Bank Tries To Foreclose On Owned Home (Bank of America) - Tuolumne Woman Owns Home Outright

[Kadie]

Bank Tries To Foreclose On Owned Home
Tuolumne Woman Owns Home Outright
POSTED: 3:58 pm PDT May 26, 2010
UPDATED: 4:37 pm PDT May 26, 2010


TUOLUMNE, Calif. -- Cindy Willmes paid cash for her Tuolumne home in 2001. So she was quite surprised when Bank of America send her a notice of default on the property in February.

"I honestly felt like Bank of America was trying to steal my property," Willmes said.

She contacted Bank of America to try to find out why the bank believed it could foreclose on property she had purchased outright.

Willmes has chain-of-ownership records, which show Bank of America had sold the property to Fannie Mae years earlier. Fannie Mae foreclosed on the previous owner, and Willmes purchased the property with cash from Fannie Mae.

But Willmes said Bank of America did not care about the documentation.

The bank proceeded with the foreclosure, placing ads in the local paper and nailing a foreclosure notice to her door.

"I called the title company, the title company called B of A, and they refused to rescind it," Willmes said.

more...
http://www.kcra.com/station/23688124/detail.html

[knitter4democracy]

1. This is the problem with banks not needing to hold actual titles anymore.

I hope she has a great lawyer.

[aquart]

6. Is anyone moving to insist they hold those titles?

[jgraz]

13. Nope.

[knitter4democracy]

29. There is a judge in Michigan who is.

I don't know how his rulings are holding up on appeal, though.

[charlie]

31. A judge in Cinncinnati

demanded proof of ownership from Deutsche Bank when they tried to foreclose a swath of homes. They couldn't tweeze out direct claims from their tangled derivatives, so he told them tough toenails. This was a couple of years ago. I don't know how his ruling has fared since, either.

[ellenfl]

23. real property is not usually 'titled', like automobiles .

real property is deeded and banks don't automatically become grantees.

let this be a lesson . . . make sure you keep your title insurance policy in a safe place. it's not a bad idea to make sure your title company hasn't gone out of business, either. as for the prior mortgage, florida law voids a mortgage after so many years so that if it never got released in the public records, it becomes void.

your second lesson is to make sure any liens on the property when you bought it get released/satisfied. most states now have their public records on the 'net. as a real estate paralegal, my transaction isn't done when the closing is done but only after i see all seller liens have been released. if they don't get recorded, i stay on the lender until it happens. as for liens on prior prior owners, that's why you have title insurance (see lesson one above). that policy insures clear title to the property and would have to pay the bank, if there was a valid unpaid debt.

ellen fl

[depakid]

2. B of A should have been dealt with over a year ago...

[Angry Dragon]

3. They should start arresting some bankers

and charging them with theft and fraud

[corpseratemedia]

5. +1,000,000

why arrest petty criminals when others steal houses..STEAL

[aquart]

8. Oh, how would they find an unbiased jury?

[readmoreoften]

11. +100,000

[RKP5637]

15. Exactly! I'm so fed up with these bankers, some CEOs and their henchmen need jail time. n/t

[aquart]

4. Gun rights people: Is she allowed to shoot them for trespass?

What bloody fucking nerve.

[fascisthunter]

7. what idiot ordered their employees to do this?!

is this a policy of theirs?

[aquart]

20. The punitive damages need to be sufficient to cure them.

[1776Forever]

9. I woulnd't doubt this isn't played out many times in the future! We didn't know Deutsche Bank owned

our home until the foreclosure went through. Go figure! Best of luck to this woman!

[Greyhound]

10. But, but, but they're too big to fail...

Unfortunately in Obama's America, Cindy Willmes isn't.

Here's hoping that justice, or at least sanity, prevails without bankrupting her.
:toast:

[flvegan]

12. If they were foreclosing an interest prior to her taking title, the underwriter

should have filed a lawsuit to keep the sale from happening while everything got sorted out. That's some shoddy title underwriting there.

[diane in sf]

14. I hope she can get a really nasty lawyer to go after BofA

[Ishoutandscream2]

16. Jesus H Christ

Living in Amerika!

[Gormy Cuss]

17. And this isn't the first time BofA made this type of error either.

There was an instance in FL that received media coverage -- same deal, owners had no liens on the property and BofA foreclosed on it, even though their own local realtor told them their lien belonged to a property down the street.

[bobbolink]

18. Michael Moore made this up, right?

Death to the corporations!

[donco6]

19. IT took calling the News to get them to stop.

Assholes.

[smoogatz]

21. Caught stealing.

I doubt MS. Willmes will get so much as an apology. Christ on a cracker.

[ellenfl]

22. jo, is that you? eom

[Lorien]

24. Not the first time this has happened

Someone posted a similar story here last year. The bank went so far as to have the Sheriff's office come and evict the rightful owner, then take all of the owners possessions and place them on the street where they were taken by strangers. I can't recall if the homeowner ever had their home returned to them, but a lifetimes worth of goods and memories were gone.

[lovuian]

25. they don't own the titles and have sold them and resold them

thinking that they can confiscate the property

Unbelievable!!!

[Dawson Leery]

26. All of the big banks should have been allowed to sink.

When Lehman and Bear Stearns went under, BoA, JP Morgan, CitiBank, AIG, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, etc should have been allowed to follow.

[BlueIris]

27. This is the second or third story like this that I've read this year.

Wonder how many times it has happened?

I'm thinking of buying a home in the next few months and won't be doing it with a mortgage. It's scary to think that even paying for a home IN. CASH. won't protect me from fuck ups like this.

[Heywood J]

28. Sounds like a house having any past association with BoA

(e.g. former owner had a mortgage with them) should be listed as a fault, since it may cause the house to be stolen.

BoA needs to be sued into the ground. If I were on a jury that dealt with this sort of thing, I'd have no problem awarding damages in eight figures.

[Scurrilous]

30. Ridiculous. n/t