect yourself! Wall Street is now the most heavily securitized city in world history-----and they are home of the Visigoths....see the connection? There is nothing wrong with coming to the city to live as I am a lifelong city dweller. The problem is when the city is captured politically and socially and when it is the only game in town as all business and development happens there. People forced to come to get work....people forced to come because they cannot afford transportation....TOO MANY 'FORCED' HAPPENING!
As we heard Fraser Smith give his 'political analysis' of the Casino and the revenue expenditures....which by the way is true of the Baltimore Casino....all revenue is going to that one zone of development and in Baltimore that of course is the same 'Enterprise Zones' having received all the revenue these few decades. This is public money captured to the same areas of development ----the City State with the peasants outside the castle walls wasting into impoverishment as public assets disappear, employment in their communities disappear, and the peasants are made to rely strictly on the charity of patrons. THIS IS THE MARYLAND/BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
This too was the reason for the subprime mortgage fraud that targeted these very urban areas----movement of all urban real estate to the 1% for control of castle residency. Believe me, you may be able to afford to live in the city now if you have a good job, but if this continues and reaches the goal of Manhattan, you will not and that can be in just a generation if left unchecked. So, your children and grandchildren will become those peasants outside the castle walls. THIS IS THE GOAL THAT BASU JUST WILL NOT SHARE WITH YOU! HE IS WITH THE BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT CREW SO HE KNOWS!
What the immediate concern for most should be is that all of that foreclosed property probably is tainted with the MERS titling fraud as Maryland's subprime mortgage fraud hit Baltimore hard and the MERS process was created right here in the Washington suburbs to compliment the Wall Street bunding of these fraudulent mortgage loans. MERS laundered house titles over and over and over and over.....with the goal of generating tons of money from fees for doing just that. Lawyers and accountants scored big in this fraud -----committing fraud themselves to do this. The problem is that none of these title transfers that happened over and over and over again were legal registered with title agencies and now, many of these hundreds of thousands of homes in Maryland alone do not have titles with a clear ownership. Since it was all illegal anyone who was in this process at any stage has as much title to that house as the other. Now, much of the foreclosures went these few years to large investment firms now operating development corporations....this is what the FED QE was all about and they will take anyone to court who challenges their title to a property and they have the money to do so. No problem for the rich. It is the middle-class who are being called to come to Baltimore to buy a subprime foreclosure who may very well be hit with these ownership challenges....often from the same people who committed the fraud .....and they will not be able to afford to fight it in court. OH, MY, THERE GOES MIDDLE-CLASS ASSETS YET AGAIN!
The subprime mortgage fraud settlement from two years ago was just a parking ticket start to getting trillions back in fraud. Maryland still has billions coming back just from this subprime loan fraud. The terms of the settlement of $1 billion that Maryland Attorney General Gansler made required the hiring of lawyers to handle the legal aspects of just this one issue with MERS and house titling. There should be a process in place with the state attorney's office to make sure all these subprime loan titles are free and clear. THERE HAS BEEN NOTHING DONE BY GANSLER TO DO THIS. RATHER, HE IS SENDING ALL OF THE MONEY FROM THE SETTLEMENT BACK TO THESE INVESTMENT FIRMS AND DEVELOPERS TO SUBSIDIZE DEVELOPMENT OPERATION COSTS. There will be challenges as these same people who created this fraud and participated in the multiple turnovers of the property just need to wait until these blighted homes are rehabbed to come in and claim ownership....AND THEY WILL.
This is the problem. The solution is to get rid of your incumbent allowing all of these illegal action occur. DO YOU HEAR YOUR POL SHOUTING OUT AGAINST ALL OF THIS? I don't hear anything. So, run and vote for labor and justice candidates in all elections coming up. If your labor and justice organization is not running candidates.....they are not working for you and me. IT WILL NOT BRING CHANGE TO SIMPLY WORK ON THIS HOUSE BY HOUSE,....IT HELPS, BUT IT IS NOT A SOLUTION!
Mortgage-Title Fraud: A National Catastrophe
Oct 8 2010, 04:03 | includes: BAC, JPM BOOKMARK / READ LATER X Bookmark Save this article to continue reading from your iPad Get the app »
It is impossible to overstate the severity of the real estate crisis in the United States which has been caused entirely by the reckless fraud of the nation’s largest banks – the Wall Street Oligarchs. We now have mortgage-fraud being openly acknowledged by the banksters, and on a scale never before seen in human history.
We have a single individual with JP Morgan (JPM) openly admitting that she and her team committed more than 18,000 acts of fraud per MONTH, while one Bank of America official admitted that she personally committed 7,000 to 8,000 acts of fraud monthly. Regular readers will recall that in a recent commentary I reported on two, separate anecdotes where the Bank of America attempted to foreclose on properties which did not even have mortgages.
In that same commentary, there was also an anecdotal report from a Florida lawyer who specializes in foreclosure proceedings, who stated that he regularly encountered (so-called) judges who were rubber-stamping these foreclosures without even looking at the documents. The lawyer also reported that one particular judge had already written her judgments (confirming foreclosure) before the foreclosure trial started.
We thus have the following chain of events, a Wall Street bank pushes a stack of 18,000 foreclosures in front of a small group of clerks (who make convenient patsies), and tells them they have to clear this many documents every month – knowing that it is impossible to process that volume and still follow mandatory legal procedures.
Stacks of these foreclosures are then pushed before judges. In the case of Florida, they are being processed by judges called out of retirement. Many of these people are likely no longer allowed to operate motor vehicles. These past-their-prime judges then rubber-stamp these fraudulent foreclosure documents, without even looking at them – effectively stealing the home from the homeowner through the coordinated fraud being committed by Wall Street banks and the U.S. government.
This is the sort of systemic horror-story which we would expect to hear coming out of some tiny, Third World country, with a ‘two-bit’ legal system – not from the Leader of the Free World. The crime-waves being confessed to by JP Morgan and Bank of America follow similar (if not worse) admissions by Ally Financial (GMAC’s mortgage subsidiary).
___________________________________________
Please do not allow these same neo-liberals who allowed all this massive fraud to move forward and now keeps us from getting justice set people up for yet more fraud down the road!
Foreclosure Fraud Cases: Banks and Mortgage Servicers Have an Achilles Heel, Title Problems Related to MERS
Posted By Larry Tolchinsky on August 2, 2011 Florida Law
One consequence of a Wrongful Foreclosure case, relates to the issue of clear title: the banks and mortgage lenders may not have it to convey to a buyer of the property.
As we all know, title to real estate is recorded in our public records because being able to trace the ownership chain of property is very, very important in the transfer of real property. In Florida, land records can become history lessons because the land can be traced back — just like those family tree commercials on TV – to owners who lived hundreds of years ago.
Even today, there are land documents that document a Florida property’s ownership back to the days when the land was under Spanish rule, as well as that of England (England got part of Florida from Spain in exchange for Cuba as part of the treaty after the Seven Years’ War in the mid-1700s). Florida land title isn’t wanting for its paperwork.
What is Title?
Each state in the United States has a long-established public records system that protects and documents the land within its borders. Older land records are handwritten; for a period of years they were typed; now, many states record title via computerized systems with the older records scanned and organized via microfiche.
The land records are used to establish “title” to a piece of real property, or who has the legal right to own, use, possess or hold other rights in that piece of land (for example, mineral, water, or air rights). The records are evidence of “title,” which is a legal determination based upon state law. The law of land title protects owners from someone stealing their property, squatting on their property, or even pillaging it (deforesting, etc.).
Sometimes when there is a controversy over who has title to or who has the right to sell a piece of land, it becomes a legal issue which is sometimes settled by a “quiet title” action. Here is where the Foreclosure Fraud cases come into play: the banks and/or mortage lenders may not have the ability to provide a buyer of the land with documentation that gives the selling institution clear title under Florida law.
MERS Created Chaos in Longstanding, Traditional Public Record Land Title Documentation
As Richard Zombeck pointed out in the Huffington Post this week, MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) was set up by banks to streamline their ability to foreclose on homes throughout Florida and elsewhere. Problem was, MERS apparently didn’t bother to follow the public record standards established under the state law. They didn’t file their documents in the land records, among other things. From HuffPo:
advocates and activists have long argued that mortgages transferred via the MERS system but not recorded with local registries of deeds are invalid and that land titles on thousands of homes are “clouded”. Homeowners with clouded titles could find it impossible to sell or refinance their properties without going to court to clean up problems.
Massachusetts Attorney General Announces Investigation Into MERS – A Really Big Quiet Title Investigation
This week, the Attorney General for the State of Massachusetts announced that Massachusetts will be investigating MERS and whether or not every single loan that went through its processing actually resulted in a cloud on title — which boils down to that state gearing up one big, big quiet title investigation. If MERS did not follow Massachusetts state laws about protecting legal title during the transfer of the property, then the title is clouded — which most believe will be the case in an overwhelming number of cases.
What About Florida Land Titles? Florida AG Bondi Can Act – And So Can the Florida Homeowner
No word yet on what the Florida Attorney General will do: will Florida follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts? It’s not clear. However, nothing stops an individual Florida citizen from protecting their rights to his or her land or any property they intend to purchase. The first step? Gathering all the land records that reference the property which can be found at the county public records department. They are open to everyone.
Or, a homeowner or prospective buyer can hire an experienced real estate attorney versed in title issues and foreclosure fraud antics to advocate on their behalf. Land title disputes and quiet title lawsuits can be complicated and stressful. The complexities of legal title are why title insurance exists today and why their are title insurance attorneys.
_____________________________________________
Don't worry, just because your neo-liberals and US/State Attorney General have not allowed justice in the subprime mortgage/foreclosure crisis and left you with an entire industry of real estate with compromised housing titles....they already have developed another way to get your money......INSURANCE AGAINST HOUSING TITLE CLAIMS CAUSED BY MERS AND FRAUD.
After Foreclosure, a Focus on Title Insurance
Posted on11 October 2010.
By RON LIEBER
Published: October 8, 2010 Stop Foreclosure Fraud.com
When home buyers and people refinancing their mortgages first see the itemized estimate for all the closing costs and fees, the largest number is often for title insurance.
This moment is often profoundly irritating, mysterious and rushed — just like so much of the home-buying process. Lenders require buyers to have title insurance, but buyers are often not sure who picked the insurance company. And the buyers are so exhausted by the gauntlet they’ve already run that they’re not interested in spending any time learning more about the policies and shopping around for a better one.
Besides, does anyone actually know people who have had to collect on title insurance? It ultimately feels like a tax — an extortionate one at that — and not a protective measure.
But all of the sudden, the importance of title insurance is becoming crystal-clear. In recent weeks, big lenders like GMAC Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have halted many or all of their foreclosure proceedings in the wake of allegations of sloppiness, shortcuts or worse. And a potential nightmare situation has emerged that has spooked not only homeowners but lawyers, title insurance companies and their investors.
What would happen if scores of people who had lost their homes to foreclosure somehow persuaded a judge to overturn the proceedings? Could they somehow win back the rights to their homes, free and clear of any mortgage? But they may not be able to simply move back into their home at that point. Banks, after all, have turned around and sold some of those foreclosed homes to nice young families reaching out for a bit of the American dream. Would they simply be put out on the street? And then what?
The answer to that last question may depend on whether those new homeowners have title insurance, because people who buy a home without a mortgage can choose to go without a policy.
Title insurance covers you in case people turn up months or years after you buy your home saying that they, in fact, are the rightful owners of the house or the land, or at least had a stake in the transaction. (The insurance may cover you in other instances as well, relating to easements and other matters, but we’ll leave those aside for now.)
_______________________________________________
The Great Recession is indeed the cause of this multi-generational housing. The reasons of course are that people's retirement, savings, houses, and health care were stolen during the past decade of massive corporate frauds that move tens of trillions of dollars of public wealth to the top earners from these middle/lower class families all by fraud. Experts say this is the grandest looting of society in human history. As we watch neo-liberals working with republicans to cut all kinds of public and social programs to pay for the damages from that fraud...$16 trillion in debt could all be paid for by recovering corporate fraud..foreclosure fraud is left without justice taking people's homes, pension fraud having taken 1/2 the value of pensions and 401Ks..all losses caused by fraud..and health care fraud that has taken 1/2 of entitlement spending each year for these few decades..trillions lost to Medicare and Medicaid from fraud that has yet to be recovered. Now, health reform covers the losses to Trusts from fraud by cutting patient access to health care and raising costs to people through co-pays and deductibles...all because of health fraud.
So, this family simply needs to vote for labor and justice and get rid of corporate neo-liberals so we can get busy with Rule of Law and recovering their life's savings and personal wealth! We will see this reverse as people catch on!
3 generations, 1 roof: Multigenerational households on the rise in Howard County
By Pete Pichaske 2:27 p.m. EDT, September 16, 2013 Baltimore Sun
A giant blue tarp is flapping in the summer breeze on top of the two-story addition workers are building on their Sykesville house, and in the backyard, three generations of Beares are explaining why they decided to join the latest trend in household arrangements: multigenerational living.
“We were in a four-bedroom house, just the two of us,” says Paul Beares, 69. “We didn’t need a four-bedroom house anymore. We needed to downsize.”
“And we wanted to upsize,” says son David, 37, noting that he and his wife, Abby, had a third child last summer and not much extra space in their small Annapolis home. “Also, we were living in Annapolis, and our business is in Columbia. The drive stinks.”
“We wanted to be in Howard County,” says Abby, who grew up in Columbia. “And we wanted a place with some land.”
“My dad lived with us for a while,” says Paul’s wife, Susan, 66. “In fact, we’ve all had that three-generation experience, and all saw how it could work.”
“I like it that we’ll be able to see them (her grandparents) every day,” says Alivia, 8, joining the conversation. “They’ll be here to baby-sit us if Mommy and Daddy go out. And Babba (her grandfather) is around to help with the house.”
The Beares’ circumstances dovetail with the mutual needs and desires that multigenerational households can satisfy, but the family is hardly unusual in opting for this sort of arrangement. Not anymore.
Driven by a variety of factors -- the uncertain economy, the rising tide of young adults returning to live with their parents, a growing immigrant population with a strong multigenerational household tradition, a growing senior citizen population and increased interest in aging in place -- the number of such households is on the rise.
The ‘comeback’
A 2010 Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends study found that the number of Americans living in a household that included at least two adult generations rose from 28 million in 1980 to 49 million in 2008.
Noting that such extended families were common until World War II but declined in the ensuing few decades, the study concludes: “The multi-generational household has mounted a comeback.”
Statewide figures reveal the same trend, with the number of Maryland households with three or more generations increasing from 88,923 in 2000 (4.5 percent of all households) to 108,934 in 2010 (5.3 percent of all households), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Earlier figures for Howard County are not available, but the 2010 census found 4,163 such households in the county, 4 percent of the total, and those who keep an eye on such trends say multigenerational living is becoming more popular here as well.
“We’ve probably seen a lot more of it over the past 20 or 30 years,” says Dayna Brown, administrator of the county Office on Aging. She credited the increase mainly to people living longer and an increased desire of the elderly to age in place -- stay in the community rather than move to an assisted-living facility. To do that, she says, many rely on family caregivers, such as adult children.
“It’s growing,” agrees architect Karen Pitsley, owner of Transforming Architecture, a residential design firm based in Highland. Pitsley says she is fielding more and more requests to design second-floor master suites, in-law suites and other additions that will accommodate families combining resources under one roof.
“A lot of people in Howard County are looking for houses that will allow that,” she says. “With all the baby boomers hitting their 60s and 70s, there’s a much greater need for this now.”
While many cite the increasing numbers of elderly and the so-called “boomerang generation,” Michael Rendall, director of the Maryland Population Research Center and a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, says economic forces are largely behind the move to multigenerational housing.
“The Great Recession is the root cause of the phenomenon,” he says. The trend is driven by the difficult job situation facing the younger generation, he says. But by pooling resources, both the younger and older generations are helped by the trend.
Rendall predicts that as the economy improves, the trend toward multigenerational households will reverse.
Others are not so sure.
Regarding Basu's great urban migration:
The decision to start the great migration came in the 1980s when Reagan started the corporate empire-building/Ayn Rand style of globalization that has corporation as City State modeled from the Medieval/Renaissance days of the Merchant Class/Medici-style of social structure. This is the goal set by Reagan and the 1% of the time and indeed, Baltimore's Master Plan was written in the 1980s. The creation of government structures that centralized government power....as with the mayor having all the power and the use of quasi-governmental organizations to hide public policy writing. So, picture the City State with the mote and castle walls protecting the gentry and the peasants outside living subsistance lives with the gentry coming around annually taking much of the peasants wealth in 'taxes' and you see where these Baltimore and Maryland 1% are going. Now, I am not a raging right wing anti-tax Tea Party person.....I am a progressive democrat who loves to pay taxes for a strong social safety net and public services. What we have today are rising taxes....not for social services or public services but for corporate welfare and enrichment at the top. So, there is a problem with taxation but it has nothing to do with subsidizing the poor....it is subsidizing the rich. This is what City State Master Plans are all about!
The second reason for the great migration to create urban centers is that these urban centers are more easily protected from threats of terrorism or angry mobs of peasants. If you are going to be Visigoths looting the Treasuries at home and around the world....you will make people angry and will need to protect yourself! Wall Street is now the most heavily securitized city in world history-----and they are home of the Visigoths....see the connection? There is nothing wrong with coming to the city to live as I am a lifelong city dweller. The problem is when the city is captured politically and socially and when it is the only game in town as all business and development happens there. People forced to come to get work....people forced to come because they cannot afford transportation....TOO MANY 'FORCED' HAPPENING!
As we heard Fraser Smith give his 'political analysis' of the Casino and the revenue expenditures....which by the way is true of the Baltimore Casino....all revenue is going to that one zone of development and in Baltimore that of course is the same 'Enterprise Zones' having received all the revenue these few decades. This is public money captured to the same areas of development ----the City State with the peasants outside the castle walls wasting into impoverishment as public assets disappear, employment in their communities disappear, and the peasants are made to rely strictly on the charity of patrons. THIS IS THE MARYLAND/BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
This too was the reason for the subprime mortgage fraud that targeted these very urban areas----movement of all urban real estate to the 1% for control of castle residency. Believe me, you may be able to afford to live in the city now if you have a good job, but if this continues and reaches the goal of Manhattan, you will not and that can be in just a generation if left unchecked. So, your children and grandchildren will become those peasants outside the castle walls. THIS IS THE GOAL THAT BASU JUST WILL NOT SHARE WITH YOU! HE IS WITH THE BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT CREW SO HE KNOWS!
What the immediate concern for most should be is that all of that foreclosed property probably is tainted with the MERS titling fraud as Maryland's subprime mortgage fraud hit Baltimore hard and the MERS process was created right here in the Washington suburbs to compliment the Wall Street bunding of these fraudulent mortgage loans. MERS laundered house titles over and over and over and over.....with the goal of generating tons of money from fees for doing just that. Lawyers and accountants scored big in this fraud -----committing fraud themselves to do this. The problem is that none of these title transfers that happened over and over and over again were legal registered with title agencies and now, many of these hundreds of thousands of homes in Maryland alone do not have titles with a clear ownership. Since it was all illegal anyone who was in this process at any stage has as much title to that house as the other. Now, much of the foreclosures went these few years to large investment firms now operating development corporations....this is what the FED QE was all about and they will take anyone to court who challenges their title to a property and they have the money to do so. No problem for the rich. It is the middle-class who are being called to come to Baltimore to buy a subprime foreclosure who may very well be hit with these ownership challenges....often from the same people who committed the fraud .....and they will not be able to afford to fight it in court. OH, MY, THERE GOES MIDDLE-CLASS ASSETS YET AGAIN!
The subprime mortgage fraud settlement from two years ago was just a parking ticket start to getting trillions back in fraud. Maryland still has billions coming back just from this subprime loan fraud. The terms of the settlement of $1 billion that Maryland Attorney General Gansler made required the hiring of lawyers to handle the legal aspects of just this one issue with MERS and house titling. There should be a process in place with the state attorney's office to make sure all these subprime loan titles are free and clear. THERE HAS BEEN NOTHING DONE BY GANSLER TO DO THIS. RATHER, HE IS SENDING ALL OF THE MONEY FROM THE SETTLEMENT BACK TO THESE INVESTMENT FIRMS AND DEVELOPERS TO SUBSIDIZE DEVELOPMENT OPERATION COSTS. There will be challenges as these same people who created this fraud and participated in the multiple turnovers of the property just need to wait until these blighted homes are rehabbed to come in and claim ownership....AND THEY WILL.
This is the problem. The solution is to get rid of your incumbent allowing all of these illegal action occur. DO YOU HEAR YOUR POL SHOUTING OUT AGAINST ALL OF THIS? I don't hear anything. So, run and vote for labor and justice candidates in all elections coming up. If your labor and justice organization is not running candidates.....they are not working for you and me. IT WILL NOT BRING CHANGE TO SIMPLY WORK ON THIS HOUSE BY HOUSE,....IT HELPS, BUT IT IS NOT A SOLUTION!
Mortgage-Title Fraud: A National Catastrophe
Oct 8 2010, 04:03 | includes: BAC, JPM BOOKMARK / READ LATER X Bookmark Save this article to continue reading from your iPad Get the app »
It is impossible to overstate the severity of the real estate crisis in the United States which has been caused entirely by the reckless fraud of the nation’s largest banks – the Wall Street Oligarchs. We now have mortgage-fraud being openly acknowledged by the banksters, and on a scale never before seen in human history.
We have a single individual with JP Morgan (JPM) openly admitting that she and her team committed more than 18,000 acts of fraud per MONTH, while one Bank of America official admitted that she personally committed 7,000 to 8,000 acts of fraud monthly. Regular readers will recall that in a recent commentary I reported on two, separate anecdotes where the Bank of America attempted to foreclose on properties which did not even have mortgages.
In that same commentary, there was also an anecdotal report from a Florida lawyer who specializes in foreclosure proceedings, who stated that he regularly encountered (so-called) judges who were rubber-stamping these foreclosures without even looking at the documents. The lawyer also reported that one particular judge had already written her judgments (confirming foreclosure) before the foreclosure trial started.
We thus have the following chain of events, a Wall Street bank pushes a stack of 18,000 foreclosures in front of a small group of clerks (who make convenient patsies), and tells them they have to clear this many documents every month – knowing that it is impossible to process that volume and still follow mandatory legal procedures.
Stacks of these foreclosures are then pushed before judges. In the case of Florida, they are being processed by judges called out of retirement. Many of these people are likely no longer allowed to operate motor vehicles. These past-their-prime judges then rubber-stamp these fraudulent foreclosure documents, without even looking at them – effectively stealing the home from the homeowner through the coordinated fraud being committed by Wall Street banks and the U.S. government.
This is the sort of systemic horror-story which we would expect to hear coming out of some tiny, Third World country, with a ‘two-bit’ legal system – not from the Leader of the Free World. The crime-waves being confessed to by JP Morgan and Bank of America follow similar (if not worse) admissions by Ally Financial (GMAC’s mortgage subsidiary).
___________________________________________
Please do not allow these same neo-liberals who allowed all this massive fraud to move forward and now keeps us from getting justice set people up for yet more fraud down the road!
Foreclosure Fraud Cases: Banks and Mortgage Servicers Have an Achilles Heel, Title Problems Related to MERS
Posted By Larry Tolchinsky on August 2, 2011 Florida Law
One consequence of a Wrongful Foreclosure case, relates to the issue of clear title: the banks and mortgage lenders may not have it to convey to a buyer of the property.
As we all know, title to real estate is recorded in our public records because being able to trace the ownership chain of property is very, very important in the transfer of real property. In Florida, land records can become history lessons because the land can be traced back — just like those family tree commercials on TV – to owners who lived hundreds of years ago.
Even today, there are land documents that document a Florida property’s ownership back to the days when the land was under Spanish rule, as well as that of England (England got part of Florida from Spain in exchange for Cuba as part of the treaty after the Seven Years’ War in the mid-1700s). Florida land title isn’t wanting for its paperwork.
What is Title?
Each state in the United States has a long-established public records system that protects and documents the land within its borders. Older land records are handwritten; for a period of years they were typed; now, many states record title via computerized systems with the older records scanned and organized via microfiche.
The land records are used to establish “title” to a piece of real property, or who has the legal right to own, use, possess or hold other rights in that piece of land (for example, mineral, water, or air rights). The records are evidence of “title,” which is a legal determination based upon state law. The law of land title protects owners from someone stealing their property, squatting on their property, or even pillaging it (deforesting, etc.).
Sometimes when there is a controversy over who has title to or who has the right to sell a piece of land, it becomes a legal issue which is sometimes settled by a “quiet title” action. Here is where the Foreclosure Fraud cases come into play: the banks and/or mortage lenders may not have the ability to provide a buyer of the land with documentation that gives the selling institution clear title under Florida law.
MERS Created Chaos in Longstanding, Traditional Public Record Land Title Documentation
As Richard Zombeck pointed out in the Huffington Post this week, MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) was set up by banks to streamline their ability to foreclose on homes throughout Florida and elsewhere. Problem was, MERS apparently didn’t bother to follow the public record standards established under the state law. They didn’t file their documents in the land records, among other things. From HuffPo:
advocates and activists have long argued that mortgages transferred via the MERS system but not recorded with local registries of deeds are invalid and that land titles on thousands of homes are “clouded”. Homeowners with clouded titles could find it impossible to sell or refinance their properties without going to court to clean up problems.
Massachusetts Attorney General Announces Investigation Into MERS – A Really Big Quiet Title Investigation
This week, the Attorney General for the State of Massachusetts announced that Massachusetts will be investigating MERS and whether or not every single loan that went through its processing actually resulted in a cloud on title — which boils down to that state gearing up one big, big quiet title investigation. If MERS did not follow Massachusetts state laws about protecting legal title during the transfer of the property, then the title is clouded — which most believe will be the case in an overwhelming number of cases.
What About Florida Land Titles? Florida AG Bondi Can Act – And So Can the Florida Homeowner
No word yet on what the Florida Attorney General will do: will Florida follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts? It’s not clear. However, nothing stops an individual Florida citizen from protecting their rights to his or her land or any property they intend to purchase. The first step? Gathering all the land records that reference the property which can be found at the county public records department. They are open to everyone.
Or, a homeowner or prospective buyer can hire an experienced real estate attorney versed in title issues and foreclosure fraud antics to advocate on their behalf. Land title disputes and quiet title lawsuits can be complicated and stressful. The complexities of legal title are why title insurance exists today and why their are title insurance attorneys.
_____________________________________________
Don't worry, just because your neo-liberals and US/State Attorney General have not allowed justice in the subprime mortgage/foreclosure crisis and left you with an entire industry of real estate with compromised housing titles....they already have developed another way to get your money......INSURANCE AGAINST HOUSING TITLE CLAIMS CAUSED BY MERS AND FRAUD.
After Foreclosure, a Focus on Title Insurance
Posted on11 October 2010.
By RON LIEBER
Published: October 8, 2010 Stop Foreclosure Fraud.com
When home buyers and people refinancing their mortgages first see the itemized estimate for all the closing costs and fees, the largest number is often for title insurance.
This moment is often profoundly irritating, mysterious and rushed — just like so much of the home-buying process. Lenders require buyers to have title insurance, but buyers are often not sure who picked the insurance company. And the buyers are so exhausted by the gauntlet they’ve already run that they’re not interested in spending any time learning more about the policies and shopping around for a better one.
Besides, does anyone actually know people who have had to collect on title insurance? It ultimately feels like a tax — an extortionate one at that — and not a protective measure.
But all of the sudden, the importance of title insurance is becoming crystal-clear. In recent weeks, big lenders like GMAC Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have halted many or all of their foreclosure proceedings in the wake of allegations of sloppiness, shortcuts or worse. And a potential nightmare situation has emerged that has spooked not only homeowners but lawyers, title insurance companies and their investors.
What would happen if scores of people who had lost their homes to foreclosure somehow persuaded a judge to overturn the proceedings? Could they somehow win back the rights to their homes, free and clear of any mortgage? But they may not be able to simply move back into their home at that point. Banks, after all, have turned around and sold some of those foreclosed homes to nice young families reaching out for a bit of the American dream. Would they simply be put out on the street? And then what?
The answer to that last question may depend on whether those new homeowners have title insurance, because people who buy a home without a mortgage can choose to go without a policy.
Title insurance covers you in case people turn up months or years after you buy your home saying that they, in fact, are the rightful owners of the house or the land, or at least had a stake in the transaction. (The insurance may cover you in other instances as well, relating to easements and other matters, but we’ll leave those aside for now.)
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The Great Recession is indeed the cause of this multi-generational housing. The reasons of course are that people's retirement, savings, houses, and health care were stolen during the past decade of massive corporate frauds that move tens of trillions of dollars of public wealth to the top earners from these middle/lower class families all by fraud. Experts say this is the grandest looting of society in human history. As we watch neo-liberals working with republicans to cut all kinds of public and social programs to pay for the damages from that fraud...$16 trillion in debt could all be paid for by recovering corporate fraud..foreclosure fraud is left without justice taking people's homes, pension fraud having taken 1/2 the value of pensions and 401Ks..all losses caused by fraud..and health care fraud that has taken 1/2 of entitlement spending each year for these few decades..trillions lost to Medicare and Medicaid from fraud that has yet to be recovered. Now, health reform covers the losses to Trusts from fraud by cutting patient access to health care and raising costs to people through co-pays and deductibles...all because of health fraud.
So, this family simply needs to vote for labor and justice and get rid of corporate neo-liberals so we can get busy with Rule of Law and recovering their life's savings and personal wealth! We will see this reverse as people catch on!
3 generations, 1 roof: Multigenerational households on the rise in Howard County
By Pete Pichaske 2:27 p.m. EDT, September 16, 2013 Baltimore Sun
A giant blue tarp is flapping in the summer breeze on top of the two-story addition workers are building on their Sykesville house, and in the backyard, three generations of Beares are explaining why they decided to join the latest trend in household arrangements: multigenerational living.
“We were in a four-bedroom house, just the two of us,” says Paul Beares, 69. “We didn’t need a four-bedroom house anymore. We needed to downsize.”
“And we wanted to upsize,” says son David, 37, noting that he and his wife, Abby, had a third child last summer and not much extra space in their small Annapolis home. “Also, we were living in Annapolis, and our business is in Columbia. The drive stinks.”
“We wanted to be in Howard County,” says Abby, who grew up in Columbia. “And we wanted a place with some land.”
“My dad lived with us for a while,” says Paul’s wife, Susan, 66. “In fact, we’ve all had that three-generation experience, and all saw how it could work.”
“I like it that we’ll be able to see them (her grandparents) every day,” says Alivia, 8, joining the conversation. “They’ll be here to baby-sit us if Mommy and Daddy go out. And Babba (her grandfather) is around to help with the house.”
The Beares’ circumstances dovetail with the mutual needs and desires that multigenerational households can satisfy, but the family is hardly unusual in opting for this sort of arrangement. Not anymore.
Driven by a variety of factors -- the uncertain economy, the rising tide of young adults returning to live with their parents, a growing immigrant population with a strong multigenerational household tradition, a growing senior citizen population and increased interest in aging in place -- the number of such households is on the rise.
The ‘comeback’
A 2010 Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends study found that the number of Americans living in a household that included at least two adult generations rose from 28 million in 1980 to 49 million in 2008.
Noting that such extended families were common until World War II but declined in the ensuing few decades, the study concludes: “The multi-generational household has mounted a comeback.”
Statewide figures reveal the same trend, with the number of Maryland households with three or more generations increasing from 88,923 in 2000 (4.5 percent of all households) to 108,934 in 2010 (5.3 percent of all households), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Earlier figures for Howard County are not available, but the 2010 census found 4,163 such households in the county, 4 percent of the total, and those who keep an eye on such trends say multigenerational living is becoming more popular here as well.
“We’ve probably seen a lot more of it over the past 20 or 30 years,” says Dayna Brown, administrator of the county Office on Aging. She credited the increase mainly to people living longer and an increased desire of the elderly to age in place -- stay in the community rather than move to an assisted-living facility. To do that, she says, many rely on family caregivers, such as adult children.
“It’s growing,” agrees architect Karen Pitsley, owner of Transforming Architecture, a residential design firm based in Highland. Pitsley says she is fielding more and more requests to design second-floor master suites, in-law suites and other additions that will accommodate families combining resources under one roof.
“A lot of people in Howard County are looking for houses that will allow that,” she says. “With all the baby boomers hitting their 60s and 70s, there’s a much greater need for this now.”
While many cite the increasing numbers of elderly and the so-called “boomerang generation,” Michael Rendall, director of the Maryland Population Research Center and a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, says economic forces are largely behind the move to multigenerational housing.
“The Great Recession is the root cause of the phenomenon,” he says. The trend is driven by the difficult job situation facing the younger generation, he says. But by pooling resources, both the younger and older generations are helped by the trend.
Rendall predicts that as the economy improves, the trend toward multigenerational households will reverse.
Others are not so sure.
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