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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

Tenants In Homes Facing Foreclosure Continue Feeling Uncertainty, Despite Protections Under Federal Law

Posted on June 19, 2010
In Orange Park, Florida, First Coast News reports:At the Orange Park Parkridge Apartment Complex, residents are just finding out the property is in foreclosure. Pamela Carden lives there and is worried. "I don't know if I have to move; I don't know what our rights are as tenants," said Carden...

Family Who Unwittingly Rented Foreclosed Home Gets Two Weeks Before Getting Boot; Files Theft Complaint With Cops Against Phony Landlord

Posted on June 19, 2010
In Seattle, Washington, KING-TV Channel 5 reports:Phyllis Richmond has to move out of the South Seattle house that she has rented for the past eight months. She's a single mother who shares the four-bedroom house with her three sons. Richmond leased the house from a property management company run by Peter Dodsondance...

Dozens Of Renters Get Immediate Boot Without Advanced Notice From F'closed Rooming House After Local Authorities Declare Premises Unfit For Habitation

Posted on June 19, 2010
In Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, The Times Leader reports:Twenty to 30 residents of an Edwardsville rooming house have been evicted after authorities declared the property unfit for habitation Thursday. The property, a series of three buildings [...], was foreclosed upon by a bank in Florida, Edwardsville Code Enforcement Officer David Saraka said...

Dozens In Daytona Get Boot Without Prior Notice As Rent Skimming Landlord Pockets Renters' Payments & Stiffs Bank, Losing Properties To Foreclosure

Posted on June 19, 2010
In Daytona Beach, Florida, WESH-TV Channel 2 reports:Dozens of Daytona Beach residents were evicted on Friday, and they said they had no idea it was coming. Residents who live in the homes along Magnolia Avenue in Daytona Beach said they paid their rent, but they claim it was the landlord who didn't pay his...

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Illinois AG Files Civil Suit Against Pair For Allegedly Running Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Racket That Targeted Senior Citizens

Posted on June 18, 2010
In Chicago, Illinois, Courthouse News Service reports:Two con artists promised to save distressed homeowners' houses from foreclosure, then tricked them into signing away their deeds, the Illinois attorney general says in Cook County Court. The state claims Warren Jackson and Yolanda King, and their companies W2X, PTU I, Y2X, and Goldburg Bail-Out, selected their victims "by reviewing Illinois

Feds Begin Announcing Mortgage Fraud Takedowns Around The Country

Posted on June 18, 2010
The Feds have begun announcing their major mortgage fraud takedowns around the country. The operation, dubbed "Operation Stolen Dreams", has involved 1,215 criminal defendants nationwide in the sweep that began in March responsible for more than $2.3 billion in losses to banks and mortgage companies, according to published reports...

Massachusetts Couple Facing F'closure To Keep Home After Settling Lawsuit; Sought Loan Modification & Claimed WAMU Failed To Bargain In Good Faith

Posted on June 18, 2010
In Boston, Massachusetts, the Lowell Sun reports:A Westford couple's lawsuit against the nation's largest mortgage company -- one of many filed against Washington Mutual -- has been settled more than two years after the firm failed to respond to the couple's attempts to save their home from foreclosure...

NYC Woman Victimized In Foreclosure Rescue Scam Temporarily Dodges The Boot As Neighbors Jam City Agency Phone Lines In Effort To Call Off Eviction

Posted on June 18, 2010
In St. Albans, Queens, the New York Daily News reports:FRANCIS BLACKMAN knew the day was coming when city marshals would show up and evict her from the St. Albans home that had been in her family for more than 15 years. But when they knocked on her door last week, she had a backup plan...

Calgary Cops Seek Suspect Wanted For Targeting Elderly Couple In Alleged Home Equity Ripoff; Accused Of Setting Criminal Interest Rate On Loan

Posted on June 18, 2010
In Calgary, Alberta, The Calgary Herald reports:Police are looking for a man who allegedly scammed an elderly couple into unknowingly signing away their home to the suspect, officials said. Police say they are looking for Richard William Hoffman, 38, after Hoffman allegedly offered a loan to the victims...

NJ AG Announces Charges Against Woman In Alleged Short Sale "Flopping" Scam; Used Phony IDs & Documents, Straw Buyers Say Authorities

Posted on June 17, 2010
From the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General:Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor [] announced charges against a Kearny woman who allegedly orchestrated a scheme to steal millions of dollars by obtaining mortgage loans using false identities and counterfeit documents...

4 Lawyers Among Five To Go To Trial In Alleged Sale Leaseback F'closure Rescue Scam; 3 Others Cop Guilty Pleas; Civil Suits To Reclaim Losses Ongoing

Posted on June 17, 2010
In White Plains, New York, The Journal News reports:Five suspects in an alleged mortgage scheme ? including four lawyers ? will go to trial in August,(1) fighting charges that they cost four Westchester County families their homes and swindled two mortgage lenders out of $1...

C. Fla. Feds Charge Investment Group Operator In Alleged Mortgage Scam; Accused Of Controlling Both Sides Of Sale Transactions While Fleecing Lenders

Posted on June 17, 2010
In Tampa, Florida, The Tampa Tribune reports:Joseph F. Daniele, the man behind a peculiar real estate investment group that enabled his companies to collect large sums of money on at least 400 deals, was arrested Monday and accused of mortgage fraud. The arrest follows a two-year state and federal investigation into a pattern of property transactions first outlined in a Tampa Tribune

Forced Sale Of Free & Clear Home Over Unpaid $800 HOA Fees While Texas Homeowner Away On Military Duty Gets National Media Coverage

Posted on June 17, 2010
ABC News reports:It should have been a happy summer for Michael Clauer. The Texas Army National Guard captain was winding down his time in Iraq, preparing for a new unit to arrive and replace him and the 130 service members under his command. But a phone call in June 2009 left him so shaken that a colleague suggested he seek psychiatric help: his wife, her voice choked with tears, told him that

USDOJ Announces Results Of Nationwide Mortgage Scam Takedown

Posted on June 17, 2010
From the U.S. Department of Justice:Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Housing and Urban Development Inspector General (HUD-OIG) Kenneth M. Donohue, and other members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force today announced the results of a nationwide takedown, Operation Stolen Dreams, which targeted mortgage fraudsters throughout the country and is the largest

FTC Announces Enforcement Actions Against 16 Peddlers Of Foreclosure Rescue, Loan Modification Services

Posted on June 17, 2010
The Federal Trade Commission announced:As part of the agency?s continuing crackdown on scams that prey on financially distressed homeowners, the Federal Trade Commission announced legal actions against more than a dozen marketers accused of pitching bogus mortgage modification or foreclosure relief services...

Squatters Stake Claim To Vacant F'closed 8,000 Sq. Foot Mansion Currently On Market For $3.3M; Unexpected Move-In Leaves Listing Agent Scratching Head

Posted on June 16, 2010
In Kirkland, Washington, The Seattle Times reports:The 8,000-square-foot mansion was dark and in foreclosure for years. So last weekend when the for-sale signs came down and the lights lit up, neighbors were relieved. "We were like ? 'finally, somebody's going to make that place a home,' " says one...

Judge Allows F'closure Rescue Scammer To Buy Down 5-Year Prison Term To Three Years In Exchange For Immediately Coughing Up $25K In Victim Restitution

Posted on June 16, 2010
In Atlanta, Georgia, My Fox Atlanta Channel 5 reports:A man running a scam foreclosure company exposed by the FOX 5 I-Team pleads guilty. It was more than three years ago that the I-Team captured the company on hidden camera and the victims are finally getting some relief...

Las Vegas Scammer Gets 12-30 Months For Ripping Off Financially Strapped Homeowners Of Upfront Fees For Foreclosure Rescue Services Never Performed

Posted on June 16, 2010
In Clark County, Nevada, the Las Vegas Sun reports:A 50-year-old Henderson man who preyed on Las Vegas area homeowners facing foreclosures in 2007 and 2008 is going to prison. Jeffery Tye Brown, who operated DB Financial Services, a Henderson foreclosure rescue business, has been sentenced to serve from 12 to 30 months for felony mortgage fraud by Clark Country District Court Judge Kenneth E.

NY Appellate Court Stalls Foreclosure Action; Says Summary Judgment Premature Where Home's Purported Co-Owner Claimed To Be Victim Of Forged POA

Posted on June 16, 2010
A recent ruling by a New York intermediate appellate court reversed a lower court decision granting summary judgment in favor of a mortgage lender in a foreclosure action where a woman claiming to be a co-owner of the home alleged that her signature was forged on a power of attorney that purported to authorize her husband, the other co-owner, to engage in real estate and banking transactions on

Short Sellers, Foreclosed Borrowers May Be In For Big Surprise As Collection Firms Scramble To Buy Up Unpaid Loan Deficiencies

Posted on June 16, 2010
In Palm Beach County, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:Joshua Rand is the muscle. Not in a busting-skulls, Tony Soprano kind of way. But he does seek to collect, and sometimes even buys, the debt left by delinquent homeowners who walk away from their mortgages - the same borrowers who often assume that a foreclosure or short sale wipes out their loan balance, ending their liability...

Judge Kiboshes Foreclosure Action; Says He Was BS'd By Dubious Paperwork Filed By Loan Servicer, Foreclosure Mill Law Firm

Posted on June 15, 2010
In Northeast Florida, The Florida Times Union reports:Changing stories about who owns a mortgage and seemingly fresh evidence from a long-closed bank led a judge to throw out a foreclosure lawsuit in St. Johns County. It?s the second time in as many months that Circuit Judge J...

Court-Appointed Trustees' Search For Faulty Mortgage Loan Documentation Threatens To Leave Lenders Holding The Bag In Consumer Bankruptcy Cases

Posted on June 15, 2010
Buried at the end of a recent story in The Arizona Republic is this excerpt on the aggressiveness of court-appointed trustees in their attempt to void the mortgages on homes owned by individuals filing for Federal bankruptcy protection:Faulty deeds that open doors to trustees...

S. Fla. Feds Bag Attorney For Looting $1M+ Out Of R/E Escrow Acct.; Cash Intended To Pay Off Existing Lien Holders; Title Insurer Left Holding The Bag

Posted on June 15, 2010
From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida):[A]ttorney Peter N. Price, 49, of Hollywood, pled guilty [] to a criminal information charging him making false statements to HUD, [...]. In addition, Price agreed to make restitution to Stewart Title Guaranty, the victim of his fraud, in the amount of $1,608,246...

NY AG Slams Debt Collector, Affiliated Attorney In Seperate Suits; Alleges Repeated Threatening & Obscene Phone Calls, Lawyer-Renting Racket

Posted on June 15, 2010
From the Office of the New York Attorney General:Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [] announced a lawsuit against several Western New York debt collection companies that violated the law by harassing consumers through repeated threatening and obscene phone calls as well as making illegal calls to the consumers? employers and families...

PA Couple Current On House Payments Found Themselves Facing Foreclosure Anyway; Media Intervention Needed To Straighten Out Lender's Attorney Screw-Up

Posted on June 14, 2010
In Chester County, Pennsylvania, CBS 3 reports:Living in the woods of Chester County, Judi and Ed Worrall are used to peace and quiet. But a piece of mail that landed in their mailbox this winter changed all that.It told them their house was in foreclosure and would be put up for sheriff's sale...

Three More Bagged In Alleged Bait & Switch Refi Scam; Suspects Acccused Of Replacing Key Pages In Loan Docs After Being Signed By Unwitting Homeowners

Posted on June 14, 2010
From the Office of the California Attorney General:In a continuing probe into a defunct Southern California mortgage brokerage, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. [] announced the arrests of president and co-owner Sean McConville and two associates who used "deceptive promises and forged documents" to steal almost $1 million from homeowners falsely guaranteed attractive home loan refinancing

Favorable Trial Court Ruling Allowing Florida Couple To Score "Free" House From Foreclosing Mortgagee Snatched Away By Appellate Court Reversal

Posted on June 14, 2010
The following facts are adapted from a recent ruling of Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal, reversing a lower court ruling in favor of a homeowner/couple facing foreclosure:Homeowners borrowed $200,000 from John Haner to purchase property in 2003, and executed a mortgage and a promissory note in favor of Haner to evidence and secure the loan...

NY AG Slams Manhattan Developer With Suit Alleging He Screwed Buyers By Looting $7.4M From Battery Park City Condo Reserve Fund

Posted on June 13, 2010
From the Office of the New York Attorney General:Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [] filed a lawsuit charging the developers of the Rector Square Condominium in Battery Park City with defrauding purchasers out of approximately $7.4 million by raiding a reserve fund meant to ensure the health and safety of residents and instead using the money for personal and unrelated business purposes...

D.C. High Court Boots Lawyer From Bar For Criminal Convictions Involving Ripoffs Of Landlords, Tenants

Posted on June 13, 2010
In Washington, D.C., Washington City Paper reports:After introducing us to foreclosure scammers, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals gifted us with another tale of malfeasance []. This time: the case of Kim E. Hallmark, a crooked lawyer, permanently disbarred for an ?offense involving moral turpitude...

Vacant Home Hijackings Growing Throughout South Florida; 200 Adverse Possession Claims Filed In Recent Months In Broward, Palm Beach Counties

Posted on June 13, 2010
In South Florida, the Sun Sentinel reports:Imagine going to a house or condo you own and finding a stranger living there who claims the property no longer belongs to you. It's happening across Florida and other parts of the country through what authorities say is abuse of a centuries-old concept known as adverse possession...

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