SERVICERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED…. TEMPORARY FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM DEMANDED IN MARYLAND!!!
In response to a request this weekend by U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Dist. 7) of Baltimore, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has a signed joint letter with Cummings and Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler calling on “Maryland mortgage servicers to halt current and future foreclosure proceedings until Maryland homeowners can be assured they’re being treated fairly.”
The joint letter, a copy of which was contained in a press release from the governor’s office, was dated Oct. 4 and addressed to several companies, including Wells Fargo/Wachovia, PNC Financial Services Group, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America and CitiMortgage. A spokesman for the governor said the letters will actually be mailed Tuesday morning.
O’Malley said in the press release, “In recent days, several servicers, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and GMAC/Ally Finance, have acknowledged that they have failed to follow proper procedures by filing affidavits in foreclosure cases without adequate personal knowledge of the underlying cases, trampling laws that were designed specifically to protect homeowners in default. They have recently announced suspension of foreclosures in 23 states.”
Cummings, a senior member of the House Joint Economic Committee, sent a letter Saturday to O’Malley and Gansler, according to information on Cummings’ website, calling for a 60-day moratorium on foreclosures.
Cummings said in his letter, “Numerous new reports from multiple states suggest major lending institutions may have committed deceptive and fraudulent actions to initiate foreclosure proceedings against potentially hundreds of thousands of homeowners, including signing affidavits and other legal documents in bulk without confirming the accuracy of the information alleged in those documents …”
Cummings said on his website, “As a result of practices such as these, families may have been wrongly evicted from properties based on inaccurate or incomplete information. Foreclosed properties may have even been sold to new owners following such proceedings.”
Calls to mortgage servicers addressed in the joint letter calling signed by O’Malley, Cummings and Gansler were not immediately returned Monday evening.
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: cummings, Gansler, O'Malley, servicers | 10 Comments »