Ohio Dem backs call to ‘occupy foreclosures’

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

A vote by “Occupy Oakland” earlier this week called on homeless Americans to begin occupying foreclosed and abandoned structures as squatters — and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) couldn’t be happier.

“Thank you, Occupy Oakland,” she told Raw Story this week. “Thank you for caring about families who have been victimized by Wall Street greed.”

Kaptur has been one of the leading homeless advocates in Congress, going so far as to call for people facing foreclosure to squat in their own homes and demand their bank produce the home’s title before kicking them out.

She’s advocated a strategy known as “produce the note,” which challenges foreclosing banks to prove that they own the mortgage. During the years leading up to the financial crash of 2008, most mortgages were bundled up into debt-based derivative investment schemes, then sold and resold again. This has led to an epidemic of missing or improperly completed paperwork, something that many people can leverage in order to stay in their homes longer.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/02/ohio-dem-backs-call-to-occupy-foreclosures/

[Kingofalldems]

1. Geat idea!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I hope Marcy Kaptur gets re-elected...

We need her voice.

Recommended.

[izquierdista]

4. We need her AND Dennis

And one less Boehner.

[slackmaster]

3. "Produce the note" works! I know someone who is staying an a $1 million house that he can't afford.

Because the present alleged owner of the note can't find the paperwork.

3,200 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3-car garage on over 1/2 acre in a very nice neighborhood. He keeps the property tax current (over $11 K per year) and insurance, but stopped paying P&I over a year ago when he lost his commission sales job.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. This violates the Statute of Frauds.

Contracts for the sale of real estate must be in writing to be valid.

The banks do not have any legal justification for foreclosure if they were sloppy enough to not get the contract in writing.

This is basic first-year Contracts class stuff.

:wtf:

[JDPriestly]

6. The families who found themselves unable to pay their mortgages

because they bought overpriced houses in an inflated market did nothing wrong. They paid market value for their homes.

The mortgage-lenders lent the money. They had to know that the market was in the boom of a boom/bust cycle. Why should they have known? Because it was obvious to any half-way intelligent person that wages had not risen commensurate with housing prices. That does not work since people pay their mortgages from their wages.

The mortgage-lenders are supposed to be the experts. Ordinary folks who fall in love with a house and think that whatever risk they are taking is safe because they are (very often) assured either that they will be able to refinance if interest rates go up or sell the house at a profit are not at all to blame. They have no expertise.

Mortgage-lenders and real estate agents got greedy for the commissions they were paid for putting people in debt. And those mortgage-lenders and real estate agents still have the money they earned through putting poor people in houses they could not pay for.

The people should still have the houses.

Our government has rewarded the banks for the chicanery that caused the mortgage crisis. Shame on them all.

Mortgage companies can and do reject mortgage applications. They have the professional expertise and are trusted to make the decision as to the creditworthy of those applying for mortgages.

The mortgage companies did not do their job. They chose to make enormous profits rather than to act responsibly and deny mortgages.

Similarly, the appraisal companies were supposed to be professionals in assessing the value of the homes sold. They gobbled up their share of the profits and haven't looked back. Shame on them all.

Sorry if I stepped on the toes of some people who never thought of it that way. But legally, the lender is half the equation. When so many loans go bad, as many as have gone bad in the last four to five years, it is the fault of the culture in banking. Ordinary people are not to blame. They are not responsible for being experts. The banks and mortgage lenders are.

Sorry this is so long, but the injustice is disgusting.

[sarcasmo]

7. Occupy foreclosed homes and schools that are shut down, occupy the libraries.

Shut down the mega banks.