Sloppy Foreclosure Process Could Ruin Florida
Those aren’t my words – they’re the words of St. Pete Times business columnist Robert Trigaux, in this article.
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Archive for October 1st, 2010
Title insurance, where we go from here
Kimberly Miller of the Palm Beach Post was the first reporter who explained how the foreclosure moratoriums we’re now seeing are a direct result of title insurance problems. She first reported that on September 24, 2010.
After B of A announced it was halting foreclosures, Ms. Miller reported it again in today’s Palm Beach Post.
This is the story, folks. The banks didn’t stop foreclosures out of the kindness of their hearts, out of the sudden urge to “do the right thing,” or because judges made them. The banks stopped foreclosures to give lip service to the title insurance companies, like Old Republic, that have stopped writing title insurance policies on foreclosure properties. After all, even the banks realize that if they can’t get title insurance, the value of their REO will go down even more (yes, more).
Soon, the banks are going to try to convince the title insurance companies that their title problems are fixed (the “lip service”), after which it will be “business as usual.” At that point it will be up to foreclosure defense attorneys such as myself to continue to expose the pervasive fraud that permeates every aspect of foreclosure lawsuits in Florida and throughout the country.
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Bank of America stops foreclosures; Stopa in New York Times
Bank of America has stopped all foreclosures in 23 states amidst proof that another robo-signer executed 8,000 documents a month without reading them.
I’m quoted in the article, saying “judges have to force banks to do foreclosures correctly.” Obviously I don’t control what goes into these articles, but that sums it up pretty well.
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Title problems – the media is catching on
I’ve been expressing my concerns about impending problems with the title insurance industry for months, as seen in the blogs below (particularly the one on September 22, 2010). Now the mainstream media agrees. Even Bloomberg agrees.
Meanwhile, stock in title insurance companies is down more than six percent (and that’s just today).
This should be a surprise to nobody. You can’t expect to cram through hundreds of thousands of foreclosure judgments, littered with errors because they aren’t being done the right way, and expect title insurance companies to keep issuing title insurance policies. In fact, I have it on good word that GMAC and Chase stopped these foreclosure cases because their underwriter, Old Republic, told them it wouldn’t issue policies any more. That’s worth clarifying:
GMAC and Chase didn’t cause Old Republic to stop issuing policies – Old Republic caused GMAC and Chase to halt foreclosures.
In other words, only when Old Republic refuse to issue policies did GMAC and Chase realize they had to clean up their acts (which makes sense when you realize that banks never do anything unless it’s motivated by their own profits). That’s just what I’ve thought all along –
This is all driven by the title insurance industry.
Meanwhile, Fidelity National is denying problems with title policies. But what do you expect them to say? “Yes, we have hundreds of thousands of title policies out there for which we have exposure – come sue us. And those of you who own our stock – sell it because the value is going to plummet.” When Fidelity is denying the problem, you know there’s a problem.
This is all coming crashing down, folks. I hate to say it, but I fear this is just the beginning.
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New York Times – still talking about Florida foreclosures
The New York Times, arguably the top newspaper in the nation, is covering Florida’s foreclosure crisis on a daily basis.
Foreclosure Fraud in New York Times
I bet I exchanged 20 emails with Mr. Streitfeld before he wrote this article. We’re all busy, but we have to keep feeding this information to the media. They can’t write a story if they don’t know the facts.
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