Showing posts with label Bank of America News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bank of America News. Show all posts
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Carlos the mailman: The Reality Behind the Housing Recovery Hype
Carlos the mailman: The Reality Behind the Housing Recovery Hype: By Carlos Marroquin Los Angeles, March 17, 2013 - In recent months, real estate pundits have been saying that the housing markets ...
Monday, January 21, 2013
Single Mom Twice Wrongfully Evicted, Announcement of Federal Class Action Lawsuit Against Bank of America and Other Major Banks, Violating "Holiday Moratorium"
Single Mom Twice Wrongfully Evicted
Announcement of federal class action lawsuit filed against Bank of America and other major banks for wrongfully foreclosing/evicting on families during "Holiday Moratorium" on foreclosures
Los Angeles - B of A's lackeys, the L.A.P.D., wrongfully evicted the Corona family Friday, Jan 18th at around noon. Soledad's teenaged daughter, Victoria, was the only one home at the time and they told her she had to leave immediately. This is the SECOND time the Corona family has been evicted during the so-called "Holiday Moratorium" on foreclosures and evictions announced by major banks. The LAPD claimed they were "trespassing" in their own home. One officer allegedly said there was an arrest warrant for Soledad Corona, although they denied this later that evening.
Soly was in Orange when Victoria called in a panic, saying the L.A.P.D. was at the door to evict them. Soly immediately contacted her lawyer, Lenore Albert, who immediately called the courts and said she needed to file an injunction to stop this unlawful eviction. The courts agreed, but could not move quickly enough to prevent the L.A.P.D.'s illegal eviction action, which was intentionally carried out by B of A late on a Friday, knowing the system would move too slowly to prevent their illegal harassment of the Corona family.
Atty. Albert did manage to file a court action to be heard at the earliest possible time, which would be Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 8:30 a.m., because Monday was a holiday.
"Every holiday season since 2009, Bank of America has told the public through the press that they would not foreclose by selling homes or evicting families during the holidays. And every year, Bank of America has foreclosed on thousands of families by selling homes and evicting families during the holidays," said Albert.
"Bank of America's foreclosure practices continue to hurt families. We are now seen a trend in which banks are involving police departments in evictions and foreclosures, utilizing city resources that should go to fighting crime," says homeowner advocate Carlos Marroquín.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Flawed From the Start, Independent Foreclosure Review, Another Failure for Victimized Homeowners
By Ben Hallman,
Huffington Post
The surprising decision by regulators to scrap a massive and expensive foreclosure review program in favor of a $10 billion settlement with 14 banks -- reported by The New York Times Sunday night -- came after a year of mounting concerns about the independence and effectiveness of the controversial program.
The program, known as the Independent Foreclosure Review, was supposed to give homeowners who believe that their bank made a mistake in handling their foreclosure an opportunity for a neutral third party to review the claim. It's not clear what factors led banking regulators to abandon the program in favor of a settlement, but the final straw may have been a pending report by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, which was investigating the review program.
Rep. Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat, told The Huffington Post that the report, which has not been released, was "critical" and that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which administers the review, was aware of its findings. Miller said that that one problem the GAO was likely to highlight was an "unacceptably high" error rate of 11 percent in a sampling of bank loan files.
The sample files were chosen at random by the banks from their broader pool of foreclosed homeowners, who had not necessarily applied for relief. The data suggests that of the 4 million families who lost their homes to foreclosure since the housing crash, more than 400,000 had some bank-caused problem in their loan file. It also suggests that many thousands of those who could have applied for relief didn't -- because they weren't aware of the review, or weren't aware that their bank had made a mistake. Some of these mistakes pushed homeowners into foreclosure who otherwise could have afforded to keep their homes.
Miller said the news that a settlement to replace the review was in the works caught him by surprise, and stressed that he had no way of knowing whether the impending GAO report had triggered the decision.
It's not clear what will happen to the 250,000 homeowners who have already applied to the Independent Foreclosure Review for relief. The Times, citing people familiar with the negotiations, said that a deal between the banks and banking regulators, led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, could be reached by the end of the week. It wasn't clear how that money would be distributed or how many current and former homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure -- or who were hit with an unnecessary fee -- might qualify.
Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the OCC, which administers the program, declined to comment on the Times' story. Hubbard told HuffPost, "The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is committed to ensuring the Independent Foreclosure Review proceeds efficiently and to ensuring harmed borrowers are compensated as quickly as possible."
Since the housing market crashed in 2007, thousands of foreclosed homeowners have complained that their mortgage company made a mistake in the management of their home loan, such as foreclosing on someone making payments on a loan modification plan. The Independent Foreclosure Review emerged from a legal agreement in April 2011 between 14 mortgage companies and bank regulators over these abusive "servicing" practices. It was supposed to give homeowners an opportunity to have an unbiased third party review their foreclosure and determine whether they might qualify for a cash payout of up to $125,000.
The initial response was tepid, at best. Homeowners and advocates complained that the application forms were confusing and that information about what type of compensation they might get was missing. Some told HuffPost that they were so disillusioned by the federal government's anemic response to widely reported bank errors that they weren't going to bother to apply.
In one instance, Daniel Casper, an Illinois wedding videographer, applied to the program in January after years of combat with Bank of America over his home loan. As The Huffington Post reported in October, he was initially rejected, because, according to the bank, his mortgage was not in the foreclosure process during the eligible review period. Promontory Financial Group, which Bank of America hired to review his loan, apparently did not double check Bank of America's analysis against the extensive documentation that Chase submitted. That documentation clearly showed that his loan was eligible for review.
In recent months ProPublica, an investigative nonprofit, has issued a series of damning articles about the Independent Foreclosure Review. The most recent found that supposedly independent third-party reviewers looking over Bank of America loan files were given the "correct" answers in advance by the bank. These reviewers could override the answers, but they weren't starting from a blank slate.
Banks, if they did not find a "compensable error," did not have to pay anything, giving them a strong incentive to find no flaws with their own work.
"It was flawed from the start," Miller said of the review program. "There was an inherent conflict of interest by just about everyone involved."
Huffington Post
The surprising decision by regulators to scrap a massive and expensive foreclosure review program in favor of a $10 billion settlement with 14 banks -- reported by The New York Times Sunday night -- came after a year of mounting concerns about the independence and effectiveness of the controversial program.
The program, known as the Independent Foreclosure Review, was supposed to give homeowners who believe that their bank made a mistake in handling their foreclosure an opportunity for a neutral third party to review the claim. It's not clear what factors led banking regulators to abandon the program in favor of a settlement, but the final straw may have been a pending report by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, which was investigating the review program.
Rep. Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat, told The Huffington Post that the report, which has not been released, was "critical" and that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which administers the review, was aware of its findings. Miller said that that one problem the GAO was likely to highlight was an "unacceptably high" error rate of 11 percent in a sampling of bank loan files.
The sample files were chosen at random by the banks from their broader pool of foreclosed homeowners, who had not necessarily applied for relief. The data suggests that of the 4 million families who lost their homes to foreclosure since the housing crash, more than 400,000 had some bank-caused problem in their loan file. It also suggests that many thousands of those who could have applied for relief didn't -- because they weren't aware of the review, or weren't aware that their bank had made a mistake. Some of these mistakes pushed homeowners into foreclosure who otherwise could have afforded to keep their homes.
Miller said the news that a settlement to replace the review was in the works caught him by surprise, and stressed that he had no way of knowing whether the impending GAO report had triggered the decision.
It's not clear what will happen to the 250,000 homeowners who have already applied to the Independent Foreclosure Review for relief. The Times, citing people familiar with the negotiations, said that a deal between the banks and banking regulators, led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, could be reached by the end of the week. It wasn't clear how that money would be distributed or how many current and former homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure -- or who were hit with an unnecessary fee -- might qualify.
Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the OCC, which administers the program, declined to comment on the Times' story. Hubbard told HuffPost, "The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is committed to ensuring the Independent Foreclosure Review proceeds efficiently and to ensuring harmed borrowers are compensated as quickly as possible."
Since the housing market crashed in 2007, thousands of foreclosed homeowners have complained that their mortgage company made a mistake in the management of their home loan, such as foreclosing on someone making payments on a loan modification plan. The Independent Foreclosure Review emerged from a legal agreement in April 2011 between 14 mortgage companies and bank regulators over these abusive "servicing" practices. It was supposed to give homeowners an opportunity to have an unbiased third party review their foreclosure and determine whether they might qualify for a cash payout of up to $125,000.
The initial response was tepid, at best. Homeowners and advocates complained that the application forms were confusing and that information about what type of compensation they might get was missing. Some told HuffPost that they were so disillusioned by the federal government's anemic response to widely reported bank errors that they weren't going to bother to apply.
In one instance, Daniel Casper, an Illinois wedding videographer, applied to the program in January after years of combat with Bank of America over his home loan. As The Huffington Post reported in October, he was initially rejected, because, according to the bank, his mortgage was not in the foreclosure process during the eligible review period. Promontory Financial Group, which Bank of America hired to review his loan, apparently did not double check Bank of America's analysis against the extensive documentation that Chase submitted. That documentation clearly showed that his loan was eligible for review.
In recent months ProPublica, an investigative nonprofit, has issued a series of damning articles about the Independent Foreclosure Review. The most recent found that supposedly independent third-party reviewers looking over Bank of America loan files were given the "correct" answers in advance by the bank. These reviewers could override the answers, but they weren't starting from a blank slate.
Banks, if they did not find a "compensable error," did not have to pay anything, giving them a strong incentive to find no flaws with their own work.
"It was flawed from the start," Miller said of the review program. "There was an inherent conflict of interest by just about everyone involved."
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Bank of America Breaks Holiday Promise, Occupy Help Single Mom Return to Home for The Holidays, Vows to Fight Back
Occupy LA Activists, Occupy Fights Foreclosures help Single Mom Return to Foreclosed Home for the Holidays and Promise to Fight Wrongful Foreclosure and Eviction by Bank of America.
December 25, 2012
Los Angeles - Bank of America did not specify dates on which it will halt foreclosures, but spokesman Rick Simon said in an email, "it is the bank's policy to avoid foreclosure sales or displacement of homeowners or tenants during and around the Christmas holiday."
On December 23rd, members of Occupy Fights Foreclosures and community supporters moved Soledad Corona along with her daughter back into their foreclosed home. "In early October I reached out to Bank of America regarding the Corona's case and have been given the round-around by Bank of America officials", says Carlos Marroquin, a homeowner activist from Occupy Fights Foreclosures, " I called Bank of America immediately after the eviction and for five days I could not get a respond from the bank. They kept
mis-placing my Letter of Authorization to speak to the bank on behalf of Ms. Corona. On Friday, December 21st, I received I call from John Boyd on behalf of the CEO's office telling me that they promise that they would be in touch with me by the end of business on the same day and that never happen. They totally disregarded the Corona family emergency and had no intentions to give me any answers as to why they broke their promise."
Soledad, a single mother of thirteen years, moved into the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln heights in 2008. In the year 2009, Bank of America granted her a loan modification. After faithfully making her payments, Bank of America reneged their loan modification agreement, withheld her money for a month, and notified her that her home was being foreclosed on. For a month the family was in need of food, and extra money to pay for basic survival needs. After repeatedly speaking with the bank, trying to convince them to let the family continue to make their home payments, The Corona family is now facing eviction.
Bank of America continues to notify the public that they will not evict or foreclose on families during the holidays, but the Corona family is just one of many families that is currently being subjected to Bank of America's fraudulent banking practices.
December 25, 2012
Los Angeles - Bank of America did not specify dates on which it will halt foreclosures, but spokesman Rick Simon said in an email, "it is the bank's policy to avoid foreclosure sales or displacement of homeowners or tenants during and around the Christmas holiday."
On December 23rd, members of Occupy Fights Foreclosures and community supporters moved Soledad Corona along with her daughter back into their foreclosed home. "In early October I reached out to Bank of America regarding the Corona's case and have been given the round-around by Bank of America officials", says Carlos Marroquin, a homeowner activist from Occupy Fights Foreclosures, " I called Bank of America immediately after the eviction and for five days I could not get a respond from the bank. They kept
mis-placing my Letter of Authorization to speak to the bank on behalf of Ms. Corona. On Friday, December 21st, I received I call from John Boyd on behalf of the CEO's office telling me that they promise that they would be in touch with me by the end of business on the same day and that never happen. They totally disregarded the Corona family emergency and had no intentions to give me any answers as to why they broke their promise."
Soledad, a single mother of thirteen years, moved into the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln heights in 2008. In the year 2009, Bank of America granted her a loan modification. After faithfully making her payments, Bank of America reneged their loan modification agreement, withheld her money for a month, and notified her that her home was being foreclosed on. For a month the family was in need of food, and extra money to pay for basic survival needs. After repeatedly speaking with the bank, trying to convince them to let the family continue to make their home payments, The Corona family is now facing eviction.
Bank of America continues to notify the public that they will not evict or foreclose on families during the holidays, but the Corona family is just one of many families that is currently being subjected to Bank of America's fraudulent banking practices.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
U.S. News - Occupy LA protest targets Bank of America foreclosures
Continue reading here...
U.S. News - Occupy LA protest targets Bank of America foreclosures
Carlos Marroquin, Occupy LA
U.S. News - Occupy LA protest targets Bank of America foreclosures
Carlos Marroquin, Occupy LA
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
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