In the past week, three major US banks (JPMorgan Chase, GMAC, and now BoA) have announced that they will stop their foreclosure activity in order to examine their procedures.
Recent testimony by bank officials has brought to light what some are calling "robo-signers" - the practice of signing legal documents without abiding by specific laws that govern them, like having personal knowledge that the information is accurate or having the documents notarized.
One BoA official testified in a Massachusetts bankruptcy case that she signed between 7-8,000 foreclosure documents per month and "typically" did not read them. Assuming 23 working days to a month, that averages out to signing 326 documents per day, or roughly 40 per hour.
That becomes a full time job in and of itself, apart from carrying out the other duties that are required of a corporate Vice President (the position which most often signs these documents). One can readily see how having personal knowledge that such a large volume of information is correct becomes impossible.
To make matters worse, two large Florida law firms have recently been accused of falsifying foreclosure documents. And the most recent issue of the Florida Bar News found that over 20% of foreclosure cases in Manatee and Sarasota counties had some type of procedural or paperwork problem. We can only assume that other counties are similar.
So, what do you think, is halting foreclosures a good thing? I'd love to hear your thoughts... tune in next week for mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment