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Bank Complaints Soar

February 28, 2011 by

Bank Complaints SoarComplaints by consumers and homeowners against banks are rising to a stratospheric level. It has been suggested that new laws and regulations need to be put in place to reign in inappropriate bank practices.

The controller of the currency recently stated that he is receiving a record number of complaints against the more than 1500 banks subject to regulation. It is estimated that there were more than 80,000 complaints against banks in the year 2010.

The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Company have recently issued specific regulations and guidelines to deal with the numerous complaints filed against banks.

Complaints About Mortgage Foreclosures

The majority of the complaints against banks have dealt with various problems encountered by homeowners in mortgage foreclosure proceedings. There were more than 36,000 complaints filed against banks in 2010 dealing with mortgage foreclosure issues. Banks are fighting numerous lawsuits throughout the country and are being investigated by all fifty state Attorney Generals concerning their practices involving foreclosure proceedings.

Prior to the financial melt down, most bank complaints dealt with credit card issues. The reason why banks are receiving so many complaints is that they have been involved in faulty practices. They have engaged in predatory lending. They have set up mortgage modification programs that simply do not work.

The American consumer deserves better. Consumers do not deserve to be left hanging for months and months at a time without getting any feedback on their mortgage modification applications. Consumers deserve to be updated regarding the status of their applications for mortgage modifications. They should not be forced to call week after week and continually get incorrect information or deal with nincompoops at the other end of the phone who have no knowledge of what is going on. If banks and financial institutions are serious about mortgage modifications they should help consumers instead of frustrating and angering them.

mortgage1Helping Homeowners with Foreclosure Defense

Our law firm has been helping homeowners with foreclosure defense issues for more than 45 years. We understand the frustrations and anger homeowners feel regarding their mortgage modification applications not being attended to. We are foreclosure defense lawyers. We deal with predatory lending, bad faith issues, defective mortgages and all aspects of mortgage foreclosure proceedings. We represent our clients in court and we attend foreclosure court conferences. We effectively tie up our client’s foreclosure cases in court and put pressure on the financial institutions to provide them with reasonable, acceptable, affordable mortgage modifications. When the situation calls for it, we file either Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 Bankruptcies for our clients. We keep our clients in their homes. We stop foreclosures cold! Call us for a free consultation at 1-800-344-6431; 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Foreclosure Defense, Mortgage Modification Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Solution to the Mortgage Crisis: Make Home Loan Modifications Mandatory

February 20, 2011 by

Make Home Loan Modifications MandatoryCongress should pass a law forcing financial institutions to make mandatory home modifications to deserving homeowners. Unfortunately, the banking industry has a lot of friends in Congress and it is very unlikely a bill of this nature would be passed by Congress.

Sub Prime Loans

Many of the loans given by financial institutions were called “sub-prime loans”. The sub-prime loans basically duped prospective homeowners into believing that they could afford to buy homes that were, without question, out of their financial reach. Many of the subprime loans had initially interest only payments that increased to include principal over time.

Since the homeowner could barely afford the mortgage-only payment when the mortgage amount increased to include interest or a balloon payment became due, they had no possibility of making these payments.

New Bankruptcy Law in New York

On January 22, 2010, a new bankruptcy statute went into effect in New York State. This allowed individuals filing bankruptcies to keep up to $150,000 of the equity in their home. For a home owned by a couple, up to $300,000 in equity in their home can be kept while the parties file bankruptcy and discharge their debts.

Home ownership and the fair value of real estate provides economic stability to millions of Americans. In the event the economy in the United States were to stabilize, the real estate market also must be stabilized. Homeowners should not be forced to watch the value of their greatest single asset, their home, falling in value each and every month.

Mortgage Modification Assistance

We can help you with mortgage modification issues. Should your home go into foreclosure, the Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo can see to it that the foreclosure is stopped in its tracks and you are not thrown of your home. We litigate foreclosure proceedings. We attend court conferences on behalf of our clients. We litigate bad faith loan practices by financial institutions, predatory lending practices, as well as defective foreclosure lawsuits issues. We also maintain this foreclosure blog to help educate the general public. Should you have mortgage modification or foreclosure issues, call us at 1-800-344-6431; 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802. The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo responds to emails and our phones are monitored 24/7.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Long Island Foreclosure Crisis

February 18, 2011 by
Long Island Foreclosure CrisisIn 2010, Long Island was a hot bed of foreclosure activity. As a result of the foreclosed homes on the market, there is now an inventory of approximately three years of homes that need to be sold. Simply stated, if no new homes came on to the market to be sold on Long Island for a period of three years, considering the current amount of real estate sales, it would take this period to eliminate the backlog of homes in foreclosure already on the market to be sold.The only place in the United States that has more foreclosed homes on the real estate market is Miami, Florida. In November of 2010 there were 893 new foreclosure cases started in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island.
The Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) that was created by the Federal Government to prevent home foreclosures will only assist 800,000 homeowners. When it’s taken into consideration that there are approximately four million foreclosure situations in the United States, less than one in four distressed homeowners will be receiving assistance.

Flawed Mortgage Foreclosure Programs

The current mortgage foreclosure programs rely on the financial institutions to agree to voluntarily reduce the homeowner’s monthly payments to an affordable level. The banks have not been cooperative in this endeavor. Instead of reducing the mortgage payment amount for homeowners, in more than 75% of the cases, the banks put the homes into foreclosure. When the banks take this action, they accelerate the mortgage, refuse to accept future mortgage payments, take the home back and put the house back into an overburdened real estate market.

New York Foreclosure Defense AttorneyNew York Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Our office defends foreclosure cases in New York. We currently have dozens of successful foreclosure cases pending in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, as well as in Westchester, Brooklyn and Queens Counties.

Our office represents our clients regarding mortgage modifications. We are experienced with regard to the problems mortgage modification programs have. We maintain a foreclosure blog to help educate our clients regarding the numerous issues concerning the current foreclosure crisis. If our clients are sued, we represent them in the foreclosure litigation. We attend foreclosure conferences on their behalf. We litigate defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending practices, and failed mortgages. If you have a mortgage modification or foreclosure problem, we are the attorneys for you!
Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bank of America Segregates Troubled Mortgage Loans From Performing Mortgage Loans

February 11, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

Bank of America Segregates Troubled Mortgage Loans From Performing Mortgage LoansBank of America has 1.3 million home mortgage loans in its portfolio that are in default. To deal with these defaulted home mortgage loans, Bank of America created a new entity.  This entity is known as Legacy Asset Servicing.  The defaulted loans, from this point forward, will be serviced by Legacy Asset Servicing.  Many of these defaulted loans were acquired from Bank of America when it purchased Countrywide Financial in 2008.

Performing Mortgage Loans

Bank of America has approximately twelve-million additional home mortgages in its portfolio.  These home mortgage loans are not in default.  Bank of America will continue to service these loans directly.

Countrywide Financial and Improper Mortgage Policies

Countrywide Financial was involved in initiating numerous sub-prime mortgage loans.  Since Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide, they have been forced to write off billions of dollars in sub-prime mortgage loans.

Bank of America has decided to remove the non-performing loans from its portfolio for a variety of reasons, including an investigation into foreclosure practices by financial institutions that is currently underway by all fifty state attorney generals’ offices.

Bank of America Changes its Foreclosure Practices

Last year, after Bank of America was criticized by state court judges in a number of states, it established a moratorium on foreclosures.  The bank has since modified its foreclosure practices.  Bank of America has also sharply increased the number of mortgage modifications that have been approved. In the last quarter of 2010, more than 80,000 mortgage modifications were approved by Bank of America.  This is a step in the right direction.

Chase Retail Services, which is a consumer banking unit of JP Morgan Chase, has also indicated that it would separate its non-performing home-equity and mortgage loans from its performing home-equity and mortgage loans.  In January of 2009, Citibank also separated its troubled home mortgage loans from mortgage loans that were up-to-date.

Foreclosure Defense In New York

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo handles foreclosure defense cases throughout the Metropolitan New York area.  We assist our clients in mortgage modifications.  Should your home go into foreclosure, we attend foreclosure conferences, we litigate these matters and deal with defective foreclosure practices, predatory lending and bad faith proceedings by financial institutions.  We also maintain this foreclosure blog to update the general public regarding a variety of issues concerning mortgage modifications, foreclosures, mortgage modification programs that fail to serve the needs of consumers, as well as other related articles.  Should you need a consultation, fell free to contact us at 1-800-344-6431; 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.  Our phones are answered 24/7.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , ,

In 2010, One Million Homes Foreclosed and Repossessed in the United States

February 9, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

2010 was the worst year in modern history with regard to homes being foreclosed on in the United States. One million American families were forced out of their homes. It is estimated that we will break this horrendous record in the year 2011 and more than a million families will be forced out of their homes due to foreclosures.

It is estimated that more than five million mortgage holders are more than two months behind in their mortgage. Unless more jobs are created by the Obama administration, it is expected that more Americans will lose their jobs in 2011. As foreclosures increase, the home values in the areas with high levels of foreclosures decrease.

2.9 million homeowners received foreclosure filing notices in 2010. This amounts to virtually one in every forty-five homeowners receiving a foreclosure notice. In December alone, more than a quarter of a million homeowners in the United States received a foreclosure notice. As incredible as this sounds, this is good news! This is the lowest amount of foreclosure notices in the past thirty months. The reduction in foreclosure notices was caused by banks reviewing their foreclosure processes after there were numerous instances where it was found that evictions and foreclosure documents were being inappropriately handled by financial institutions. There has also been lawsuits by the Attorney Generals in all fifty states that have put banks under greater scrutiny regarding their practices concerning foreclosing on homes.

Arizona was the leader in 2010 in foreclosures. One in every seventeen households in Arizona received a foreclosure notice. Florida came in second. One out of every eighteen homeowners in Florida received a foreclosure notice. Approximately fifty-percent of the foreclosure notices in the United States were in the five states of California, Illinois, Arizona, Michigan and Florida.

New York Foreclosure Problems

Suffolk County on Long Island had the highest foreclosure rate in New York State in the year 2010. Although the foreclosure rates in New York are lower than many other states, they are still extremely high by traditional standards. The foreclosure crisis in the state of New York is causing real estate values to be depressed.

Foreclosure Defense in NY

Our law firm represents New Yorkers in foreclosure defense proceedings. We litigate foreclosures on behalf of our clients in the five boroughs of the City of New York, Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, as well as Westchester County. We attend foreclosure conferences on behalf of our clients, we deal with bad faith predatory lending issues, mortgage modification problems, mortgage modification programs and defective foreclosure lawsuits. We are available 24/7 to assist our client. Feel free to call us should you need help to save your home! Our telephone numbers are 1-800-344-6431, 516-561- 6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Banks Close in Florida and Arizona

February 8, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

Regulatory agencies in Florida and Arizona have recently closed two banks.  These two banks are the first banks that have been closed in the year 2011.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Company was forced to take over the First Commercial Bank of Florida.  This bank was located in Orlando.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) also took over the Legacy Bank located in Scottsdale Arizona.  These two banks had approximately 275 million dollars in deposits belonging to consumers in their institutions.  It is estimated that these banks will cost the FDIC approximately 110 million dollars.  It should be noted that the FDIC insures each consumer’s account up to $250,000.00. Therefore, the depositors at the aforementioned banks will not lose any money, provided they didn’t have more than $50,000.00 at these banks.

Florida Has the Biggest Banking Crisis in the United States

In 2010, twenty-nine banks in Florida failed.  Florida has had more bank failures than any other state.  California and Illinois came in second and third in the list of states with bank failures.  During the course of 2010, 157 banks failed nationwide.  This is the highest amount of banks that has failed in the United States in recent history.  In 2009, 140 banks failed in the United States.  This had been the previous record year for bank failures.

In 2009, the FDIC paid our 36 billion dollars due to bank failures.  In 2010, the FDIC paid out 21 Billion dollars due to bank failures.  The numerous bank failures have been draining the FDIC of the funds it maintains to secure accounts deposited in the banks of the United States.  It is estimated that there are almost 900 financial institutions with financial difficulties in the United States.  Thank God for the FDIC! Without this Federally backed institution, hundreds of thousands of consumers would lose their life savings.

New York Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo represents homeowners in New York with foreclosure problems and issues involving mortgage modifications.  Our office is adept at keeping our clients in their homes and preventing the banks from putting them on the street.  We attend foreclosure conferences for our clients.  We deal with defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending issues, mortgage modification programs that don’t work as well as bad faith issues.  If you have a problem involving a foreclosure or mortgage modification, we are the solution! Feel free to cal us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Blame the Banks, Not the Homeowners, for the Mortgage Crisis (PART 2)

February 2, 2011 by

Fraudulent Mortgage Applications

Banks were aware that the applications that had been submitted to them by individuals seeking mortgages were fraudulent.  Instead of operating an appropriate underwriting process that provided due diligence to see to it that the consumer’s requesting mortgage loans could actually make payments on these loans, the banks simply stopped underwriting the loans in any reasonable manner.  The failure of the banks to properly underwrite the loans is one of the principal reasons for the mortgage bubble in America.

Income-to-debt Ratio

The banks have been aware for decades that there is an income-to-debt ratio a perspective homeowner must meet to be able to afford to make mortgage payments.  Loan officers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and appraisers were involved in the submission of fraudulent documents where the loan-to-debt ratio was of such a nature that the perspective homeowner could never successfully make the mortgage payments.

Servicing Companies Who Would Rather Foreclose than Modify Mortgages

The servicing companies hired by financial institutions to service mortgages were supposed to provide the consumer with a simple, reasonable mortgage modification process.  Instead, incompetent under-financed mortgage modification programs were set up.  The financial institutions continuously ask the consumers to send and resend the same documents.  The communication level between the mortgage servicing companies and the consumer is almost non-existent.  Consumers became more and more frustrated in trying to communicate with individuals at the serving companies who knew nothing about their pending mortgage applications.  Instead of appropriately processing mortgage modifications for creditworthy individuals, these individuals have been turned down for their mortgage modifications.

Twenty Years of Representing New Yorkers in Foreclosure Defense Lawsuits

Our law firm is currently handling dozens of foreclosure defense cases throughout the Metropolitan New York area.  We help our clients obtain mortgage modifications.  We prevent banks from forcing our clients out of their homes.  We attend court foreclosure conferences, litigate defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending, bad faith and other improper practices by financial institutions.

Should you need help, we are the law in the Metropolitan New York area with an extremely high success rate in our foreclosure defense cases.  Call us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Blame the Banks, Not the Homeowners, for the Mortgage Crisis (PART 1)

January 31, 2011 by

There is a foreclosure crisis in America.  There has been a lot of discussion as to where the blame lies for this crisis.  From my point of view, the blame sits squarely with the financial institutions.

There are those who say that homeowners are responsible for the foreclosure crisis because they haven’t been paying their mortgages.  Every foreclosure starts with a bank making a mortgage loan.  Banks make money by giving mortgage loans to consumers. They make more money when they sell the loans to other banks.  The banks that buy the loans make money when they contract with servicing companies to service these loans. When the underlying loans should not have been given to the consumer because the banks knew the consumer had no potential of making the loan payments, the banks bear the responsibility when the loans go bad.

Banks Knowingly Made Millions of Bad Loans

Banks made millions of loans in the United States to potential homeowners who had no potential of making the payments on these loans.  They carelessly handled the paperwork and processing of these loans.  Then when confronted with the mortgage crisis by President Obama, they said they would set up mortgage modification programs to help the beleaguered homeowners.  Instead of setting up reasonable mortgage modification programs, the banks intentionally and incompetently set up under-financed, poorly managed programs that were doomed to fail.  These programs, if they were properly and intelligently designed, operated and maintained, could have saved hundreds of thousands of salvageable mortgage loans.

Foreclosure Help

Should you need help with a foreclosure, we are the law firm for you.  We provide foreclosure defense for our clients.  We handle mortgage modifications.  Should you be served with a Summons and Complaint (legal documents in a foreclosure), we can represent you in these proceedings and keep you in your home.  We also countersue banks for defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending and bad faith.  We attend foreclosure conferences and we litigate foreclosure proceedings on behalf of our clients. Feel free to contact us at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Foreclosure Action Dismissed, Bank Had No Standing to Sue

January 10, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

Justice Madden, sitting in the Supreme Court of New York County, recently dismissed a foreclosure proceeding because the plaintiff financial institution had no standing to sue. The court held that they had no standing to sue because they could not document that the mortgage had been properly assigned to them. The case involved was LPP Mortgage Ltd. v. Sabine Properties, LLC.

LLP Mortgage claimed that Sabine had defaulted in making mortgage payments to them. They had accelerated the mortgage (called it due) and asked for a judgment for the entire mortgage balance.

Justice Madden noted that the complaint submitted by LLP Mortgage Ltd. did not specifically identify the original institution that granted the mortgage. It also didn’t state how the mortgage was assigned to LLP Mortgage Ltd.

The attorneys for Sabine alleged that the mortgage was originally given by Wall Street Mortgage Banks. They also claim that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems was acting as a nominee and was not the mortgage holder filed with the Registrar of Deeds in the City of New York.

Sabine Properties contended that LLP Mortgage did not provide the courts with documentation that this mortgage had been assigned to them.The court ruled in favor of Sabine Properties. The court held that LLP Mortgage could not show the rightful owner of the note and mortgage. Sabine Properties could not show a continuing chain of title as to how the mortgage became their property. On this basis. the court dismissed the lawsuit because they had no standing to sue.

Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

Should you be facing a foreclosure situation regarding your home, it is important you have experienced legal counsel to defend you. For more than 45 years, the Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo has been representing individuals whose homes have been foreclosed upon. We litigate foreclosure cases. When necessary, we can file Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies to stop foreclosures from moving forward. We are adept at handling mortgage modifications as well as defending foreclosure lawsuits based on the banks using defective procedures , bad faith and assignments. We also deal with predatory lending cases. Call us should you need assistance at 1-800-344- 6431; 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Foreclosure Crisis: A Problem for President Obama & the Democrats

January 7, 2011 by

Posted by Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq.

The foreclosure crisis in the United States is now reaching the highest office of the land. President Obama is being backed into a corner, forced to protect the banking industry from allegations of fraud, misrepresentations, improper lending practices, defective foreclosure lawsuits and predatory lending issues.

Senior democrats have been calling for a moratorium on foreclosures in the United States. They seek to punish the banking industry for their improper actions.

Recently, Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, made the following statement: “irresponsible banks need to be held accountable, but if we have not found a problem with a bank’s process, we do not believe that we should impose a moratorium that can hurt the market and hurt the individual buyers.”

The Obama Administration has taken the position that if we hurt or damage the financial industry, in the long run, it is the public who feels the pain when the economy continues to erode.

The banking industry is arguing against the moratorium on foreclosures. They claim that the moratorium would have a long term negative effect on the economy in the United States. The Obama administration shares this concern. Recently, David Axelrod, a senior White House advisor, stated “There are in fact valid foreclosures that probably should go forward.” The Obama administration’s position is that people who don’t pay their mortgages should be held accountable in foreclosure proceedings. In the alternative, homeowner advocates claim there has been a pattern of abuse in the banking industry regarding foreclosures. The Obama administration wants to play this issue both ways. They are expressing concern for homeowners’ whose homes are in foreclosure, but they do not want to take any steps that may have a negative affect on the banking industry because they feel it will have long term negative economic impact in the United States.

Protecting Homeowners From Foreclosure

Our law firm assists homeowners in foreclosure defense. We handle mortgage modifications. We deal with defective foreclosure lawsuits and predatory lending issues. In appropriate situations, we utilize Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies to assist our clients in stopping foreclosure proceedings from moving forward. Call us for a free consultation at 1-800-344-6431, 516-561-6645 or 718-350-2802.

Filed Under: Foreclosure Defense Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

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Attorney Elliot S. Schlissel

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Disclaimer: The information you obtain at this website is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your particular legal issue. This is attorney advertising.