(Op-Ed) — The author of this post is a paralegal that serves as a title consultant to trial attorneys in foreclosure matters and thus, this article is not intended to render legal advice, nor to be construed as such. It is intended for educational purposes only and is not guaranteed to produce any given legal outcome.
The author of this post will try to keep things simple without passing judgment.
There is no doubt here that we are collectively living in troubled times. The rash of foreclosures continues now that the eviction moratoriums have been lifted for the most part. Those who did not undertake a loan modification or request a forbearance (that was actually granted) are probably feeling the sting of communication by the mortgage loan servicers in their mailing out of late notices on unpaid and delinquent mortgage loans.
According to the terms of the mortgage or deed of trust (depending on which “state” you’re in), there is a specific section on Default. Understand that it’s the mortgage loan servicer’s obligation to collect the mortgage loan debt and route payments to the “lender”, no matter WHO that lender might be.
The problem with defaults, loan modifications and the like is that so many of the loans out there today are securitized through the MERS® System. Since the MERS® System was taken over by the same company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, the information coming out of this entity is scarce to non-existent.
Generally, if you miss a payment, the servicer is going to notify you by certified mail. You may have to sign for the letter. The biggest mistake that homeowners make is ignoring these letters, when in fact, this could be the very start of a long, drawn-out process where you can obtain a lot of useful and vital information that your attorney could use in a foreclosure defense posture, without having to pay gobs in legal fees.
What is a QWR?
That process is called a Qualified Written Request (QWR) under RESPA (the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) § 6. You can easily research this section of the law and discover that RESPA allows you to send a QWR to the servicer’s bona fide QWR address and ask the servicer to send you specific information, which is discussed below.
The author is going to include a sample QWR from the National Consumer Law Center; however, it comes with a caveat. If you want to delay the foreclosure while gathering evidence, it is suggested by many attorneys that you only request two or three documents at a time and just keep the requests coming. As soon as you get the set of documents you asked for, have another letter drafted, ready to go with another 3 to 4 document requests under the same set of statutes. This prolongs the servicer taking any action against you, while you set out to discover (rather than go through objectionable discovery in court against the servicer who’s trying to steal your home) all of the documents necessary to build a sustainable case.
Several homeowners this author has talked to have utilized QWR’s to stop foreclosures. It was only when their attorneys told them it wasn’t doing any good to continue sending them … and the homeowners quit sending QWRs … that all of a sudden, the servicers foreclosed on them.
Why send a QWR?
Sending the servicer (at their official QWR address, not their main address) a QWR is a great way to get information from the lender’s mortgage loan servicer. Nine times out of ten, it’s the mortgage loan servicer that retains the law firm to foreclose and it’s the mortgage loan servicer whose employees falsify the assignments they use to create standing to steal your home.
Secondly, when asking intially, the following documents are key to asking for follow-up questions:
- An unredacted copy of the mortgage or deed of trust
- A copy of the note, showing all indorsements and allonges proving custody of the note
- A copy of the complete pay history of the loan, including escrows
Do NOT ask for the original note because it’s highly likely the servicer doesn’t have it. If your loan was securitized, it’s also highly likely, given what Judge Jennifer Bailey in Florida was told by the Florida Mortgage Bankers Association (in 2009), that your note was shredded after it was uploaded into the MERS® System.
For those of you doubting Thomases out there, read page 4 of the foregoing letter to the judge … understand that the word “eliminated” is just what it is. The banks got rid of the original loan paperwork because they converted the note into a security. They converted a debt instrument into an equity instrument, which makes no sense at all. The foregoing letter was included as an exhibit in the Osceola County Forensic Examination conducted by the author and his team and attorney Allen D. West, Esq., released to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Osceola County, Florida on December 30, 2014. Since then, subsequent Clerks have kept the examination report on the county’s website.
This is why asking to see the original note is ludicrous because it doesn’t exist in its purest form.
This is why you want to identify WHO the players are in your chain of title and compare what you get from the mortgage loan servicer’s collateral file with all of the other evidence you are able to obtain from a QWR versus the actual discovery within an expensive lawsuit (right out of the gate).
Day 91
Don’t be fooled by mortgage loan servicers whose employees ask you to be 90 days late on your mortgage loan before they’ll grant you a loan modification. On Day 91, the mortgage loan servicer and the trustee will file for insurance claims on the REMIC and get paid in full for the missing mortgage loan payments not made by the borrowers. If the investors in the REMIC are made whole with a payout by the insurance carriers, then who’s in default? The REMIC has no standing to pursue a foreclosure!
Once you’ve been able to ascertain the “players” in the sandbox, it will make things a lot simpler to identify the culprits and pursue some serious litigation against them.
Listen to Dave Krieger on The Power Hour, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., Monday – Friday (Central Time) and don’t forget to watch his speech, streaming live on The Power Hour (thepowerhour.com) on Saturday, May 14, 2022, live from Clay Clark’s Reawaken America Tour at the Carolina Opry in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time.
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