Victims Of Mortgage Abuse Refuse To Cash Tiny Settlement Checks
A billion dollars in checks sent to foreclosed homeowners as part of a national settlement with big banks is going uncashed, another sign that the government’s much-criticized effort to redress mortgage abuses is coming up far short of its promised impact.
While the agency in charge of dispersing the funds has not specified how many individual checks make up that $1 billion total, the fact that recipients are not bothering to deposit the funds reinforces criticisms of the program. It distributed 4.2 million checks, which expire after 90 days. The vast majority of those checks were for just $300 each. Yet a review by the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) suggested that almost a quarter million Americans lost homes under false or illegal pretenses and that about 1.2 million borrowers had had to defend against wrongful foreclosure efforts. The IFR, part of the much-derided 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, has long been faulted for protecting the mortgage industry and for distributing checks for hundreds of dollars to homeowners who owed hundreds of thousands to abusive lenders. The uncashed checks account for a bit less than a third of the money allocated for the IFR program under the 2012 deal with financial firms.
The IFR’s review was quashed by a subsequent settlement amid sharp criticism from consumer activists that the review process was being warped into a coverup of bank and servicer misdeeds. Regulators explained their refusal to share details of industry abuses by saying those practices are “trade secrets” and that revealing them would hurt firms’ competitiveness.
~
This is such a disgrace! How come the banks get away with illegal actions? I don’t get it. What ever happened to proof & the truth! Preponderance of evidence means nothing in our Judicial system. Why don’t the Judges have to abide by the Facts of Law?
When we received our check for $600, I looked up the payment slotting. Guess what. They paid us from the wrong slot. We should have gotten a check for $7,500. BIG DIFFERENCE. I made 40 phone calls and everyone told me there is not appeal process. I finally got someone who gave me some direction. After almost 2 months of sending in my backup to verify I was right. I was told my B of A, that the bank sent the paperwork to the attorneys before for the violation occurred, so they did the right thing and I got paid correctly. Once again, being right means nothing to the BANKSTERS…
Or GEE, MaYBE they are sending it to the wrong addresses!!!
I got a letter from Rust Consulting informing me that I was eligible under the terms of the Fraudclosure settlement. (I received $1,000- big deal).
The interesting part? The letter was addressed to one of the ATTORNEYS (VP of the firm) from the FORECLOSURE MILL representing CHASE !
Delivered to MY address!
I called Rust and asked them why HIS name was on the letter – asked them to investigate.
I called back a few days later and they said “The letter had been removed from the file- AT MY REQUEST!” I did NOT request that! I wanted to know how HIS name got on THAT letter!
Lies- on top of lies- on top of cover-ups.
Any comments on THAT?
I am a FRAUDCLOSURE VICTIM but unfortunately its not by one of the big banks included in the AG Lawsuit but it is such an insult! I would not settle for 1 penny less than what we had paid on our loan. My time is coming and I will get JUSTICE and hopefully the corrupt bank and unethical lawyer & Judge will all be going to jail!
Know what you’re saying, “Fighting in Ohio” …. sans any legal fees, I went the full gamut of proving to the Country Recorder’s Office, the County Auditor’s Office, my Congressman’s office and two Senator’s offices (which took nearly three years to do) that I was INDEED on the deed/mortgage “note” with ex-husband that we co-owned together for 35 years a home which HE refinanced, but when HE filed for bankruptcy, CitiMortgage refused to allow me to restructure the amount he yet owed into a new 30 year mortgage at current interest in order to save this home which I LIVED IN! My income is that of Disability, so retaining an attorney to fight this, isn’t happening for me. Once Citi and their attorneys successfully evicted me, Freddie Mac “STATED” via a phone conversation, that IF I was so SERIOUS about keeping my home, it was simple enough for my ex-husband to “sign the property over” to me! THAT WAS WHAT WE WERE ASKING THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THEY STOLE IT FROM US!!! Freddie Mac even FORGED the records to make it appear I was NOT A CO-OWNER from 1997 forward!!
So . . . WHERE IS THE “ATTORNEY” WHO POSTED IN THESE BLOGS WHAT WE VICTIMS CAN DO COLLECTIVELY??? WE’RE WAITING FOR HER GUIDELINES and are WILLING TO PROVIDE the $1.00 EACH she said it would require – WE’LL HAPPILY PROVIDE MORE THAN $1.00 EACH … TO ACCOMPLISH ANY JUSTICE IN THIS MESS for We The People – IF THAT IS A POSSIBILITY!!! How could AMERICA become so overrun with CROOKS???!!!!!
I have received both state and Fed, checks. Just copy them and cash them , you have 90 days. The instructions say that you can counter-suit for the rest. They sued you, sue them back and get in front of a jury in your district.
The fact they sent a check out of some kind of misdeed should be regarded as admission of wrongdoing no matter how you slice it . . . keep the check as evidence . . .
I also have a check that I refuse to deposit.
The SOB’s at CHASE, servicing my mortgage for Deutsche Bank, tried to foreclose, even though my mortgage wasn’t transferred to the trust till THREE YEARS after the trust was closed. Both Chase and Deutsche Bank know this violates the PSA’s strict guidelines, invalidating the transfer and breaking the tax protection provided by REMIC law. CHASE pulled all the usual crap to avoid a modification, while The White House supported this multifaceted fraud, and the IRS hasn’t even tried to collect the taxes Chase and/or Deutsche Bank owe on mortgages, like mine, that were not transferred in accordance with REMIC laws.
And Deutsche has an ongoing law suit against Chase in Federal court claiming that thousands of mortgages (including mine) were sold with false Reps. and Warrantees, with their evidence coming directly from U.S. Senate testimony by WAMU (before WAMU became CHASE).
I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept $300 as compensation. That probably doesn’t even cover my fax expenses for sending the same documents to CHASE over and over and over.
Hell, my legal fees alone were thousands. (But well worth it because my lawyer was great, and we finally forced CHASE to allow a modification!) Yes, I know “great lawyer” is generally an oxymoron, but this was an exception.
Of course the retirement nest egg I thought I had in my house was a myth because the appraisal provided by the bank’s appraiser, was inflated by $200,000 ! I figured it could be off by 10-20% but never imagined that the appraisal was an outright fraud. So much for my nest egg. I will likely have to move over seas to afford retirement.
NO …. I HAVE MY CHECK AND IT EXPIRES IN TWO DAYS. I AM NOT CASHING THIS CHECK! IT WAS AN INSULT TO ME AND MY INTELLIGENCE TO SEND ME $400 after three years of litigation and proof that the Bank committed fraud. It was like being robbed and then the robber says,” Here is a couple of dollars of the thousands I robbed you of, so run on son, and you can’t do shit about it”! Then when you call 911 to report the robbery the police say,” TAKE THE MONEY AND SHUT UP”! WOW … THEY CAN KEEP THEIR FUCKIN MONEY AND I WILL SEE YOU IN COURT AND IF I LOSE … I WILL SEE YOU IN THE NEXT COURT UNTIL JUSTICE IS SERVED….. KEEP FIGHTING EVERYONE … GOD BLESS
These “uncashed checks” no doubt were mailed to the wrong address and are now sitting in the USPS “dead letter” office. Rust Consulting did “such a good job”! /sarc
You’re exactly right. Those checks remain “uncashed” because they were never put in the hands of the intended recipient. This wasn’t done because Rust Consulting are a bunch of dumb asses (well, maybe the ones answering the phones).
This was the strategy from the beginning. Cooked up by the banks and the execs at Rust. Common sense – and even the post office – would tell you that you don’t mail something to an address someone left 2 or 3 years ago. Why do you think they put the 90 day stipulation on cashing the check? Because they knew many would not be able to figure out what was happening and correct their address within 90 days.
The bankers don’t just want trillions. They want your hundreds as well. They want it all. And there doesn’t appear to be anyone willing to stop them.