http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/gen/ap/Produce_the_Note.html

Homeowners' rallying cry: Produce the note
By MITCH STACY ~ Associated Press Writer

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork.

And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill.

Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess.

During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed.

Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage.

"I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left."

In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it has been; some judges are more sympathetic than others.

More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure.

Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy.

"We knew early on that the only relief that would ever come to people would be to the people who were in their houses," Hoyer said. "Nobody was going to fashion any relief for people who have already lost their houses. So your only hope was to hang on any way you could."

Tom Deutsch, deputy executive director of the American Securitization Forum, a group that represents banks, law firms and investors, dismissed the strategy as merely a stalling tactic, saying homeowners are "making lawyers jump through procedural hoops to delay what's likely to be inevitable."

Deutsch said the original note is almost always electronically retained and can eventually be found.

Judges are often willing to accept electronic documentation. And lenders are sometimes allowed to produce other paperwork to establish they are the holder of a loan. Still, assembling such documents to a judge's satisfaction takes time, which to homeowners is the point.

Lovelace filed her produce-the-note demand last fall after the bank acknowledged that her original mortgage document had been lost or destroyed. Since then, there has been no activity on the foreclosure — no letters from the lender, no court filings.

The law firm handling the foreclosure for the lender refused to comment.

A University of Iowa study last year suggested that companies servicing mortgages are often negligent when it comes to producing the documentation to support foreclosure. In the study of more than 1,700 bankruptcy cases stemming from home foreclosures, the original note was missing more than 40 percent of the time, and other pieces of required documentation also were routinely left out.

The first big success of the produce-the-note movement came in 2007 when a federal judge in Cleveland threw out 14 foreclosures by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. because the bank failed to produce the original notes.

Michael Silver, a lawyer for two of the families in that case, said at least one eventually lost their home. Still, he considers that a success.

"From the perspective of the person who's in the home, you may have kept them in the house another 10 or 12 months," he said. "If I can get a result with economic benefits to a client, then I think I won."

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio endorsed the strategy in a fiery speech on the House floor during debate on the federal bank bailout last month.

"Don't leave your home," she said. "Because you know what? When those companies say they have your mortgage, unless you have a lawyer that can put his or her finger on that mortgage, you don't have that mortgage, and you are going to find they can't find the paper up there on Wall Street."

April Charney, head of foreclosure defense for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida, said the strategy has been so successful for her that she now travels around the country to train other lawyers in how to use it. She said she has gotten cases delayed for years by demanding that lenders produce paperwork they cannot find.

"This is an army of lawyers getting out there to stop foreclosures so we can get to the serious business of creating solutions," Charney said. "Nothing good is going to happen as long as we continue to bleed homeowners."

just read the above article and wanted to share it with anyone who is in the same situation. Good luck

Wow, thanks, Fran.

That and the fact that I believe it's more banks that are halting their foreclosure procedures for 30-60 days.

Hope no one loses their home through no fault of their own.

Sharing the info.

Sounds like poetic justice to me.
I really hope this movement catches on nationwide.

Rep: Foreclosed owners should squat in their own homes

David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
January 30, 2009
RawStory.com
If you're poor and the bank is coming for your home, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has a plan for you.

Just squat, she says.

Yes, this Ohio Democrat is actually encouraging her financially distressed constituents whose homes have been foreclosed upon, to simply stay put.

In a Friday report, CNN's Drew Griffin explored the case of Ohioan Andrea Geiss, whose home was foreclosed upon in April.

"Behind in payments, out of work, a husband sick, she had nowhere to go," said Griffin. "So, she decided to follow the advice of her Congresswoman and go nowhere."

In Lucas County, Ohio, over 4,000 properties were foreclosed upon in 2008, reports CNN.

"So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes," said Congresswoman Kaptur before the House of Representatives. "Don't you leave."

She's called on all of her foreclosed-upon constituents to stay in their homes and refuse to leave without "an attorney and a fight," said CNN.

"If they've had no legal representation of a high quality, I tell them stay in their homes," Kaptur told Griffin.

Kaptur is a high-profile advocate of an increasingly popular mode of fighting foreclosures best known for it's key phrase: "Produce the note."

By telling a bank to "produce the note," a homeowner can delay foreclosure by forcing the lender to prove the suing institution is actually the same which owns the debt.

"During the lending boom, most mortgages were flipped and sold to another lender or servicer or sliced up and sold to investors as securitized packages on Wall Street," explains the Consumer Warning Network. "In the rush to turn these over as fast as possible to make the most money, many of the new lenders did not get the proper paperwork to show they own the note and mortgage. This is the key to the produce the note strategy."

And Friday's segment on this growing foreclosure fighting "movement" was not the network's first. Earlier in January, CNN explored one person's strategy in demanding her bank "produce the note," only to find that the lender had "lost or destroyed" the evidence of debt ownership. Such a revelation can significantly strengthen a homeowner's position when asking to renegotiate a mortgage.

That these banks, many of which received billions of dollars in government bailout funds, continue to boot defaulted owners from their homes, makes them "vultures" says Kaptur.

"They prey on our property assets," she said. "I guess the reason I'm so adamant on this is because I know property law and its power to protect the individual homeowner. And I believe that 99.9 percent of our people have not had good legal representation in this."

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Jan. 30, 2009.

Source URL: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rep_Foreclosed_owners_should_squat_in_0130.html

Banks deserve this "produce the note" treatment.

This is because, every time you make a mistake, you deserve to be punished.

Banks have made a huge one. Banks, have forgotten a business principle "before you salivate on your proposed ROI (return on investment), make sure you are getting your ROFI (return of investment)".

You do that by making sure your debtor is credit worthy and keeping your papers in check. Banks didn't. Tough one, suckers.

Fools and their money should be parted.

what about us fools without money???

You know when we first bought our home (it was the ONLY time I've ever bought a home) I was surprised when not too long after, I think maybe within the first year even, our note was sold to someone else. I had no idea this was common practice and was pretty ticked off as it went from a local bank to some no name place that was out of state. I was shocked to learn that this is how banks do business. This makes me wonder if they have my original note.

Have you and your money already been parted?

as soon as the bills come...yes lol

as soon as the bills come...yes lol

as soon as the bills come...yes lol

The triple post... This happens because mingle2 page updates constantly, even when you're posting (which it shouldn't). If you happen to click post reply when the page flickers (updates), you'll get a double post.

or maybe because what i say is worth repeating...that's what i tell myself anyway

good one

That does not qualify as parting. Because in this case, you willfully exchange your money for something.

A fool will have his money parted away from himself, by exchanging money for nothing (a promise of something).

there's nothing willful about it. lol

What kind of bills are you talking about?

the basic bills and taxes...i just don't want to give it up lol

Taxes, yes, they are not voluntary, but they are not "fool parting", because they are simply theft, err.... armed robbery.

Basic bills, such as utilities are all voluntary, since you don't have to live where they charge or even using those.

For example, I pay for electricity only ($13/mo - efficient setup), and internet and cell phone.

Water, trash and gas is by the landlord (well, yes, in the end I pay it, but I try to overuse them since this is a communistic arrangement), and I have chosen to use those.

I don't watch TV (use my LCD only for movies and games when I have time), and don't use land line phone (why support unionized services?).