MERS? It May Have Swallowed Your (Home) Loan

[no_hypocrisy]

Judges, lawmakers, lawyers and housing experts are raising piercing questions about MERS, which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, whose private mortgage registry has all but replaced the nation’s public land ownership records. Most questions boil down to this:

How can MERS claim title to those mortgages, and foreclose on homeowners, when it has not invested a dollar in a single loan?

And, more fundamentally: Given the evidence that many banks have cut corners and made colossal foreclosure mistakes, does anyone know who owns what or owes what to whom anymore?

-snip-

ALAN GRAYSON has seen MERS’s record-keeping up close. From 2009 until this year, he served as the United States representative for Florida’s Eighth Congressional District — in the Orlando area, which was ravaged by foreclosures. Thousands of constituents poured through his office, hoping to fend off foreclosures. Almost all had papers bearing the MERS name.

“In many foreclosures, the MERS paperwork was squirrelly,” Mr. Grayson said. With no real legal authority, he says, Fannie and the banks eliminated the old system and replaced it with a privatized one that was unreliable.

-more-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/business/06mers.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

[ejpoeta]

1. they'll just pass a law making it so they can still foreclose on your home

even if they can't prove they have a right to. haven't they already tried.

[DCKit]

2. That's what I've been expecting.

No sense in holding the poor banksters accountable when they've already got all those deadbeats to worry about. :sarcasm: