The Banks Paid Money, The Banks Can Foreclose With Impunity
We are living in a time of gross imbalance in this country…and nowhere is this seen more dramatically than the treatment consumers in foreclosure are feeling. No laws have changed and no appellate decisions explain this dramatic turn around, these wholesale violations consumer justice, citizen protection and due process.
And while there are certainly anecdotal and isolated stories, this is really all far bigger than the macro, the little picture, the individual abuse. What is occurring across the country is our government made its deal with the banks and Wall Street…give us back a few pennies from the billions of dollars you stole, and we’ll both work together, declaring open season on consumers.
In foreclosure, nearly all semblance of due process has been eliminated. Judgements are just being walked through. Forget about robo signing (otherwise known as forgery) and fraud (otherwise known as fraud), those things have all been swept under the rug…and no consumer or attorney is permitted to talk about such things anymore.
A military law enforcement client got to see this disgusting spectacle up close and first hand recently. He just couldn’t fathom that all the fraud he had found in his file and was aware of recently meant nothing and that there was no consequence for all of it….it really forced him to take a long hard look at the larger principals he thought he was serving. He told me he’d never look at his professional life in a courtroom the same way anymore.
The gross and systemic crimes that have been committed as part of the rush to foreclose on properties have gone, and will continue to go, unpunished. The banks paid their fines. Paltry and absurd as they are…the deal is done.
Now we all just sit back and watch as hundreds of thousands of final judgements of foreclosure are entered all across this state…entered in courtrooms funded with money, paid by The Banks. Money that was specifically and explicitly required to be used to “help” consumers. The “help” that consumers are being given are courtrooms stuffed with attorneys working for banks and an entire court divisions focused on achieving the pre-disclosed purpose….
CLEAR THE FORECLOSURE DOCKET!
In January 2014, there were 620 foreclosure auctions in Pinellas County. 620. And just how many of those auctions resulted in the banks taking the homes back? 530.
Do you get those numbers? Only 90 of 620 properties went to third party purchasers.
The data on the excel spreadsheet below is so important. It tells such an incredible story…..but it’s one that no one cares to pay any attention to. Start with the most basic question…
WHY DO WE AS TAXPAYERS SIT BACK AND USE OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO FUND A COURT SYSTEM WHICH MERELY RETURNS FORECLOSED PROPERTIES BACK TO THE BANKS?
Foreclosure auctions as they are currently being conducted are anything but true auctions. They are manipulated and contrived events, serving interests that are not readily apparent. Certainly one part of it…(perhaps the biggest part) are perverse financial incentives that reward banks for taking back title to properties….but there is certainly more….much more…operating at levels that we cannot entirely understand.
How many millions of dollars are municipalities being cheated out of because the allegedly “public” auctions are being manipulated? So many deeds…so little real transfer….why?
And especially, see the excel spreadsheet below…