Homeowners go on the offensive against lenders

Homeowners on the Offensive

Source: Jacksonville Business Journal – by Jane Meinhardt

A $5 million lawsuit in Tampa federal court alleging GMAC Mortgage operated an abusive and fraudulent scheme in processing foreclosures may signal future multijurisdictional litigation related to robo-signing documents.

The complaint portrays a cadre of nearly 14 GMAC employees — the “Document Execution Team” — working in an assembly-line manner processing and signing foreclosure documents by the thousands without reading them or checking their accuracy. The lawsuit contends “tens of thousands” of property owners in Florida alone have been victimized.

In what could develop into a lengthy, costly legal battle for lenders and their investors, the complaint is one of what is expected to be many lawsuits focused on foreclosures allegedly using faulty affidavits and other documents signed en masse and notarized without verification.

Similar complaints about faulty foreclosure paperwork are in courts in Maine, Kentucky, Ohio and Maryland.

The potential exists for combining these lawsuits into multijurisdictional litigation, said Gary Mason, one of the lawyers representing the four homeowners in the Tampa lawsuit.

It would be similar to the consolidation in New Orleans federal court and assignment to one judge of lawsuits against BP Plc over this year’s oil spill.

At the very least, the Tampa case filed Nov. 5 could become class-action litigation. “It is appropriate for a class action,” Mason said.

Mason, a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm Mason LLP, which represents plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits, said the lawsuit is somewhat different from others because it alleges the homeowners were deprived of their constitutional rights to due process because of fraudulent paperwork submitted in state court.

GMAC, a division of Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc., was one of several mortgage lenders that temporarily suspended foreclosures in September for several weeks to review their processes after complaints about faulty paperwork.

The lender found no evidence of inappropriate foreclosures and disputes the lawsuit’s allegations, said James Olecki, an Ally spokesman, in an e-mailed statement. He noted that property is not foreclosed on until mortgage payments have been in default for 18 months.

“Additionally, the borrower has the ability to contest the foreclosure and bring the loan current at any time,” Olecki said.

Introducing…”The Daily Flop!”

The Daily Flop

Hello all in cyperspace!  My name is Robert L Pelletier.  Let me briefly introduce myself.  I was born and raised here in Jacksonville, FL.  I have worked since 14 years old, my first job being a dog groomer!  Subsequently, I have performed just about every job you could imagine, nasty and glamorous.  I have been a soldier in the US Army Reserves, a detective and SWAT officer in law enforcement and owned/managed several businesses. During law school, I began buying and selling real estate as an investor.  After obtaining my juris doctorate, instead of practicing law, I began managing a thriving  Bank Real Estate Owned (“REO”)  business.  PelletierREO grew to one of the foremost leading listing brokers in NE Florida.  We have developed our business to suit our sellers and to cater to our buyers and buyer’s agents.  A deep seeded principle in Full House Realty Company is outstanding customer service to all we serve.  Our procedures and policies are to promote professionalism and ease of doing business with our company.  This is my first post in our new blog “The Daily Flop (special thanks to Jennifer and Sabrina  for help nailing a great blog name!!) .”  We are very excited about reaching out to our virtual community.  I think you will find The Daily Flop very informative as we discuss the reality of the default industry and real estate in general.  The Daily Flop will feature several different topics appropriate to real estate and the world of pre/post foreclosed properties.  Our aim is to attack our main theme (default real estate) from many different perspectives and analytical angles, including, but not limited to: politics, front line reality, self-thought,  industry buzz and media spin.  I hope that you will join our social community so that hopefully you can learn something you already didn’t know and add information that maybe we don’t know.  So, with that, lets starting blogging!

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