Banking Law

I've been blogging about incidents over the last couple of years that demonstrate Bank of America's astounding practice of foreclosing upon and/or seizing homes upon which it has no liens. Of course, this piss-ant blog isn't going to motivate a Mastodon like the mighty B of A to change its ways, but after a while, you'd think all of the bad publicity in the main stream media about this repeated pattern of dysfunctional behavior might motivate even the dull-normals who run the foreclosure arm of the bank that serves the Great Horned God to understand that foreclosing on the wrong homes might not make the bank the poster child for consumer-friendly marketing. Apparently, however, nothing penetrates their armor of ignorance.

In June, we chronicled the sad tale of one Nancy Willmes, who didn't get the bank to back off of its foreclosure on her house (a house she bought for cash and on which Bank of America did not have a line) until a local television station's consumer reporter started pursuing the story. At that point, the bank suddenly blamed the whole affair on a "system error." Yeah, the entire system, apparently. In the June post, we linked to previous stories of Bank of America's foreclosure faux pas that were disturbingly similar. Last week, The Consumerist blog brought to a wider audience another incident in which a cash buyer found his home foreclosed upon by B of A and that proves that bank is still going about its merry way of punishing the innocent. As outlined in a story in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, Jason Grodensky of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida bought a house for cash, didn't borrow from B of A, B of A didn't otherwise have a valid lien on the house (in fact, the sale to Mr. Grodensky should have extinguished the bank's lien on the house),  and yet B of A managed to foreclose on the house and transfer tile, all without the owner having any idea what was going on.

Defenders of the bank and similar foreclosing lenders who've made similar mistakes claim the process is complicated, what with the mess the market made of the loan securitization paper trails. Nevertheless, even if you were to concede the lame argument that "mistakes happen," there is no defense to the complete stonewalling and imperviousness to facts that are demonstrated when the errors are pointed out to the bank and its counsel. That stonewalling continues until the main stream press takes an interest.

Grodensky said he spent months trying to figure out what happened but said his questions to Bank of America and to the law firm Florida Default Law Group that handled the foreclosure have not been answered. Florida Default Law Group could not be reached for comment, despite several attempts by phone and e-mail. Grodensky said he has filed a claim with his title insurance company, but that, too, has not resulted in any action.

It wasn't until last week, when Grodensky brought his problem to the attention of the Sun Sentinel, that it began to be resolved.

"It looks like it was a mistake in communication between us and the attorneys handling the foreclosure," said [Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana] Bauwens.

There. Was that so hard? You screwed up. Let's put aside the fact that defense attorneys claim that B of A and other servicers screw up in the same or other ways as often as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells a lie. To simply not respond to a homeowner who claims that you foreclosed on a house on which you didn't have a lien and, as was the case with Ms. Willmes, ignore documentary evidence of this fact presented by a reputable title company, is simply wrong from so many perspectives. Moreover, as is evidenced by this blog post and the main stream media stories to which it links, it's the dumbest marketing move this side of Rod Blagojevich's turn on The Apprentice.

This story highlights one the many, many reasons to bank only with community banks. Like Rhett Butler, the bottom line for the big boys is that they frankly don't give a damn.