Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney Says Congress Needs TO Pass Mandatory Loan Modification Legislation

[Better Believe It]

"It's Absurd!" Expert Says About BofA Claims To End Foreclosure Crisis Quickly
October 9, 2010

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A consumer bankruptcy lawyer said the claims that Bank of America will be able to review its foreclosure proceedings nationwide in just a few weeks, is "absurd."

"I mean, c'mon, let's just think about this for a minute. That's beyond absurd to me," said attorney Max Gardner III, of Shelby.

Gardner said that it could take months for the bank to review hundreds of thousands of foreclosure affidavits and that the effects will be felt for years.

"This is not an oops. This is not a technical problem. This is not even sloppiness," he said.

Gardner said Congress needs to respond with sweeping legislation. He supports a mandatory federal program that entitles every homeowner to a loan modification.

"If you're in a home that you have a $400,000 mortgage on and it's only worth $200,000 today, then I think you should get some relief. Everybody should," Gardner said.

Read the full article at:

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/25335284/detail.html

[customerserviceguy]

1. If you buy a car for $15,000

and after a few years, it's only worth $7,000, but you owe $10,000, should you also get some relief? If not, then what's the difference between that and what Gardner said?

[Better Believe It]

5. Can the bank prove it owns your car, do they have a legal title to it.? If not, oh well!

They overcharged you for something they don't even legally own!

Hang the bastards! Or end the foreclosures and adjust the mortages to reflect the actual value of the house.

[customerserviceguy]

6. In the case of the car

The bank is legal owner on the title, the person who drives it around is just the registered owner. We also have registered title for motor vehicles, you know that.

In the case of real estate, we have legally recorded mortgage instruments, they establish the right to foreclose in the case of default. Borrowers signed agreements promising to pay the sums stated, under the terms outlined in the documents. The mortgage companies didn't do the overcharging, it might well have been the sellers of houses at the top of the bubble. Should we go after them, too?

The houses will eventually be repriced to an actual market value, it's all a matter of who gets the benefit of that revaluation. My prediction is that it won't be the people who made the poor decision to buy or refinance at the top of a bubble.

[Better Believe It]

9. You're comparing buying a car to buying a house because????

So why are you comparing buying a car with getting a house mortgage? Are they both clear cut and simple? We don't even know who actually has the legal title to millions of homes!

So you seem to be apologizing for the big banks and blaming the foreclosure crisis on the victims, including "people who made the poor decision to buy or refinance at the top of the bubble.

You of course, in your infinite wisdom, bought or refinanced before the bubble burst!

So screw those millions of stupid homebuyers and let's have a round of applause for those home buyers lucky enough to escape the banksters fraud!

[customerserviceguy]

16. I'm only doing it for one purpose

People make lousy decisions on car buying, but they don't last for more than five or six years tops, and we don't bail people out if they buy some flashy gas guzzler. My contention is that bailing people out for paying too much for buying more house than they need is pretty much the same thing, and we shouldn't be bailing out those kinds of bad decisions, either.

[EC]

11. Cars always loose equity

homes are supposed to increase equity or at least retain it's investment..

[taught_me_patience]

13. Nothing is guaranteed... especially equity value. n/t

[customerserviceguy]

17. Well. it doesn't always happen

and anybody who watched too much "Flip This House" has just discovered that. Bailing out people who make bad decisions simply encourages them to make more bad decisions.

[thunder rising]

2. It's not about the "upside down" ... it's about the FRAUD! Paper work not in order, no foreclosure!

[TexasObserver]

3. He is so right. At BOA, the left hand can't even find the right hand.

These huge banks are simply full of incompetence covered up by bigness and power.

[SoCalDem]

4. Had they done this FIRST, dems would be in better electoral shape now

and people would not be as scared to death of buying things as they are.

[customerserviceguy]

7. And they'll stay scared of buying things

as long as prices are spiraling downward. That doesn't stop until the foreclosure markets dry up. Any monkey wrench thrown into the works just delays the inevitable, and prolongs the pain.

[SoCalDem]

8. That's why we are staying put & decided to remodel instead of selling

Wanna see my beeee-yooo-tiful floor?



other remodeling pics...so painful to see the atrocious mess we created.. our new cabinets & counters arrive in 2 weeks..then I start on the small bath, followed by a front courtyard & flagstone walkway..

[customerserviceguy]

15. Nice floor!

And it's good for you that you're taking a sensible course of action, but ultimately, home sales are what moves the economy.

It's hard to advise people to do things that benefit themselves, yet are not great for the big picture. Still, you gotta look out for your own family and your own budget. I've paid off my credit cards, and I'm shoving 18% into my 401K, and another $65 a week into my HSA. Yes, I "should" be spending that money like a drunken sailor in the economy, but I'm going to turn 55 next month, and need to pile it away like crazy for retirement.

[SoCalDem]

18. We "helped".. Daltile got a check for $5617.84

and we still have to pay for our maple cabinets & the black granite counter tops.. & we have to order the stainless steel backsplash & matching island top

I did buy my sink & faucet from a Danish mfg. though:)

we got our light fixtures ( 9 of them) from an outfit in Oregon

[customerserviceguy]

19. The Oregonians need the money, for sure

I try to support their wine industry every time I go back for a visit, my lady and I drag back four suitcases loaded with NW wine and beer!

Just drank my last Ninkasi Tricerahops IPA on Friday, I can't wait to get back at Thanksgiving to load up again...

[depakid]

10. Congress and the administration could have simply have pushed right to rent

and redemption after 5 years.

It would have been an elegant and effective solution to the problem and would have cost the treasury next to nothing.

Right to Rent: Helping Homeowners Without Throwing Money at Banks
Jan 11, 2009.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/right-to-rent-helping-hom_b_156913.html

Unfortunately, elegant and effective has had about as much appeal to this crowd as bold and progressive. Hence, the present political and economic situation.

[DirkGently]

12. Agreed we need this type of reform. Not agreed the MERS / assignment nonsense is why.

None of the borrowers in question were defrauded. They were put in a bad position by dirty practices, which is not exactly the same thing. They borrowed money, usually to purchase a house, and signed a mortgage to secure it. Nothing sneaky or dirty or illegal about that. The problem I see is that because the banks were chopping up loans selling them as securities in ways that intentionally disguised the risk, they ended up flooding the market with bad loans, driving real estate prices through the roof. At the same time. borrowers were told that horrible products like interest-only and "pick a payment" loans were a fine idea, because everyone can refinance in three years, because real estate prices never go down.

The Obama administration has asked nicely, TWICE, for banks to help people whose houses are "underwater" to refinance. They're not doing it. No equity, no new loan, despite the fact that the "lack of equity" has mostly to do with the financial nonsense the banks and financial institutions created to enrich themselves, knowing full well it wouldn't last forever, and coming begging to the American taxpayers for help when it didn't. When we helped them, they patted themselves on the back, handed out gargantuan bonuses, and commenced foreclosing at lightspeed.

Some people are saying millions of mortgages should simply be declared invalid because of the deceptive ways they were hacked up and distributed through "MERS" and so forth. Don't think that's legally correct or ethically sound. What does strike me as logical is making the banks eat some of the difference between where the market should have been, and where it got to, due to their deliberate participation in taking all reason and good faith out of the lending environment for their own benefit. Because as it stands, we're rewarding them for their malfeasance, and letting those with the least power and money pay.

I say cram down any mortgage given between, say, 2004 and 2008 on a primary residence to market value, where the cramdown would allow the borrower to make payments and keep the property.

[Better Believe It]

14. Kick for Sunday DU'ers