The Illinois Supreme Court on Monday announced the formation of a special committee to investigate the fairness of mortgage foreclosures in Illinois and perhaps change the rules that govern the process.
Among the areas to be investigated are the different rules and procedures concerning how foreclosures are handled in different counties as well as legislative proposals pending in the Illinois General Assembly that may impact mortgage foreclosures. The committee also is charged with making recommendations regarding foreclosure rules that could be implemented statewide.
Speeding up the foreclosure process isn’t the committee’s priority, said Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis. Rather, the committee will focus on improving the system so homeowners better understand the court process while the court also determines how to best deal with allegations of unreliable documentation in cases.
Last month, Cook County Circuit Court stayed at least 1,700 mortgage foreclosure cases after Fisher and Shapiro LLC, a law firm used by lenders, told the court that the cases contained altered documents.
The committee will be composed of 14 people, ranging from judges and bankers to lawyers and a representative from the Illinois Attorney General’s office. Lewis Nixon, supervising judge of the mortgage foreclosure section of the Cook County Circuit Court, will chair the committee.
At the end of 2010, 70,550 mortgage foreclosure cases were still pending in Cook County alone.
Monday 11 April 2011
Talk about the foxes forming a committe to fix the hen
house. I have had direct experience with Nixon, an
arrogant person who is totally pro-plaintiff. I had
his decision against me reversed. How often does
one who defends himself have a reversal from a summary
judgement by the head of the chancery division for
foeclosures?! That is how bad his decision was.
Bankers on the committee?
Can’t wait for the results. Oh, wait! I already know…
The Illinois Supreme Court must rule that the PRETENDER LENDER who is bringing the FRAUDCLOSURE ACTION MUST PROVE, BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT, THEY ARE THE PARTY IN DUE COURSE. THIS SHOULD CAUSE LOAN RECISSIONS STATEWIDE BECAUSE THESE LOANS NEVER, EVER EXISTED. THAT WAS PART AND PARCEL TO THIS WHOLE PONZI SCHEME ROBBERY PERPED ON HOMEOWNERS AT THE ORIGINATION. JUST LOOK AT YOUR PUBLIC COUNTY RECORDING RECORDS AND YOUR TITLE TO YOUR HOME. WE WERE ALL COLLATERAL IN THE PONZI SCHEME AND THE GSE’S/THE BANKSTERS/WALL STREET MADE TRILLIONS OFF OF ALL OF US. WE WERE ALL GREATLY DECEIVED BY THE PERPS HIDING BEHIND THE SCENES, THE GSE’S FANNIE AND FREDDIE. WE THE HOMEOWNERS AND OUR PAID OFF HOMES WERE THE POKER CHIP THEY USED IN THEIR PONZI SCHEME CASINO OF CRIME AND THEY MADE TRILLIONS. THEY WERE PAID FOR THESE HOMES 3 TO 4 TIMES AND NEVER, EVER HAD ANY SKIN IN THE GAME. THIS WAS A SCHEME OF PURE SPECULATION BY THE CRIMINALS AND THEIR PERPS. THIS IS A GIANT CONSPIRACY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. RESCIND OUR LOANS, THAT IS THE ONLY FAIR DEAL FOR HOMEOWNERS. OUR WE WILL SUE FOR THE ROBBERY. THESE ARE FEDERAL CRIMES PROSECUTABLE UNDER THE RICO ACT. SECURITIES FRAUD AND UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE PRACTICES.THESE FRAUDCLOSURES ARE COMPLETELY UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND THERE IS TRULY NO LEGAL STANDING FOR WHICH THESE PRETENDER LENDERS CAN FRAUDCLOSE.
The committee clearly lacks an experiential voice. How there are no persons with actual foreclosure experience sitting on this committee?
Is this the beginning of a bank-inspired movement to facilitate foreclosure by changing the playing rules to suit those not currently playing by the (laws)rules? I know Theis indicated that was not her purpose in setting up a committee but if they have no teeth and are weighted to the side of banking, sometimes one says one thing and yet consensus of opinion dictates another.
@Linda – so you would rather let people out of their obligations, keeping their homes free and clear, while those of use who worked hard and did not BUY BEYOND OUR MEANS still continue to pay. That is part of the problem – people want to blame others for their own decisions.
@Harlon: if you own a home w/equity in a foreclosure hotspot, you are going to lose, especially if you bought it between 2003-2007 when the prices were high and if you put 10% or more as a cash downpayment. The smart buyers went with a loan requiring zero down payment. Ask yourself who created these zero downpayment loans. HINT: rhimes with pranksters.
The wealth and equity has been sucked out of the housing market and I am sure, like many people, you worked hard and did all the right things in order to aquire a house and protect what you presumed was your investment.
If you are looking for someone to blame, you need only follow the money trail.HINT: rhimes with hanksters.
All that TARP and bailout money should have gone first to help the overburdened and overtaxed hostages known as homeowners who are stuck. Instead it went to the same entities who created the housing meltdown.
Who was it that said ” no good deed goes unpunished “
Let’s be clear here. Foreclosures are not necessarily evil. yes, big mortgage lenders are notoriously bad at customer service, etc. But your local community banks (where most of us bank) have hundreds of millions of our money “stuck” in the the abys known as the commercial foreclosure. Judges are not following the law, borrowers are playing games, all in hopes that by the time the law actually gets around to working correctly, the market will have recovered and their bad investment decision will be rectified.
That is not what the foreclosre system is for. The bank needs to recover its capital and redeploy it to others who have applied for loans.
You cannot have it both ways. People are losing their homes because of the ecomonic downturn. the economic downturn is continuing in part because of the unwillingness of banks to lend for exapnsion,etc. The banks are unwilling to lend in many cases because of the strict controls placed on them by the regulators due to the large book of bad loans the bank is holding. That book does not get smaller until the bank recovers on the bad loans. The banks can’t recover on the bad loans until the foreclosure system moves their case to judgement and sale. The case does not move along while the borrowers and judges keep playiong games in hopes of a recovery. it is a self-fulfilling prophecy and yet people want to further change the foreclosure process to slow it down even further. Really?
Yeah dude, with interest rates so low, we are truly in a real liquity crisis. Bankatty is an *** for pinning the recession on the backs of everyday people.
There is a huge disconnect between the foreclosure process in court versus homeowners attempting to navigate the “modification” morass. This is not just a case of invalid or fraudulent documents, but more than anything the misleading tactics by the lenders in luring homeowners into believing that the modification programs will allow them to stay in their homes but end up foreclosed anyway. I have numerous examples of homeowners making payments over months or even a year or two, believing that they are saving their homes, but ending up in default and foreclosure because the lender terminated their modification due to an “error”. Legislation will probably be ineffectual and too late. However, it is clear that the big banks received bailouts on the backs of taxpayers, and are not following through in good faith to comply with the programs put in place to allow homeowners to retain their properties (and pay). The thousands of foreclosures destroys the communities, allowing gangs and vandals to move into vacant houses which the lender do not maintain. This brings values even lower and prevents the market from recovering, and continuing in this vein with further foreclosures will not bring the economy back.
@Bankatty –
I agree that foreclosures are not necessarily evil. But I’m confused: you start by referencing commercial foreclosures with small local lenders, and then proceed to discuss the games homeowners and judges play. Commercial foreclosures are not residential foreclosures. To which are you really speaking? Commercial foreclosures are a different animal and I agree that the process for them should move somewhat fast.
If addressing residential foreclosures, what you say would make sense…IF the process was followed by the lenders. SINCE they do not always follow the rules, I am in full support of slowing down the process to give borrowers every chance under the sun to save their homes. When lenders file suit and then have their own loss mitigation people telling borrowers not to attend court because they are reviewing workout proposals, there is a problem. When you have lenders losing modification and DIL paperwork continuously over 6 months while a now gainfully employed borower sits in the crosshairs of a foreclosure suit with nothing to do but repeatedly call for updates and trust that the lender will at least process the request honestly, there is a probelm. When you have lenders enter into temporary modification with a borrower and at the same time sell the borrower’s home at sheriff’s sale, there is a problem. These are all real problems that have affected my clients and so many more.
Trust me when I say that most borrowers are not trying to play games. They are fighting to get some relief to stay in the property and still pay. However, once they are in a period of 90-120 days delinquent, the lender turns a blind eye and a deaf ear in most cases, regardless of whether or not the borrower can now pay. They will not accept payments less than the full amount to reinstate the mortgage and of course this is almost always impossible. Reamortization wouldn’t be such a bad thing to save the investment in some instances, but typically this is not even a consideration.
From the tone of your post, it sounds as though you would appreciate the courts simply ruling on a residential foreclosure complaint during the first court date post-filing and just remove the borrower from the home. But, to paraphrase your comment, lenders likewise cannot have it both ways. Altered affidavits (ala Fisher & Shapiro), lacking assignments, mistakes with the lending documents, improper service…borrowers are afforded rights under law to raise all of those issues and so many more in a case. Maybe you would prefer that foreclosures not even be a legal process, but they are the law in Illinois.
Should big residential lenders be allowed to shirk their responsibility in the current foreclosure crisis and be absolved from their errors simply because a borrower is trying desperately to use any legal method to save its residence? I think not.
What about borrowers who are financially capable of paying on their mortgages but who let their homes go back to the bank and be sold via a short sale for the sole purpose of getting out of their obligation simply because their home is worth less than they bought it for? The same borrowers who then go out and buy another home to take advantage of the distressed market and upgrade to a bigger/better home. Do the lenders get the appreciation on the new home to try and recoup the loss that they had put to them? What happens to the debt markets if people feel no obligation to honor their debts? Let’s hope this doesn’t become the prevailing sentiment.
I fought the good fight after getting behind 3-4 months and was willing to make up payments via re-amortization. The disconnect between the foreclosure process and modification process is all to real. Madigan’s office in Illinois was basically zero help despite repeated personal visit to her office, emails, etc. Their repeated rely was “that Chase is federal bank and beyond their regulation”. Suggested I hire a lawyer…as if someone with financial trouble can afford that.
Bottom line, the banks literally created this whole mess and now just want roll over any borrower displaying any blood in the water. They screwed up the handling of the notes and had to fabricate paperwork to cover-up the trail. As they have zero morals, they all to willing to fabricate whatever document they think they can sneak past a judge.
My personal experience and subsequent education on how the fiat financial system operates has lead me to distrust the financial system. I now understand why my grandparents (depression era parents) waived off the notion of debt their entire lives.
How did I get behind? Was it my fault I could not live up to my obligations? I got behind when clients with whom I had contracts with could not pay their bills once the banks yanked their line of credit on real estate development projects…the banks overstretched THIER limits and could not live up to their obligations. In my view screw the banks and all the loses they incur….no sympathy, no more bail outs. Let them fail. I paid all I could, closed up shop, went out and got a JOB.
My modification application and willingness to get caught up went nowhere until I challenged the foreclosure and called out the fraudulent paperwork. That is the only thing these banks understand….fighting back, being a complete pain in the arce, and demonstrating they will lose more by not co-operating. My modification was “in-house” with no government assistance. I will make good on my obligations…despite the fact that it is obvious to me now that the banks and federal reserve will only continue to screw the middle class at any opportunity possible.
Keep your money in hard assets. Don’t trust the banksters or their cheerleaders. There is worse to come in this financial mess and they will have their hands out to the public again….don’t be fooled. Deny them help. Storeys like this one is proof enough -> http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2011/04/12/2011-04-12_rolling_stone_magazine_writer_matt_taibbi_unveils_unfair_investment_practices_by.html
Do people deserve a free house? Certainly not. But if enough instances happen in court to call them out on their game and to snap the banksters in-line…I am all for it.
Get Glass-Seagall back in force, political fundraising limitations, and term limits….and you would be surprised how much more of a level playing field it would be. We don’t need socialism. We need capitalism with sound regulation. Banks are supposed to be boring and stable…..not free-wheeling casinos making money off of depositor (and now tax-payer) earnings.
The dollar is going to continue to be printed into oblivion to get the illusion of prosperity back on the street. But I have learned my lesson and understand my grandparents on whole new level….live within your means and starve those looking to live off your earnings via interest charges. They are just leaches in disguise….
Linda’s comment about “PRETENDER LENDER” is so true. These banks have no interest in working with us home owners, because legally they can’t, and they know it!! What firms like Fisher and Shapiro are doing is astounding, and I’m so glad to see that some press is being made about this. I tried directly to work with my bank and they made it clear that they did not have any desire to allow me to get current. I contact a number of attorneys, and they all wanted to rubber stamp me into bankruptcy and I would lose my home. I finally found a firm who gets it with the issues mentioned in this article. The bank had NO RIGHT to foreclosure on me and Allen (at the firm I’m working with) is proving this. Allen has lots of info on his site that helped me understand what really is going on. Here is his site http://www.reviewyourbankforeclosure.com
I did not say “homeowners” are playing games, I said “borrowers” are playing games. I am limiting my comments entirely to commercial foreclosures.