Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Posts Tagged ‘alex sink’

Dear Alex Sink- It was a pleasure to meet you in Tallahassee last week for the Lawyers for Homeowner’s Rights Rally.

As discussed, I am an attorney who is primarily engaged in the defense of homeowners who are in foreclosure.

I cannot understand why, especially in these tough economic times, my Office of Financial Regulation is totally ignoring Florida Statues 658 and 660 which, as you know regulates banks and importantly trust companies.  All across this state national banks and mortgage lenders are operating as unlicensed, unregulated and non-paying trust companies.  WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

They’re using and abusing valuable state resources by filing actions in courts, calling upon our sheriffs to evict homeowners and forcing local municipalities to absorb millions of dollars in losses in municipal code enforcement liens and other unfunded liabilities.  A variety of Florida Statutes, including 658 and 660 require them to register and pay fees, but very few are.  WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

They’re kicking down people’s doors and taking their belongings without receiving any court order under the totally illegal concept of “property preservation”.  These roving band of “Foreclosure  Cockroaches” violate the fundamental rights of Floridians every day when they kick down doors, change locks, throw out property and leave a sticker on the door. (Search my Site for “Foreclosure Cockroaches” for actual examples.)  WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

Florida Statutes 658 and 660 require all of the mortgage trust entities that are pursuing foreclosure actions in this state to register with your office, post a bond and pay fees promulgated by statute.  Your office’s legal staff has determined that these statutes apply to many of these shadowy entities that are operating in your staff and your enforcement office has confirmed that very few are complying.  Consumers are being deprived of important regulatory protections while the State is losing out on millions of dollars in fees that these entities (that are making obscene profits) are not paying to this state. WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

These shadow entities and trust companies are easy to identify.  Just pull the foreclosure dockets in every county and you’ll find thousands of entities and companies engaging in trust activities as specifically defined by statute but who are failing to register or pay the required fees.  These entities use valuable state resources like courts, sheriffs and law enforcement while at the same time municipalities and local governments are being deprived of millions of dollars in code enforcement and other municipal liens because these entities are not registered and they evaporate into thin air after the foreclosure judgment is entered. WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

Finally, I want to share with you an email from a woman that just posted on my website.

I am a victim of the fraud in Court and presently suffering for the way the foreclosure procedure has been conducted in our case which is horror and extremely painful.
I am 65 years of age.  Since 2008  I have been fighting this foreclosure with my husband, but unfortunately our house was sold on April 8th, 2010.  The Judge deffinitely refused to accept that FDLG was lying as well as JPMChase.  The Judge’s only concern was that we were living rent free, despite the fact that there is not a single piece of evidence in the complaint.  The Judge didn’t care about missing assignments, etc.  He didn’t care that I qualified for a Reverse Mortgage due to my age and equity in the house.  The Judge didn’t care that my husband is a veteran with a delicate heart condition, two heart attacks and two heart surgeries, diabetic and mental treatment.  The Judge didn’t care that Bank declined all our offers of payment in full, and he didn’t care that we lost the car and filed Chapter 7 discharged on Dec. 2008.
The judge humilliated me in front of other people during our last hearing indicating that he was not going to tolerate anymore that I keep living free and taking advantage of the Bank losses.  The Judge was so mad at us that he practically has punished us taking advantage of all his power.  He denied all our motions, even a request to waive bond during our appeal, which he refused and denied as well, requiring us to find a bond for $105,000 plus $15,000 attorneys fees.
Our house was sold on February 22nd, and on April 8th we were evicted.  I just have no words to explain the pain, confusion, madness, fear, just a mixture of adverse reactions a human can have.
We were thrown out to the street with no car , little money and all of my art work, materials, equipment, just everything left inside and lost.
The buyers gave us $1,400 to find a tentative place to live.  We are being deprived to continue selling our work.  This is like being sentenced for a crime we never comitted.
Today we are in a little room with a computer, still fighting in Court, pending appeal (case is still open) and a discharge injunction in the Bankruptcy Court with an evidentiary hearing scheduled next May 13th.  We have a very good case in both the appeal, but better yet in the bankruptcy discharged injunction.  Of course, we cannot afford an attorney, so we are ProSe.
We called every single agency in Orlando Florida, Fla. Bar, Orange County Bar, Legal Aid Soc. Seniors First, Senior alliance, Legal Community, The legislators, senators, etc. etc. etc. and no one, had a single idea on how to help us get at leat a part time legal counseling from a pro bono.
Today, a neighbor just called to inform that all our personal items are out in the street in a huge garage sale, with a sign that says, “State Garage Sale”  Our  neighbor went into the house and told us that it was a mess, destroyed and looking vandalized. To my knowledge, this is stolen property. This broke my heart, it is terrible, just terrible.I am just running out of strength, but still with hope.

AND NOW I ASK YOU, AND EVERY OTHER ELECTED LEADER OR PERSON IN POWER…

WHY IN GOD’S NAME ARE YOU ALL SO WILLING TO LET WHAT’S HAPPENED TO THIS FAMILY AND THOUSANDS OF OTHERS ACROSS THIS STATE HAPPEN EVERY DAY JUST SO THE FAT CAT INTERESTS CAN MAKE EVEN MORE OBSCENE PROFITS?

Why won’t anyone do anything to help these people? and WHY AREN’T YOU DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

In 2008, the Florida Legislature passed the Foreclosure Fraud Rescue Act, a law which was intended to protect Floridans from unscrupulous con artists who take money from homeowners and promise they can get a modification of the homeowner’s mortgage.  The full text of the bill can be found here.  Short and simply, any person or company who takes a fee from a homeowner for the promise or expectation of getting that homeowner’s mortgage modified are subject to the following:

A person who violates any provision of this section commits an unfair and deceptive trade practice as defined in part II of this chapter. Violators are subject to the penalties and remedies provided in part II of this chapter, including a monetary penalty not to exceed $15,000 per violation.

The Florida Legislature followed this law up with new legislation in the 2009 Legislative Session that placed further regulations on mortgage modification companies in Florida.  The full text of this law can be found here.  This law made changes to the mortgage brokering and lending statute and requires, among other things, that modification companies be licensed as mortgage brokers.

The laws and legislative intent are good; the problem is not nearly enough is being done to enforce these laws and protect consumers.  In the last several weeks, I’ve come across mortgage modification scams operating phone banks and engaging in the aggressive solicitations the legislature intended to prevent. I’ve dutifully investigators in the Florida Attorney General’s Office, but was recently disturbed to learn that the AG’s office is no longer aggressively pursuing mortgage rescue fraud companies….in two cases in particular, I had contacted the companies and had them promise me that they could save my home from foreclosure….no need to hire an attorney….just send them money.

I contacted the AG’s office with names, details and phone numbers…I had the names and information about the representatives that were aggressively contacting me.  It drove me nuts to hear the phone banks operating in the background because I knew their operators were taking advantage of consumers…I hoped that the public servants would take their jobs seriously and take action on the complaints…I’m disappointed to report that I got very little response from the investigators…In fact, the AG’s office advised me that they were no longer taking the lead in such investigations….wow, what a letdown….

The AG’s office still contains a link on their website and I strongly encourage consumers to contact the AG’s office at 1-866-9-NO-SCAM to report mortgage rescue scams….who knows if it will do any good….but if nothing else, take some time to ask them why consumers continue to get ripped off and ask them why the Attorney General doesn’t seem to care.

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I’ve screaming at the top of my lungs about the obscene abuses of the banking and financial industries…the following is my letter to sent to my local legislative delegation about the most obscene example I’ve seen yet. (Actually it’s improper to say one shocking example is more obscene than the next….they’re just more obscene in different ways.)

Vote NO! on The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act—the Name of Bill Alone Should Cause You Great Offense!

As you prepare for the Start of the 2010 Legislative Session, I want to thank you for all the good work you are doing for the citizens of the State of Florida and for your neighbors here in Pinellas County.

I am an attorney who represents many of your neighbors in the foreclosure cases that are pending in Pinellas County courts.  The vast majority of my clients find themselves in foreclosure because they or their spouse have lost a job, are facing expensive medical issues or have suffered some other setback that was beyond their control.  By and large your neighbors who are facing foreclosure want to stay in their homes.  They want to continue to make regular monthly payments, maintain their homes and continue to pay the taxes and other expenses related to home ownership.  These good people are simply suffering through the worst economic times of this generation.  With modest payment and term modifications from their lenders, most borrowers would be able to stay in their homes and most would gladly work with their lenders to make these modified payments.

Banks are Not Working With Borrowers

Your neighbors in foreclosure have tried desperately to work with their lender to try and modify their mortgage or come up with some solution other than foreclosure.  I know this because I require my clients to keep a detailed journal of all their attempts to call, write or communicate with their lender.  These borrowers have made dozens, sometimes hundreds of phone calls and faxed paperwork back and forth.  If they hear anything at all, it’s “Sorry we cannot help you.”  Having said that, more often than not, they get no response at all from their lender other than, “We’ve lost your paperwork, please send it again.”  This is not just my opinion or anecdotal information, these statements are confirmed by the information published by the federal government.

Banks Are Receiving Billions in Federal Aid

While the federal government has provided at least $50 billion in federal aid to the major lenders in the US Troubled Asset Relief Program (See GAO-09-837 July 23, 2009), the Federal Housing Finance Agency reports that the HAMP and related modification efforts had initiated only 43,000 HAMP permanent modifications as of December, 2009.  Amazingly, according to the latest information published by the Federal government, only 8,405 Floridians have received permanent modifications from their lenders.  One more time so this is clear…..out of more than $50 billion in federal aid, ONLY 8,405 FLORIDIANS HAVE RECEIVED A FORMAL MORTGAGE MODIFICATION AND ONLY 1,159 OF YOUR NEIGHBORS IN THE ST. PETERSBURG/TAMPA AREA HAVE RECEIVED A HAMP MODIFICATION.

In short, the facts published by the federal government and the mortgage industry show that while the very lenders who helped caused the breakdown of the American financial system are helping themselves to billions of dollars in federal aid, your neighbors are not being helped at all.

A Pig With Lipstick On Is Still A Pig

As my elected Representative in Tallahassee, I hope you are sufficiently aware of the popular uprising against the greed and arrogance of the banks, lenders and Wall Street in general.  As your neighbors here in Pinellas County are struggling to survive these difficult economic times, they’re watching the institutions and fat cats on Wall Street take bigger profits and bonuses than ever before.   While all the obscene profits and general arrogance is bad enough, I hope that you will share my outrage at the bank’s attempts to insult you and other elected leaders and the citizens of the State of Florida when they chose to name their new anti-consumer bill “The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act”.  The insult here is there is not the first thing in this proposed legislation that offers any benefit to consumers or homeowners or consumers at all.  I am insulted and incensed that these fat cat, cigar chomping anti-consumer greedy bankers think they can attach a name to legislation which totally misrepresents  the nature of that legislation in the apparent hope that elected leaders and citizens won’t be smart enough to figure out the title totally misrepresents the purpose and effect of the legislation.

The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act-  A Dramatic and Totally Unnecessary Change in Florida’s Homestead and Property Rights

From the time Florida became a state, laws relating to a citizen’s homestead were simple.  If law enforcement wanted to get in a citizen’s home, they made their case before a judge and if the judge determined their claims were warranted, the judge granted a search warrant and law enforcement was granted access.  Likewise, if a homeowner defaulted on his mortgage and the lender wants to take the home back, that lender need only prove up that interest up before a judge, then the judge grants foreclosure and the consumer loses possession of his home.  The problem many of the lenders trying to foreclose today face is they cannot or just don’t want to go through the effort to prove even the most basic facts to support their right to foreclose.  Rather than fix the organizational and systemic problems the lenders have created  that would allow them to prove up their right to foreclose, the lenders are asking the Florida Legislature to toss out the property rights rule book and create an entirely new system that would stack the deck entirely in their favor and totally against the homeowner.  The banks and lenders created the lending, documentation and proof problems in their rush to make obscene profits.  The poor and often fraudulent legal work product they are now stuffing through the court systems in this state are only perpetuating the problem.  Rather than correct and address the problems they have created, they’re asking the Florida Legislature to sanction their past and continuing reckless and irresponsible behavior by creating a new set of rules and a new system to take your neighbors homes that is more to their liking.

My Challenge To You- Let Me Bring The Evidence Before You.

As a voter, a constituent and an attorney who is on the front lines of this issue and who sees how it affects your neighbors every day, I want to implore you to vote NO against any version of The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act.  If you have any inclination to vote favorably on this bill, please accept my challenge to meet with you and any committee or group of legislators when this bill is being considered.  Let me organize your neighbors and let them bring before you the evidence of their efforts to work with the mortgage lenders and banks that are asking for this relief.  Let me organize and bring before you attorneys who will present evidence of the problems the banks and lenders are creating with their own inaccurate, incorrect and often fraudulent legal work.  When you hear first hand, and see first hand the problems the banks and lenders have created—and how they are perpetuating the problems even now—I am confident you will vote NO on this bad legislation.