Beau Biden is wrong on MERS lawsuit
The MERS System has been an efficient way to register the majority of home mortgage loans in America for more than a decade. The press and politicians paid little attention because the MERS System works. It works for lenders and for homeowners.
The MERS System helps to eliminate breaks in the chain of the homeowner’s title and streamlines the mortgage process by using e-commerce to replace paperwork, resulting in lower overall mortgage borrowing costs.
Unfortunately, MERS has been making national headlines recently as the subject of politically motivated rhetoric and litigation, including in Delaware with Attorney General Beau Biden’s recently announced lawsuit. Critics of the MERS database are publicly blaming it for just about everything that went wrong in the housing industry, for local revenue problems, and even for some of Wall Street’s transgressions.
The reality is, many factors contributed to the challenges we face together as a nation. The current rhetoric — and the legal challenge — is without merit.
We understand that losing a home is one of the worst things a family can experience, but no one has lost a home to foreclosure because the mortgage was registered on MERS. The MERS system is not complex, and the easiest way to set the record straight is to talk about what MERS is and how it works.
MERS runs an electronic registration system that tracks changes in mortgage servicing rights. All mortgages registered on the MERS System are recorded in public land records and the proper recording fees are paid. And, whenever an assignment out of MERS’ name is made, the necessary assignment is recorded and paid for, so public land records remain accurate. The MERS System is not a legal system of record or a replacement for public land records and no interests are transferred on the system — they are only tracked.
Homebuyers agree to MERS’ role at closing. Standard, clear and unambiguous language is on page one, paragraph one of homeowners’ mortgage documents, naming MERS as mortgagee and giving the company the legal right to act on behalf of the lender. As mortgagee, MERS is a common agent for all of its members, so an assignment is unnecessary when servicing rights or ownership of the promissory note transfers between members. The lien remains in MERS’ name. There is no need for an assignment, so there is nothing to record.
MERS doesn’t service loans, doesn’t receive or store any mortgage documents, doesn’t collect mortgage payments, and doesn’t make loan modification decisions or decisions to foreclose. The MERS website provides homeowners with the identity of their mortgage servicer and links homeownership and foreclosure prevention resources.
Contrary to the claims of Attorney General Biden, the MERS System does not hide ownership. Anytime a change in ownership or servicing occurs, federal law requires that borrowers are notified by the parties making the change. In addition, mortgage servicers are required to provide ownership information to the homeowner upon request. Borrowers don’t depend on MERS for this information.
That’s what MERS is and does. Our business model is transparent, straightforward and provides an important service. MERS was created in the 1990s partly in response to the disappearance of a lot of lenders that failed during the Savings and Loan Crisis, wreaking havoc for homeowners and the mortgage industry. The mortgage finance industry was changing rapidly, and mortgage securitization was growing on its own — we didn’t help Wall Street create securities. In fact, the first mortgage-backed security was issued a decade and a half before the MERS System became operational. And use of the MERS System has been validated by federal and state courts around the nation, and the MERS business model is operating in all 50 states.
It is unfortunate that there are so many misconceptions about our company. It’s easy to play the blame game and make MERS the villain in the foreclosure story, but it’s irresponsible when the rhetoric is based more on fiction than fact. It’s also irresponsible to offer false hope to borrowers by suggesting that if MERS was named in their mortgage then the foreclosure can’t proceed.
Despite all of the challenges, MERS continues to play an important role and supports the American dream of homeownership.
Reposted in full for historical and educational importance.
SOURCE: http://www.delawareonline.com
I think I just threw up in my mouth, twice…
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My case is in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Kiah v. Aurora Loan Services, LLC and MERS. Appeal case no. 11-1010. Aurora’s attorney presented what she purported was an original note endorsed to Aurora, while at the same time admitting it had been securitized and owned by Fannie Mae [TOTAL FRAUD and the judge let her get away with it because I believe he did not understand how securitization works]. My case was dismissed by judge F. Dennis Saylor IV on the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted (FRCP Rule 12(b)(6)). It has been cited by industry attorneys and in court opinions all over the country in defense of the validity of the MERS system. I originally filed in state court and the defendants, Aurora and MERS, removed it to Federal court on the basis of constutitional diversity of citizenship jurisdiction (a move the industry likes to make because they fare better in Fed. Court). Among several issues, I have asked the First Circuit to find that the lower court should have certified the quesiton of the validity of the MERS system to the Mass. SJC on the local action doctrine (state court has the right to develop and weigh in on legal issues of primarily local concern). I believe the First Circuit is holding off on my case because the Mass. SJC is currently deciding the case of Eaton v. Fannie Mae. This case has an overlapping issue with my case (whether or not it is a valid foreclosure when a servicer holds the mortgage but not the note). However, the delicious thing about this is even if I loose my appeal I will still ultimately win because they screwed up on other foreclosure documentation that I did not know about until after the case was over. I can tell people that it is possible to win against the bastard sleazballs like this industry shill even if you get your rear end kicked along the way. Don’t give up. PLEASE PEOPLE KEEP ALL YOUR DOCUMENTATION … ALL OF IT. These guys have been making mistakes all over the place because it was all designed for mass document production and the quality assurance was sacraficed for the sake of volume – THIS IS WHERE THEY ARE REALLY WEAK WHICH YOU CAN ATTACK. They are counting on people not being educated enough to be able to read and pick up their errors. In many foreclosure cases, you pick up one DOCUMENT error and the whole foreclosure fails. The robo-signers have no idea what they are signing, obviously. In MANY cases neither do the bottom feeding law firms, the scum who are just feeding off the trough on the caboose of this MBS gravy train. No mercy on them either. I honestly believe that if everyone just stop paying their credit cards and challenge them on FDCP and FCRA issues and do seroius scrutiny of mortgage documentation, we could collectively defeat them and take them out behind the shed and give them an ass whooping GOOD ‘N’ PROPER.
I truly am not a blogger and admire the train of thought it takes as I read most of the day. I have the experience of assigning as MERS partner my home to Alaska Fed.Credit Union located in VA.Health is poor so you must go to judemcdonald.8697@twitpic.com. You can see various documents that support a chain of fraud that includes Citi,Chase,HSBC,Bank of America,Wells Fargo,Countrywide,unbelievable but it took it’s toll on my health .AG Biden was Right.
My Assignment of Mortgage was Drafted by Morris-Hardwick-Schneider LLC Attorney for Indymac Bank.
HOW Stupid can Attorneys be to PERJURE themselves as in 2 places on the Document was Robo-Signed….
TIME to HANG them by their BALLZ!
My Assignment of Mortgage was Drafted by Morris-Hardwick-Schneider LLC Attorney for Indymac Bank.
HOW Stupid can Attorneys be to PERJURE themselves as in 2 places on the Document was Robo-Signed….
TIME to HANG them by their BALLZ!
Most people want to save their homes and will do anything length to prevent the foreclosure as my nephew did.
The modification agreement he signed was than executed by an ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF MERS, it the shows the LENDER CHANGING TO BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP. This Original I have was sent to him believed by Mistake. I beleive that each and every Modification B of A did was signed in this manner. So what the CEO of MERS talks about is TOTALLY all BULLSHIT.
Steve Lucore
The gravest accusation that I can make against the MERS mouth is that he lied by omission rather than by commission. Yes friends, we were all “told” at closing that MERS was the nominee for the lender. If you did not bother to read what you were signing then it’s your fault and not MERS”.
The omission that is made is the failure to clarify the meaning of “ownership” What he seems to be referring to is the ownership of the servicing rights.
For most of us the vital information is the ownership of the note.
If the servicer of the note is transferring our payments to the note, then it would follow that the servicer would know the location of the note. If we write (as I did on several occasions) to the servicer and request (QWR) the identity of the “holder” It follows that they have this information and we have a right to it by the language of the note itself. (read the note)
MERS may be facilitating the greatest heist in history, but is it not the “servicer” who is denying information?
In a REMIC trust who is the “holder”?
John McCormick…they will never tell you that……WHY? because THAT LOAN WAS NEVER MADE TO YOU…THAT LOAN WAS NOT A LOAN TO US, THAT SO-CALLED MORTGAGE CONTRACT IS A SHAM AND A FRAUD…The note was a check rhat WE GAVE TO THEM and they cashed that check at the Origination and they got paid when they sold that loan off to WALL STREET..AND IN THE CASE OF THE GSE’S BOUGHT BACK THOSE LOANS FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR ON THE PRIVATE SIDE….WHICH IS MORE FRAUD…THAT CREATED AN ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST BEWEEN THE U.S. TAXPAYER AND THE GSE’s….As to WHO THE INVESTORS ARE….THAT IS SOMETHING THEY WILL NEVER LET YOU KNOW….THEY NEVER DELIVERED THE LOANS TO THE TRUSTS…THE TRUSTS WERE A SHAM AND A FRAUD…THEY DUMPED THE LOANS IN A GLOBAL POOL WHEN THEY SOLD THE LOANS OFF TO PUBLIC….THAT WAS WHAT THEY THOUGHT THE FIX FOR ALL OF THE FRAUD WOULD BE…..THAT WAS A HALF ASSED ATTEMPT AT .INSTANT SECURITIZATION…IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT UNDER TRUST LAW…THE PSA AGREEEMENT IS WHAT DICTATES WHAT THEY MUST DO….AND THEY DID NOT DO IT…BOTTOM LINE…THOSE MORTGAGE CONTRACTS AND NOTES ARE NULL AND VOID…..BECA– USE THEY BROKE THE LAW…..
Ivent, I agree with your position. I have a comment about the GSE. A good read is Mr. DeMarco’s testimony before congress. In it, he states that Fannie and Freddie are “private” companies and should not be subject to FOIA. In our state Fannie and Freddie pay no transfer taxes because they are GSEs. They can’t have it both ways. Either they are GSEs and subnject to FOIA and therefore are required to tell me who is the “holder ” of my note,,,,,,,, OR,,,,,, they are private and should be made to pay the transfer tax.
See page 8! http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/21318/Demarcotestimony52511.pdf
Right on John…the GSE’s are a big fraud. They are fraudclosing on the American people and hiding behind the servicers,…they are dirty crooked bastards. I blame the U.S. GOVERNMENT…The GSE’s are in receivership.,..yeah right!…they are in receivership of our wealth and assets to cover up for their crimes…the U.S GOVERNMENT is allowing them to STEAL what they do not own and have no legal right to take to pay for their trillions is fraud….!!!
MERS maybe an effective way for the pretender lenders to REGISTER THEIR FRAUDULENTLY INDUCED LOANS and conduct the business of fraud in our names and sell multiple interests in notes via WALL STREET…………MERS MEANS NOTHING WHEN IT COMES TO ENFORCING A LIEN…MERS DESTROYED THE CHAIN FOR THE PRETENDER LENDERS…THEY NEVER THOUGHT THEY WOULD GET CAUGHT AND PEOPLE WOULD JUST BELIEVE THEIR BIG LIES…AND LET THEM STEAL OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS….NOT SO FAST YOU DIRTY BASTARDS…!
Any mention of MERS in closing documents is not on page one, and is included as fine print. The CEO is lying to cover his and Fannie Maes’ ass.
Read docs…. Have you read your note or your deed of trust?
John McCormick…ON MY MORTGAGE IT SAYS MERS IS ACTING SOLELY AS_ NOMINEE_ FOR LENDER AND SUCCESSOR AND ASSIGNS…
MERS IS NOT A BANK…MERS CANNOT BE CONVEYED REAL PROPERTY OR CONVEY REAL PROPERTY BECA– USE MERS IS AN ELECTRONIC DATA BASE AND MERS IS NOT A BANK..
A _NOMINEE_ IS _NOT_ A SUCCESSOR AND ASSIGNS…..YOU CANNOT JUST NOMINATE A COMPUTER DATA BASE TO BE SUCCESSOR AND ASSIGNS…THAT IS A SHAM AND THAT IS FRAUD…..
Johm McCormick……JUST BECA– USE SOMEONE TELLS A LIE DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE…IT ONLY BECOMES TRUE IF YOU BELIEVE THAT LIE…..
Ivent, It was a simple question. I have been personally involved with this situation since 2007. I said nothing about about truth or lies, simply “have you read your deed of trust or note”
So, hold down the invective and depart form the accusatory, become a respondent , and answer yes or no.
John McCormick.,…What part of the fraudulently induced Mortgage are you referring to then? THAT CONTRACT IS A GIANT PACK OF LIES…..THE TRUTH IS, it was the U.S. TAXPAYER WHO LENT THEM THE MONEY TO BUILD OUR HOMES….THAT NOTE WAS A CHECK WE GAVE TO THEM, NOT VICE VERSA………AND THE U.S. TAXPAYERS PAID FOR OUR HOMES AND WE ARE WHO WAS ROBBED AND WE ARE WHO IS OWED TRILLIONS…NOT WALL STREET, THE BANKS AND THE GSE’s….
Ivent, Here is what a local 9th US District judge had to say about the relationship between your mortgage, MERS and the bankruptcy court. He goes to great length to describe that relationship, You’l have to form your own opinion on the relative correctness of his.
http://loanaudit.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/mers-v-lisa-marie-chong
Even to say that MERS is an unsecured creditor and a non-record claimant is fraud…They are a computer data base. They are acting as a nominee for the pretender lender…. andneither are on record as having a legally enforceable lien because neither one lent us any money… An attorney told me that in Illinois MERS can’t foreclose….That is why Fannie Mae is hiding behind their attorney network and the Servicer to try and have joined us the defendants to foreclose on MERS….PHH MORTGAGE says that MERS holds the mortgage…and PHH MORTGAGE holds the note….They are sneaky liars..
MERS is nothing more than a “straw-man” operation created to specifically unjustly enrich it’s members and owners by “AVOIDING” paying the recording fees and taxes when loans and servicing rights sell. Each “transfer” of either the Note, Servicing or Sub-servicing rights are “sales transactions” or “Loan Closings” wherein by hiding those within the database of MERS they avoid paying the recording fees and doc stamps (taxes) to all local recording offices. What Beckman and those pompus securitization lawyers who set this ponzi scheme in motion sorely and STUPIDLY overlooked was the land/property laws 1) does not give ANY private corporation the right to bypass the Registrar of deeds without each state in the United States legislating to give them permission 2) MERS can not assign ANTHING to anyone as they were never “properly” assigned to them by the Originating Lender to begin with. Beckman is dead wrong in his thinking that just by typing “Buyer/purchaser/homeowner understands that MERS is the “mortgagee” of record” on the face of the Mortgage Document makes it a “legal transfer” from the Originating Lender and that Buyers “agreed” to this clearly shows his lack of understanding of the LAW. Contract law is based on “meeting of the minds” between the parties making the contract. Borrowers took no action to name MERS as mortgagee and nominee. This process was entirely driven by MERS as a cost saving mechanism to facilitate MER’S efforts to permit its members to assign their interests in promissory notes, servicing and sub-servicing rights among MERS members. MERS can not be a “mortgagee. A Mortgagee is “one to whom property is mortgaged; the mortgage creditor, or lender.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1034 (8th ed. 2007) MERS does not lend any money or otherwise finance the purchase of any real property. MERS’s claim-repeated millions of times on mortgages throughout the country- that it is a “mortgagee” is a falsehood, knowingly made for the purpose of promoting the use of the private MERS system and evading public recording fees. Beckman and others fail miserably to see that MERS deeming themself mortgagee of record bifurcated the Mortgage from the Note, leaving the Note (at best) as unsecured credit card debit as the Mortgage is the collateral for the Note. The “Chain of Title” is broken to each and every registered loan within the MERS system and became so the day each Member originally “registered” the loan into the MERS system, without recording that transaction and every subsequent transaction with the Clerk of The Court in the County in which the property is located. Beckman also fails to disclose that the MEMBERS are responsible for updating the MERS database each time “rights/interests” were “sold/transferred” which they have failed miserably to do. Forget the robo-signing scandal, every single one of MERS “Assignment of Mortgages” are invalid as they can not assign something that was never properly/legally assigned to them to begin with. If what I write here is not true, then I would like you to send me your checkbooks and I will type on the face of each check that I am legal signatory and proceed to cash them at my will. Wait you say, “that’s not legal, I have to take you to my bank and have you sign a “signatory card” in front of bank witnesses in order for you to be legally able to cash my checks,” you’re right. Same thing applies here. I hope and pray that MERS is soon foreclosed on. They have no transparency for homeowners either. Call them up and try to get your “Milestone Report” see what you get for an answer, tape record it and send to your local lawyers office that is suing MERS, they could use the help is frying this scheme.
“Homebuyers agree to MERS’ role at closing. ”
I never agreed to MERS role at closing (2001), five years went by and all of a sudden I have MERS through assigments done by Nationwide Title Clearing (2006). While checking my min #, property address, and name, I found that MERS only has it registered by min # (2010), after a QWR and a forensic audit MERS claims “ooooops” your loan should of never been in the system sorry someone made a mistake, your loan is now inactive in the MERS system…
“Sorry” my home is being fraudulently foreclosed on by CitiMortgage (having missed no payments) and all they have to say is sorry…Im left wondering what to do next Mr Beckmann former CEO of CitiMortgage.
They thought they were pulling a fast one with MERS. They thought the people would believe anything. MERS is not a bank so the successor and assigns story is a lie….I was told a while ago that the assignments can only go bank to bank….. In the fraudclosure complaint in my case the pretender lender is joining we the defendants to fraudclose on MERS stating that MERS holds the mortgage…and the Pretender Lender is saying they have the “original” note….It is all a sham and a fraud..
Is he arelated to Sammy Davis Jr.? Maybe he can do a tap dance routine
MERS = crooks, Deliberately designed not to pay taxes. It makes a mess of things. I contacted MERS to ask who to notify in a lawsuit. No Reply. I asked them for the address of my owner of my note. NO Reply. I looked up the alleged owner. Out of business or did not exist at all. LIARS, THIEVES
Soooo…I know I have checked many times on my daughters mortgage and MERS said they had no record of it….and no where on the mortgage does it even mention MERS…..so am I correct in believeing that not all mortgages involved MERS ? Fannie and Freddie also said they had no record of it…..WAMU must have held the mortgages in secret lockboxes so no one could see their frauds…make more copies of the Note… rush and deposit the note…get the full note paid to them and continue on with their fraud….that’s as far as this mortgage went…….I can understand the confusion people are having with this MERS issue….is it or is it not legal? How can they ‘ own something ‘ when their purpose is to ‘ track ‘ ? Being the banks set this system up….it sure does not add up….why would the banks do something the right way…it is not in their pattern to do anything right……….
When I asked the question about the ownership of the note, I was told that I’d have to bring suit in the court to discover the owner “holder” of the note. Then they fought like hell to get my suit kicked out of court to protect the identity of the holder. The fact is that the borrower is told at closing that MERS is playing the role. . If anyone bothered to read the note. The problem resultant from the securitization process is that most Freddie /Fannie notes give the maker of the note the right to be conversant with the holder of the note. When the note is being held in a REMIC trust, there is created a situation whereby there is no “holder”. Does the process itself violate the contract?
#1, MERS IS NOT A BANK..
MERS is named in the note as trust nominee for the originating bank or mortgage company in two loans I have. It is set up to facilitate foreclosure and transfer without having to pay tax or record transfer. The purpose or function of this construct was not explained either. In fact I don’t think my closing attorney knew how it worked. I really don’t understand how MERS CEO can miss all that and consider it legal to avoid property transfer and tax according to state law. The fact, is the banks created a convenience but that does not make it legal. Or does it? Are we even dealing with real property now or just a securitized product that is nothing more than a piece of paper? Does it give MERS the right to foreclose or the originating bank the right to foreclose? What do they own? Where is their legal standing as owners? They don’t collect the note or loan money but they reportedly “own” the mortgage and note? Is that how it works?
Having more than one of these bogus babies plus being in the business of housing for years still fails my comprehension in how MERS is legal just because they say so.
Tenn, Did you know that international accounting standards were changed to accommodate the scheme? IE when does a “sale” take place? Also, I have a copy of a deposition that the former head of MERS, a Mr. Arnold gave in a case several years ago. It it, he claimed that MERS had several state statutes changed to accommodate the process.
http://www.securitization.net/index.asp
Oh i love this!
“Homebuyers agree to MERS’ role at closing. ”
What a bunch of freakin BS. MERS and their role is never mentioned at closing. This guy has no shame at all. MERS must be in deep doo-doo for such a desperate lie.