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Real Estate & Property Law

The Home Equity Theft Reporter

Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues.
By r morris

Post Frequency: 25.7/day

Last Entry: September 06, 2017 at 04:02:00

Queens Shopping Mall Owner To Hand Over Complex To Foreclosing Lenders; Area Competition, Bad Economy Dooms Retail Project

Posted on February 05, 2009
In Glendale, Queens, The New York Times reports: [L]enders are foreclosing on a Queens shopping mall developed and owned by [Metropolitan Transit Authority chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger's] company, Atco Properties and Management, Mr. Hemmerdinger said on Tuesday...

21 Missouri Homebuyers File Suit Against Springfield Firm In Failed Contract For Deed Home-Buying Program

Posted on February 04, 2009
In Springfield, Missouri, the Springfield News-Leader reports: Twenty-one homebuyers and tenants in a subdivision in Peculiar south of Kansas City have brought a group lawsuit against Greenleaf Companies, many of its business partners and 61 home investors in the U...

Washington AG Targets Couple In Suit Alleging Deception In Acquiring Homes From Strapped Homeowners; Pocketed Rents While Stiffing Bank

Posted on February 04, 2009
From the Washington Attorney General's Office: The Washington Attorney General?s Office is suing a convicted equity skimmer a second time, claiming the Colfax man and his wife ran a real estate investment business that misled distressed homeowners and property investors...

Feds Left Holding The Bag On Home Seized From Alleged Equity Stripping Foreclosure Rescue Operator

Posted on February 04, 2009
The Huntington Homes blog at The Orange County Register reports: It sounds odd. The home in foreclosure for $3,589,000 at 3281 Bounty Circle in Huntington Harbour is owned by ?. Uncle Sam? It?s true. Here?s how it happened:When Edward Seung Ok pleaded guilty to his part in a $12 million mortgage fraud ring, the feds took his fancy house, [...

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Legal Aid Obtains Settlement For Boston-Area Tenants Facing Foreclosure Eviction; Lender Coughs Up $40K, Gives Renters Option To Buy Building

Posted on February 04, 2009
In a letter from the President Of The Boston Bar Association (appearing on the website of The Metropolian Corporate Counsel) describing the funding crisis faced by legal aid in Masachusetts, Kathy B. Weinman describes the successful work of pro bono counsel in one particular case involving tenants facing foreclosure eviction: When the bank foreclosed on their building, the Vietnamese-American

Condo Residents Throughout South Florida Face The Boot As Delinquent Water Bills Force Cities To Consider Service Shutoffs

Posted on February 04, 2009
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports: Diela Narrabe may be forced to leave her Deerfield Beach condo next month, even though she's done everything right. Narrabe is one of 28 unit owners ? out of 168 ? in the Deerfield Palms condo association who still pay their monthly maintenance fees, which are used to pay the community's water bill...

Squatters In Vacant Foreclosed Homes Now On The Radar For Prince William Cops

Posted on February 04, 2009
In Woodbridge, Virginia, Newschannel 8 reports: In the hidden side to the foreclosure crisis, local homes abandoned by their owners are finding new tenants as 'squatters' move in. The properties have been foreclosed on and abandoned for months, making them vulnerable to squatting [...

Phony Eviction Attempt On DFW-Area Tenant Renting Home In Foreclosure Fails

Posted on February 04, 2009
In Rockwall, Texas, WFAA-TV Channel 8 reports: [O]ne renter who recently got a foreclosure notice may have been the victim of a hoax. Carolyn Williams has been renting a home in the Turtle Cove neighborhood in Rockwall for the last three months. Two weeks ago, she got a knock on the door...

Economy, Needed Repairs Leave Connecticut Nursing Home's Fate In The Hands Of The State As 76 Residents Face The Boot, 133 Workers Face The Ax

Posted on February 04, 2009
In Griswold, Connecticut, WTNH-TV Channel 8 reports: The ball is now in the state's court. Despite opposition from those who work and live there, the state will now decide whether a Griswold nursing home will remain open. The facility claims that due to the tough, economic times they are forced to close its doors...

Rent Skimming Landlords Hard To Avoid For One Las Vegas-Area Tenant

Posted on February 04, 2009
In Las Vegas, Nevada, KTNV-TV Channel 13 reports on an area tenant who has just found out, for the fourth time, that the home she is renting is going into foreclosure. For the story, see Contact 13: Foreclosed rental property scam (read story) (watch video)...

Crippled Finances Force Homeowners In Foreclosure To Bypass Lawyers & Represent Themselves In Court

Posted on February 03, 2009
In Miami, Florida, msnbc.com reports: [T]he reasons that foreclosure defendants end up representing themselves are usually financial. ?A lot of lawyers out there have been extremely reluctant to take homeowners? cases,? said [Arizona attorney Neil F.] Garfield...

Woman Gets 5 To 15 Years In Brooklyn Deed Theft Binge; Still Has Charges Pending With Manhattan DA

Posted on February 03, 2009
In Brooklyn, New York, WABC-TV Channel 7 reports: A woman was convicted of scamming dozens of people out of their homes by forging deeds has been sentenced. Maria Leyna Albertina stayed silent, declining to divulge any of her scam secrets as State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary blasted her and then sentenced her to 5 to 15 years in prison...

Homeowner Victimized In Equity Stripping Deal Successfully Challenges Bona Fide Purchaser Status Of Subsequent Buyer In Attempt To Void Deed

Posted on February 03, 2009
A 2005 court decision of the Colorado Supreme Court gives a good example of how a financially strapped homeowner who was screwed over in an equity stripping, foreclosure rescue deal can approach (probably with help of experienced, competent counsel) undoing the transaction in court of law...

NYC Attorney Accused Of Looting Escrow Account Of $396K; Keeps Client From Buying House

Posted on February 03, 2009
In New York City, the New York Post reports: A Manhattan real-estate lawyer stole $396,000 from a client who had hoped to use the money to buy a house in Brazil, authorities said yesterday. When the client went to close on the house last October, Robert Barsch 'fessed up - admitting that he had looted the escrow account to take care of "a personal emergency," prosecutors said...

Architect Of Alleged $50B Scam Using Florida Homestead Laws To Protect Property From Creditors' Seizure?

Posted on February 03, 2009
CBS News reports: [C]BS News has learned that [Bernard] Madoff and his brother, along with their wives, took steps two years ago -- around the time that federal regulators started probing Madoff?s business activities -- that could help prevent their Florida homes from being taken away from them, something possible under Florida state law...

San Diego DA Indicts 10 On 150+ Felony Charges In Alleged Foreclosure Scams Involving Sale Leasebacks, Land Grants

Posted on February 03, 2009
In San Diego, California, the San Diego Union Tribune reports: The county grand jury indicted 10 people(1) yesterday for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a foreclosure scam that victimized hundreds of homeowners in San Diego and Riverside counties...

The Phones Keep Ringing Off The Hook At Legal Aid As "Key To The Courthouse" For The Poor Imperiled By Budget Shortfall

Posted on February 03, 2009
In southeastern Pennsylvania, The Intelligencer reports: More people are turning to Legal Aid to stop foreclosures and file bankruptcy, but budget cuts mean there's less money to help. As the economy plummets and jobs disappear, the phones at Legal Aid are ringing off the hook...

Use Of "Cash Back, No Money Down" R/E Acquisition Technique The Focus Of Suit As Elderly Couple Allege Buyer Screwed Them Out Of Their Home Equity

Posted on February 02, 2009
In Tampa, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports on the story of an elderly couple who claim they had their home equity ripped out from under them by a buyer using a real estate financing technique (or, more specifically, an over-financing technique that some may consider a form of equity stripping) that's been made famous over the last 3+ decades by a batallion of peddlers of "No Money Down"

Florida Judge Throws Loan Modification Firm Into Receivership; Company Left Many Homeowners Worse Off, Says State AG

Posted on February 02, 2009
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The Miami Herald reports: A Broward Circuit judge has placed Margate-based foreclosure rescue company Outreach Housing into receivership and banned its principal, Blair Wright, from certain business activities. The action follows a suit by the Office of Financial Regulation alleging the company was wrongly taking money from homeowners in foreclosure...

Surge In Self-Represented Homeowners In Foreclosure Actions Forcing Courts To Examine Non-Default Related Legal Issues

Posted on February 02, 2009
In Miami, Florida, msnbc.com reports: [Luis M]olina, a former car salesman and deli owner whose formal education ended with a diploma from Teaneck High School in New Jersey, is among a growing number of American homeowners representing themselves as what are called "pro se" ? a Latin phrase meaning ?for oneself? ? litigants in foreclosure proceedings...

Lenders' Begin Feeling The Heat As Demands For Loan Documentation In Foreclosure Actions Are Evidenced Across Florida

Posted on February 02, 2009
Buried at the end of a recent story in The St. Augustine Record is this excerpt on the difficulty lenders and loan servicers are having in proving they have standing to foreclose on a delinquent homeowner, and how evidence is showing up across Florida of homeowners going to court demanding the lender/servicer to produce the proper loan documentation in a foreclosure action: The [mortgage loan]

Ohio Congresswoman Urges Homeowners In Foreclosure To Stay Put, Become Squatters, & Make Lenders "Produce The Note"

Posted on February 02, 2009
CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight ran a story last week on Toledo, Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur's crusade urging homeowners facing foreclosure who haven't had the benefit of legal counsel from a competent attorney to stay put, become squatters in their own homes, and fight back...

Moratorium Declared On All Detroit-Area Foreclosure Sales

Posted on February 02, 2009
In Detroit, Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reports: Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans announced today that his office is refusing to enforce sales of foreclosed homes as the real estate crisis continues to drain the region. Evans made the announcement this morning at a press conference, several days after he urged Gov...

Housing Non-Profit Files Trademark Complaints Targeting Loan Modification, Foreclosure Rescue Firms

Posted on February 02, 2009
In Washington, D.C., NeighborWorks America(1) announced today: Today NeighborWorks� America announced that it filed two trademark complaints with online search engines in an attempt to protect consumers from falling prey to foreclosure rescue scams. The trademark complaints filed by NeighborWorks sought to remove online ads paid for by so-called mortgage rescue companies that used the

Foreclosure Diversion Program Proposed In Providence; Similar To Philly Plan

Posted on February 02, 2009
In Providence, Rhode Island, WPRI-TV Channel 12 reports: In an effort to protect families from foreclosure, Providence Mayor David Cicilline unveiled two ordinances Monday morning during a news conference in the city's Olneyville neighborhood.***The first proposal, Tenants Protection Against Foreclosures Ordinance, is meant to protect renters from eviction when their apartments are subject to

Poor Mortgage Servicing Leading To New Breed Of Predator?

Posted on February 01, 2009
On the Credit Slips blog, attorney Tara Twomey makes some observations on how poor mortgage servicing is paving the path for a new breed of predators and how little is being done to address the situation. [W]hen property values were appreciating rapidly, foreclosure rescue scams primarily focused on obtaining title to the home and robbing homeowners of their equity...

Loan Modification Scams "Getting Worse & Worse Every Day," Says California DRE Chief

Posted on February 01, 2009
In San Francisco, California, cbs5 did an investigative report on loan modification firms and featured two firms which which reportedly took at least $3,000 each in upfront fees(1) from two different homeowners seeking help dealing with their house payments: [T]he State of California has now taken action against both companies...

Pro Se Homowner In Foreclosure Getting Harrassment From The Florida Bar?

Posted on February 01, 2009
Buried in a recent msnbc.com article on homeowners in foreclosure going into court and representing themselves against the mortgage lender was this excerpt about one Florida homeowner responding to why he was representing himself: [M]ario Kenny, [a] Miami resident who is fighting foreclosure pro se and writing about his experience online,(1) said the cost of professional help is too high...

Buying A Vacant Foreclosed Home? Don't Forget That Mold Inspection

Posted on February 01, 2009
Northern Virginia Daily reports: [M]old litigation has become one of the fastest growing fields of litigation, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. Empty houses in foreclosure are becoming mold breeding grounds...

Ex-Real Estate Agent Cops Plea To Pocketing $1,500 For Renting Vacant Foreclosed Home That Didn't Belong To Him

Posted on February 01, 2009
In Greeley, Colorado, the Greeley Tribune reports: A former Greeley real estate agent pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of felony theft in a deal that dropped a second count of theft and a forgery case. Gunnar Weber took the deal, which calls for an open sentencing option of two to six years in prison...

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