Man Forecloses on Wells Fargo with a QWR

Recently various media outlets including the Consumerist and USA Today have published articles on Patrick Rodgers a Philadelphia homeowner who was having a ton of problems with Wells Fargo concerning his mortgage.

In 2002, Rodgers paid $180,000 for his nice little house in Pennsylvania and then the Bank wanted him to insure it for 1 million. It also charged him for two home inspections when nobody came over to inspect the house.

Patrick called dozens of times and had no luck in getting any response to resolve his loan issues... Consequently, he went online and did a little bit of legal research. He then decided to write to Wells Fargo with a Qualified Written Request (QWR)... Banks have 60 days to respond to these requests, and if they don't they can be sued for $1,000. Needless to say, the executives at Wells Fargo ignored Mr. Rodgers' requests, and so he took them to small claims court. Nobody showed up---so he got summary judgment. Since the bank still didn't pay, he had the local sheriff serve papers to the local mortgage brokers office in order to auction off items within the office to raise the $1,100 fine.

Low and behold, after the Sheriff's notice and tons of media attention... Wells Fargo ended up contacting the man and had a 40 minute conversation... It will be interesting to see how this issue ends up closing.

Moral of the story, if you're looking to delay your foreclosure process or annoy your bank, you should research this case some more; learn about the Qualified Written Request process and get a little litigious on your mortgage company.

Florida Court asks Banks to Show the Note and finds them committing fraud

This month a Florida court cracked down on a legal firm that supposedly forged foreclosure documents.

A legal firm would assign a fake assignee as the mortgage owner. Sometimes signing a fake name (such as Linda Green) and signed thousands of documents for Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank and others. The court found problems with the notary stamp on many of the documents and sometimes the bank that was bringing the foreclosure to the court never owned the note. And neither did the mortgage servicer.

So if you're in that situation you should know your rights and ask your attorney or the court to have the bank "Show the Note"... If they can't prove they own the I.O.U. on your house, you'll be able to buy yourself significant time.

According to the Washington Post

Some of the problems in foreclosure paperwork are being created because mortgage loans were repackaged and resold to investors so often that the physical documents become lost. It's the job of a document processor to present and vouch for the authenticity and accuracy of these papers, but attorneys for homeowners have unearthed examples where critical records are forged.

In theory, a judge should review the files one more time. But after the crisis produced massive numbers of delinquent homeowners, judges in many cases became overwhelmed.

Some simply took at face value the documents handed over to them by the lenders - who in many cases were not checking the files, either, according to interviews with judges, attorneys and consumer groups.

In some Florida courts, for instance, many judges automatically approve a foreclosure unless a borrower can point to a specific problem. Homeowners are given five minutes for a presentation. Often, they do not bother to show up.