It’s spreading…
Dubious signatures, missing, inaccurate paperwork halt 4,450 city foreclosures
BY Robert Gearty
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thousands of foreclosures across the city are in question because paperwork used to justify the seizure of homes is riddled with flaws, a Daily News probe has found.
Banks have suspended some 4,450 foreclosures in all five boroughs because of paperwork problems like missing and inaccurate documents, dubious signatures and banks trying to foreclose on mortgages they don’t even own.
The city’s not alone. All 50 states are investigating foreclosure paperwork, evicted homeowners are hiring lawyers and buyers of foreclosed homes are fretting over the legality of their purchases.
Last week, New York’s top judge, Jonathan Lippman, began requiring all bank lawyers to sign a form vouching for the accuracy of their foreclosure paperwork.
That could have been a problem for one Long Island foreclosure that was being brought by GMAC Mortgage last year.
A sworn affidavit dated March 30 was signed by someone identified as Sherry Hall, vice president of a GMAC affiliate called Homecomings Financial Network.
Fifteen days later another sworn affidavit surfaced in another Suffolk County foreclosure, this time signed by a GMAC vice president named Sheri D. Hall.
Despite the difference in the names, the signatures were identical – and were vouched for by the same notary.
Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Peter Mayer refused to approve the foreclosure bearing the name Sherry Hall and ordered her, and the notary, to appear in court Nov. 17. GMAC officials did not return calls.
“It’s nice to know someone in authority is looking at the fine print,” said Derek McCoy, the delinquent homeowner in the case who’s trying to keep his Coram home with a loan modification.
Mayer issued his decision Sept. 21, the day after GMAC, which was rescued from failure with a $17 billion taxpayer bailout, suspended foreclosures in the 23 states where court approval is required, including New York.
The moratorium, which ended last week, came after GMAC “robo-signer” Jeffrey Stephan admitted in a Maine case he’d signed 10,000 foreclosure documents a month without reviewing them.
Stephan also robo-signed in New York. The News found six Bronx foreclosures with his signature, including five in one month.
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4closureFraud.org
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I sure could use some…
What is going on in the rest of the country? 4,450 foreclosures halted is a lot of foreclosures. Is N.Y.C. the only city having results with numbers like that due to all of the foreclosure fraud? I think we would all like to hear about what other cities and states are doing and the results they are getting. With such startling numbers like that due to all of the fraud, I cannot imagine why there is not a NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON ALL FORECLOSURES. What more proof do they need that this fraud truly exists? This is causing unnecesary chaos. How many more hearings do these people need to have? There is just no papering over this mess. Why do they keep denying that Fraudclosuregate is a crisis of epic proportions?
That is how the Judicial System is suppose to work. New York, kudos again!
MIGHT NEED A PROBE:)
Great work, keep probing, it works every time.
Respectfully
Joe Parisi
HPW BOUT A HUG AND A KISS?