mortgage modification
The Borrower Always Loses
Aug 07 2021 10:18
As of late 2021, I now believe that the courts are so hostile to mortgage and home equity loan borrowers that it has become almost impossible to prevail on even the strongest claims. It has gotten to the point that the federal courts in Texas now do not allow a homeowner to challenge an invalid mortgage lien unless the homeowner pays off the entire loan before bringing the challenge. Thus, even if a lien is plainly not valid under the Texas Constitution, a homeowner cannot maintain a lawsuit in federal court to clear the lien without paying off the whole loan! I believe that is flatly wrong under the law as well as punitive, but the fact that the courts would erect such a roadblock tells me that these cases are becoming all but impossible to win. The score: Banks 100, Borrowers 1 (I did win the Landers v. Nationstar case a few years ago, invalidating a mortgage lien on statute of limitations grounds, which seemed promising at the time but which has since been whittled away by other kinds of bank liens). Content may continue . . .
More Mortgage Servicer Tricks for the New Decade
Jul 06 2020 09:25
Well, the mortgage loan servicers are at it again: "We never received your documentation."
With many loans now going into default like in 2009-2010, the loan servicers are playing the same games they did back then: pretending to hold out a lifeline only to yank it back at the last minute, leaving you to drown. No matter how many times you send in documents, the servicers will claim they never received them or that they are incomplete or illegible or otherwise improper for reasons you could never have guessed at. Sometimes, the loan servicers even claim that if the return address on a piece of mail is not the borrower's return address (for example, if your lawyer sends something for you), they are not "allowed" to open it! It's idiotic and patently false. This is done to get you to miss some payments while waiting for relief, while the mortgage company will in the meantime keep adding interest and penalties. Some months later, they will demand that you pay up everything, that you get no relief, and that if you don't pay in 30 days, you will be foreclosed on. The courts have blessed this game, so the lenders will keep playing it.
Whenever you correspond with a mortgage loan servicer in the U.S., you must do everything in written correspondence, NOT ON THE PHONE, and you must send everything CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED. In addition, you must send it to every conceivable address the servicer might be using, since they now use multiple departmental addresses or P.O. boxes to create confusion. DO NOT NEGOTIATE ON THE PHONE. Do it all in writing. You will probably never get approval for anything on the phone, and you will probably never speak to the same person twice. This is done on purpose to drive you crazy while you are desperate to keep your home.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the American mortgage system is broken. Wealthy and powerful corporations and investors have designed it to break you and take your home by creating chaotic servicing systems that always seem to make mistakes that lenders, not borrowers. Why? Because large pools of capital are being devoted to buying up the housing stock so that it can be used as rental property for people who have gotten the shaft from the mortgage system. Then, when those people get rental homes, the same companies and investors, with different hats, give you the shaft on bogus, often completely fabricated lease penalties and late charges. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE POWERFUL BUSINESS INTERESTS WHO CONTROL THE U.S. HOUSING MARKET unless you own property free and clear of debt. (Then, of course, you have to fight the HOA-Industrial-Complex, which will foreclose on you too).
Ordinary people cannot hope to combat these corporations, but at least you can make it difficult for them to repeatedly lie to you so that, when you stand before the judge and demonstrate all the tricks the loan servicer pulled, you have some shred of a chance of getting some kind of relief.
Unless, of course, you're in federal court, in which case, forget it: you've already lost. Judges-for-life answer to no one. Content may continue . . .
With many loans now going into default like in 2009-2010, the loan servicers are playing the same games they did back then: pretending to hold out a lifeline only to yank it back at the last minute, leaving you to drown. No matter how many times you send in documents, the servicers will claim they never received them or that they are incomplete or illegible or otherwise improper for reasons you could never have guessed at. Sometimes, the loan servicers even claim that if the return address on a piece of mail is not the borrower's return address (for example, if your lawyer sends something for you), they are not "allowed" to open it! It's idiotic and patently false. This is done to get you to miss some payments while waiting for relief, while the mortgage company will in the meantime keep adding interest and penalties. Some months later, they will demand that you pay up everything, that you get no relief, and that if you don't pay in 30 days, you will be foreclosed on. The courts have blessed this game, so the lenders will keep playing it.
Whenever you correspond with a mortgage loan servicer in the U.S., you must do everything in written correspondence, NOT ON THE PHONE, and you must send everything CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED. In addition, you must send it to every conceivable address the servicer might be using, since they now use multiple departmental addresses or P.O. boxes to create confusion. DO NOT NEGOTIATE ON THE PHONE. Do it all in writing. You will probably never get approval for anything on the phone, and you will probably never speak to the same person twice. This is done on purpose to drive you crazy while you are desperate to keep your home.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the American mortgage system is broken. Wealthy and powerful corporations and investors have designed it to break you and take your home by creating chaotic servicing systems that always seem to make mistakes that lenders, not borrowers. Why? Because large pools of capital are being devoted to buying up the housing stock so that it can be used as rental property for people who have gotten the shaft from the mortgage system. Then, when those people get rental homes, the same companies and investors, with different hats, give you the shaft on bogus, often completely fabricated lease penalties and late charges. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE POWERFUL BUSINESS INTERESTS WHO CONTROL THE U.S. HOUSING MARKET unless you own property free and clear of debt. (Then, of course, you have to fight the HOA-Industrial-Complex, which will foreclose on you too).
Ordinary people cannot hope to combat these corporations, but at least you can make it difficult for them to repeatedly lie to you so that, when you stand before the judge and demonstrate all the tricks the loan servicer pulled, you have some shred of a chance of getting some kind of relief.
Unless, of course, you're in federal court, in which case, forget it: you've already lost. Judges-for-life answer to no one. Content may continue . . .
Texas Supreme Court enforces Section 50 as written
Jan 31 2014 07:24
Today, the Texas Supreme Court returned to its Norwood decision of 2013 and reiterated that even if the requirements of Tex. Const. art. XVI, § 50 are inconvenient, they must be enforced as written unless and until the people of Texas amend them:
"Whether the constitutional provision’s intended protection is worth the hardship or could be more fairly or effectively provided by some other method is a matter that must be left to the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution,"
said the Court in denying a request for rehearing.Content may continue . . .
"Whether the constitutional provision’s intended protection is worth the hardship or could be more fairly or effectively provided by some other method is a matter that must be left to the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution,"
said the Court in denying a request for rehearing.Content may continue . . .
The statute of limitations is tolled for class members
Oct 04 2013 07:06
If you have a Texas home equity loan that JPMorgan Chase, Nationstar, or Bank of America modified to include interest-only payments or a balloon payment, you may already be protected by a pending class action. Your statute of limitations is the one for all class members, which relates back to the date the various class actions were filed. The class actions were filed in 2012 and 2013, protecting class members back to 2008 and 2009.
Don't assume your claim is too late if you fit within one of the class actions I have filed. Call me to discuss, and include your loan modification.Content may continue . . .
Don't assume your claim is too late if you fit within one of the class actions I have filed. Call me to discuss, and include your loan modification.Content may continue . . .
Nationstar Texas Class Actions Filed
Sep 26 2013 15:47
On behalf of all affected Texans, my clients in Burnet and Dallas Counties have filed class actions against Nationstar Mortgage. The Burnet case is hair-raising: it alleges that Nationstar modified a Texas home mortgage loan (home equity loan, specifically) at least four times, more than doubling the principal amount of the original note and scheduling interest-only payments. The plaintiffs' monthly payment would QUADRUPLE at the end of the modifications, highlighting why the Texas Constitution forbids home equity loans from having interest-only payments.
The cases (click on the case to see the petitions are George et al. v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, Cause No. 41914 (Burnet County 424th District) and Graze v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, Cause No. DC-13-05406-H (Dallas County 160th Dist). These cases will be combined into the pending Nationstar MDL involving multiple additional cases of the same kind.
If you have a Nationstar loan that was modified, and Nationstar is threatening foreclosure, or badgering you to short-sell or give a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY to protect your rights.Content may continue . . .
The cases (click on the case to see the petitions are George et al. v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, Cause No. 41914 (Burnet County 424th District) and Graze v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, Cause No. DC-13-05406-H (Dallas County 160th Dist). These cases will be combined into the pending Nationstar MDL involving multiple additional cases of the same kind.
If you have a Nationstar loan that was modified, and Nationstar is threatening foreclosure, or badgering you to short-sell or give a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY to protect your rights.Content may continue . . .
Texas Supreme Court to decide multiple Section 50 Issues
Aug 29 2013 09:40
Days after the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals certified multiple questions to the Texas Supreme Court in my pending cases and class actions against major lenders, the Texas Supreme Court agreed to answer the questions. Just getting these questions resolved is a major victory for Texas borrowers, who have constantly been whip-sawed by the lenders. The lenders repeatedly offer modifications but later deny them when they learn (and admit) them to be illegal in Texas.Content may continue . . .
A blow against Nationstar's Loan Modification Practices in Texas
Aug 17 2013 18:13
On August 16, 2013, the Texas Multidistrict Litigation Panel combined all my outstanding cases against Nationstar Mortgage (formerly Centex) in one court. Nationstar not only added very large sums to existing home equity loans with 2-page modifications, but concealed the practice by using interest-only and balloon-note clauses that hid how much was being added to the loans. Combining all the cases is a huge victory for the various plaintiffs around the state, since their payments usually jumped way up and put them in a bind -- making it difficult for them to afford the legal fees to fight Nationstar. Nationstar vigorously opposed consolidating the cases, hoping to keep the plaintiffs spread out and alone in the various counties. Now, as new cases get filed, all the cases will go into one court for uniform handling.
The MDL Order is here.Content may continue . . .
The MDL Order is here.Content may continue . . .
A nice little victory against JP Morgan Chase in the 5th Circuit in a mortgage case
Jul 25 2013 15:03
I recently had a nice win in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals against JP Morgan Chase Bank in a mortgage modification case. The federal district court's dismissal was reversed, and the case remanded to proceed to discovery. The opinion in Gloria Martin-Janson v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., is here.
My client was promised a modification for years and was repeatedly told not to make payments because a modification was imminent. At the last minute, Chase pulled the plug and said, basically, catch up all the missed payments or we foreclose. My client merely asked the district court to let her prove that Chase either had written up a modification or that it was possible to prove what the terms of the modification were. The district court dismissed, denying her the ability to prove her case. The 5th Circuit reversed so that my client can at least get discovery.
This case stands for the proposition that when a federal lawsuit alleges very specifically that a particular modification agreement exists in the lender's file or can be proven by evidence, the case should proceed and not be dismissed immediately after it's filed.Content may continue . . .
My client was promised a modification for years and was repeatedly told not to make payments because a modification was imminent. At the last minute, Chase pulled the plug and said, basically, catch up all the missed payments or we foreclose. My client merely asked the district court to let her prove that Chase either had written up a modification or that it was possible to prove what the terms of the modification were. The district court dismissed, denying her the ability to prove her case. The 5th Circuit reversed so that my client can at least get discovery.
This case stands for the proposition that when a federal lawsuit alleges very specifically that a particular modification agreement exists in the lender's file or can be proven by evidence, the case should proceed and not be dismissed immediately after it's filed.Content may continue . . .