“When Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home last December, he paid cash. But seven months later, he was surprised to learn that Bank of America had foreclosed on the house, even though Grodensky did not have a mortgage.
Grodensky knew nothing about the foreclosure until July, when he learned that the title to his home had been transferred to a government-backed lender. “I feel like I’m hanging in the wind and I’m scared to death,” said Grodensky. “How did some attorney put through a foreclosure illegally?”
Bank of America has acknowledged the error and will correct it at its own expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens.”
Let that sink in for few moments. Guy bought and paid for the home up front. He never took out a mortgage. He never took out any sort of loan with Bank of America. He bought it fair and square in a short sale and wired Bank of America the money.
Except Bank of America, being the upstanding free-market company complaining that there's too much government oversight and that we bailed out to the tune of tens of billions two years ago, fouled up the paperwork to the point of criminal negligence.
Court records show Countrywide Home Loans filed a foreclosure case in Broward County civil court against the former owner of the home on Southwest 14th Street in 2008. Bank of America took over Countrywide at the end of that year.
The following year, Grodensky and his father Steven bought the house for cash as an investment property. Jason Grodensky’s brother Kenny Sloan lives in the house now. They negotiated a short sale, which means the lender agreed to accept less than the mortgage amount. Documents show the sale proceeds were wired to Bank of America. The sale was recorded in December 2009 at the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office.
But in court, the foreclosure case continued, the records show. There was a motion to dismiss the case in July, followed the next day by a motion to re-open it. A court-ordered foreclosure sale took place July 15. The property appraiser’s office recorded the transfer of the title to the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) the same day.
In other words, his home was foreclosed literally out from under him. He only found out when the Broward County Sheriff's deputies came to throw his family out.
Bank of America is only interested in foreclosing and throwing these homes on the Fannie/Freddie bonfire as quickly as they can process them. Our system continues to allow this to happen. It must be forced to stop. i think it will be soon.
Posts
1 comment:
I am a title agent in FL, and have seen the exact same thing happen with BOA.
We had a client that paid cash for a short sale, and roughly three weeks later started to receive foreclosure paperwork from an attorney. We immediately sent over the HUD, approval letter, and wire confirmation and thought the matter settled. A few weeks later, they received more foreclosure paperwork, all related to the prior owner.
It took well over a month, but were able to resolve this for our client, but the buyer was very frustrated and nervous the entire time.
Needless to say, there is no great love for BOA.
Post a Comment