February 17, 2010

Bank of America wrongfully seized the home of an unemployed construction worker and his disabled wife through foreclosure, changing the locks and removing personal belongings, although the house had been paid for in cash and there was thus no mortgage with Bank of America or anyone else. The couple resides in Massachusetts and rented the Florida home out to a single mother with two children.

One day last July, three men appeared at the house to change the locks and clean out the house, telling the tenant that the house belonged to Bank of America. The owner told a real estate agent for Bank of America that they had the wrong house. Although Bank of America told the couple that there was a mistake which would be rectified, it was not. The owner had to drive to Florida, missing the homecoming of one son who was returning from Iraq for a 2-week leave, to prove to the police that he owned the house. Bank of America had turned off the electricity and water, and the pipes had frozen.

Bank of America’s only comment was that it “hoped to have the opportunity to work” with the owners to “properly assess and address the allegations” in the owners’ lawsuit which has been filed against Bank of America for damages from libel, negligence, trespass, and emotional distress.

Citi Residential lending has also admitted a wrongful foreclosure on a house in central Florida, changing the locks and emptying the pool, even through the owner, who resides in London, did not have a mortgage with Citi Residential. Citi blames the error on “the high number of foreclosures we are dealing with in Central Florida”.

“Mistakes” are one thing; deliberate misrepresentations and fraud on the courts is another. We have also been advised of a series of mortgage assignments which state, in the body of the assignment, that the assignment is “bogus” and contains nonexistent entities. Numerous of these assignments have been recorded in the public records and have been the basis for foreclosures, the courts apparently not even having read the assignments before entering foreclosure judgments.

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com