Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

[GRG55]

Ya gotta luv the media...they just won't stop trying to convince us that up is down and black is white...

Now we have a whole new definition for what constitutes a "homeowner"...pre-scheduled eviction. Clearly these people never actually "owned" anything.

[The program seems to make some logical sense for both parties, but I just can't help but laugh at our difficulty letting go of the familiar terminology and concept of the "ownership society]

Citi to let distressed homeowners stay for 6 mos.

Citigroup plan lets homeowners avoid foreclosure, stay for 6 months if they turn over deed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Citigroup Inc. plans to let homeowners on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months -- if they turn over the deed to their property.

Citi said Thursday it is launching the pilot program, dubbed "Foreclosure Alternatives," this week in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio. Initially, about 1,000 homeowners are expected to participate. Citi may expand the program nationwide...

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

Yeah, 'ownership' has taken on a new meaning .. especially in Canada where our mortgages are subsidized by the CMHC.

I was going to ask you GR, what you think about a long term short on TSX:MIC (Genworth Canada)

[cjppjc]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

Their name is on the deed. They are the homeowners. I guess they could have said Citigroup Inc. plans to let people who are in forclosure. Or people who once purchased a house or condo. on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months

Homeowner fits.

[sunskyfan]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

Wow. I bet Citigroup is okay with them selling the cabinets and the bathroom fixtures too. They are "homeowners".

[don]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

A friend of mine that's on a job in Orange County, Florida, told me the local paper headlines were 10,000 plus evictions in that county in 2009, with more expected this year. That's a lot of 'homeowners', Jack, for one county.

[bill]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

Ya gotta luv the media...they just won't stop trying to convince us that up is down and black is white...

Now we have a whole new definition for what constitutes a "homeowner"...pre-scheduled eviction. Clearly these people never actually "owned" anything.

[The program seems to make some logical sense for both parties, but I just can't help but laugh at our difficulty letting go of the familiar terminology and concept of the "ownership society]

Citi to let distressed homeowners stay for 6 mos.

Citigroup plan lets homeowners avoid foreclosure, stay for 6 months if they turn over deed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Citigroup Inc. plans to let homeowners on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months -- if they turn over the deed to their property.

Citi said Thursday it is launching the pilot program, dubbed "Foreclosure Alternatives," this week in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio. Initially, about 1,000 homeowners are expected to participate. Citi may expand the program nationwide...

What liability clause will enforce collections on unpaid balances?

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...492#post147492

[GRG55]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

Their name is on the deed. They are the homeowners. I guess they could have said Citigroup Inc. plans to let people who are in forclosure. Or people who once purchased a house or condo. on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months

Homeowner fits.

The article says that Citi requires they turn over the deed to Citi.

Does home"owners" still fit?

[swgprop]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

What liability clause will enforce collections on unpaid balances?

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...492#post147492

From the HAMP website regarding the Foreclosure Alternatives program:

With either the HAFA short sale or DIL, the servicer may not require a cash contribution or promissory note from the borrower and must forfeit the ability to pursue a deficiency judgment against the borrower.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

Ya gotta luv the media...they just won't stop trying to convince us that up is down and black is white...

Now we have a whole new definition for what constitutes a "homeowner"...pre-scheduled eviction. Clearly these people never actually "owned" anything.

[The program seems to make some logical sense for both parties, but I just can't help but laugh at our difficulty letting go of the familiar terminology and concept of the "ownership society]

Citi to let distressed homeowners stay for 6 mos.

Citigroup plan lets homeowners avoid foreclosure, stay for 6 months if they turn over deed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Citigroup Inc. plans to let homeowners on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months -- if they turn over the deed to their property.

Citi said Thursday it is launching the pilot program, dubbed "Foreclosure Alternatives," this week in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio. Initially, about 1,000 homeowners are expected to participate. Citi may expand the program nationwide...

Could this be related?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/lat...hood-construct

[cjppjc]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

The article says that Citi requires they turn over the deed to Citi.

Does home"owners" still fit?

I see your point now. I should have read more carefully. The article should have read:

Citigroup Inc. plans to let soon to be ex homeowners on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months -- if they turn over the deed to their property.

[bill]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

From the HAMP website regarding the Foreclosure Alternatives program:

No way this protects you against liability. Consult your attorney to protect your interest. Government granting Servicer powers will not protect your interest.

https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/docs...cer/sd0909.pdf

By signing this letter, you are agreeing not only to a short sale but also to a deed

‐in‐lieu of foreclosure if a short

sale is not successful. If you have any questions about the deed

‐in‐lieu of foreclosure, please call us before signing
and returning this letter.]

We require each subordinate lien holder

to release you from personal liability for the loans in order for the sale to qualify for this program, but
we do not take any responsibility for ensuring that the lien holders do not seek to enforce personal
liability against you. Therefore, we recommend that you take steps to satisfy yourself that the

subordinate lien holders release you from personal liability.

If all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement are met, upon

sale and settlement of the property, servicer will prepare and send for recording a lien release in full

satisfaction of the mortgage, foregoing all rights to personal liability or deficiency judgment.

The proposed transaction represents our attempt to reach a settlement of the

delinquent mortgage. You are choosing to enter into this Agreement even though there is no guarantee

that the transaction will be successful.

Loan Mod
https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/prog...urrent.html#11

That all terms and provisions of the Loan Documents, except as expressly modified by this Agreement, remain in full force and effect; nothing in this Agreement shall be understood or construed to be a satisfaction or release in whole or in part of the obligations contained in the Loan Documents; and that except as otherwise specifically provided in, and as expressly modified by, this Agreement, the Lender and I will be bound by, and will comply with, all of the terms and conditions of the Loan Documents.

If all or any part of the Property or any interest in it is sold or transferred without Lender’s prior written consent, Lender may, at its option, require immediate payment in full of all sums secured by the Mortgage.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

The delinquent borrowers were, in many cases, involved in liar-loans. In other words, they lied to the bank or lender about their income, and the lending institutions knew they were lying. It was all part of a game during the Greenspan years, hence the term: "The Mess that Greenspan Made" also known by the acronym (TMTGM).

Hopefully, the dead-beats will all be thrown-out on their duffs. And they should be held criminally liable for any damage to the property due to illegally selling fixtures for their copper or stainless-steel melt value.

Why should the savers have to be hung with zero interest rates for TMTGM? Make the dead-beat debtors pay in full. And make the banks and lending institutions pay too, because they were all in on this scam.

Imagine: the Demos in Congress voting to re-appoint Bail-out Ben Bernanke to the Fed! Lest we forget, Bernanke was Greenspan's right-hand man at the Fed during the Bush years.

TMTGM should be taught to every student in school, so that the history and economic dysfunction of our Great Recession might be properly understood. I witnessed the liar-loans being written during the housing bubble in California, and they were being written everywhere. Mickey-moused appraised values were also part of the scam. Greenspan's cheap money was another part of the scam. De-regulation was another aspect of the scam. So-called "innovations in finance" was yet another aspect of the scam.

To understand what is happening now in the Great Recession, it is important--- very important --- to understand the Greenspan Years at the Fed.

[bill]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

The delinquent borrowers were, in many cases, involved in liar-loans. In other words, they lied to the bank or lender about their income, and the lending institutions knew they were lying. It was all part of a game during the Greenspan years, hence the term: "The Mess that Greenspan Made" also known by the acronym (TMTGM).

Hopefully, the dead-beats will all be thrown-out on their duffs. And they should be held criminally liable for any damage to the property due to illegally selling fixtures for their copper or stainless-steel melt value.

Why should the savers have to be hung with zero interest rates for TMTGM? Make the dead-beat debtors pay in full. And make the banks and lending institutions pay too, because they were all in on this scam.

Imagine: the Demos in Congress voting to re-appoint Bail-out Ben Bernanke to the Fed! Lest we forget, Bernanke was Greenspan's right-hand man at the Fed during the Bush years.

TMTGM should be taught to every student in school, so that the history and economic dysfunction of our Great Recession might be properly understood. I witnessed the liar-loans being written during the housing bubble in California, and they were being written everywhere. Mickey-moused appraised values were also part of the scam. Greenspan's cheap money was another part of the scam. De-regulation was another aspect of the scam. So-called "innovations in finance" was yet another aspect of the scam.

To understand what is happening now in the Great Recession, it is important--- very important --- to understand the Greenspan Years at the Fed.

OCC
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...37780#poststop

Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

[bill]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

No way this protects you against liability. Consult your attorney to protect your interest. Government granting Servicer powers will not protect your interest.

https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/docs...cer/sd0909.pdf
Loan Mod

https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/prog...urrent.html#11

[/left]

What should happen but won’t.
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...49357#poststop

Full Government control of housing market.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...wBS8KYq8&pos=1

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all foreclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.
The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a Treasury Department document outlining the plan.
“It is one of the many ideas under consideration in the administration’s ongoing housing stabilization efforts,” Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said in an e-mail. “This proposal has not been approved and there are no immediate planned announcements on the issue.”
She confirmed the authenticity of the document, which hasn’t been made public.
At present, lenders can initiate foreclosure proceedings on any loan that hasn’t been submitted for HAMP eligibility. Under current HAMP rules, foreclosure litigation can proceed while borrowers are under review for the program or even in a trial modification.
The proposed changes would prohibit lenders from initiating new foreclosure actions before loan screening by HAMP and would require lenders to halt existing proceedings for borrowers once they are in a trial repayment plan.
‘Improved Protections’
The Treasury Department will soon release guidance “which will include a set of improved protections for borrowers” in HAMP, Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said today in testimony prepared for a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. She didn’t provide details.
The proposal goes further than rules adopted amid the crisis by federally controlled mortgage-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which require lenders to review borrowers for a federal loan modification before a foreclosed property can be sold.
Foreclosure proceedings can still be initiated without a review, said Freddie Mac spokesman Doug Duvall. Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said it adopted the same policy last March.
About 89 percent of outstanding residential mortgage loans are covered by the voluntary HAMP program.
About 2.82 million U.S. homeowners lost properties to foreclosure last year and 4.5 million filings are expected in 2010, RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California data company, said last month.
Seven Million
Obama’s foreclosure prevention initiative, announced in February 2009 to help as many as 4 million Americans avert foreclosure, has modified 116,297 loans through steps such as lowering interest rates or lengthening repayment terms. More than 830,000 borrowers received trial repayment plans through January, according to Treasury data.
“Foreclosure processes differ among states, and the process is often confusing to homeowners already facing distress,” Caldwell said in her prepared testimony. “Treasury has been reviewing guidelines around outreach and the foreclosure process as part of its continual assessment of program effectiveness and transparency.”
Foreclosures may reach as many as 7 million mortgages, and an additional 5 million are at risk of default because borrowers owe more than the property is worth, Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities Group LP in New York, said in a Feb. 17 interview.
Republican Criticism
“This is a problem of mammoth proportions,” Goodman said. “You can’t throw 12 million people out of their homes, so you need a successful modification program. My fear is that this isn’t it, but I’m highly confident that the administration will continue to iterate until they succeed.”
The Treasury proposal would require all borrowers who are 60 or more days delinquent on their mortgage to be sought out for participation in HAMP. Mortgage companies would need to try to contact the borrower at least four times by phone and twice by certified mail over 30 or more days before going to foreclosure.
Under current Treasury policy, foreclosure proceedings are only halted when a borrower receives a permanent modification plan.
House Republicans criticized HAMP as a failure today, saying in a report that it is prolonging the economic crisis and harming homeowners.
“By every empirical measure, HAMP has failed,” according to the 18-page report released by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “In its current form, HAMP both hurts homeowners who might otherwise spend their trial-period mortgage payments on rent and also distorts the housing market, delaying any recovery.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn Kopecki in Washington at dkopecki@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: February 25, 2010 14:48 EST

[bill]

Re: Orwell Lives...New Definition for "Homeowner"

No way this protects you against liability. Consult your attorney to protect your interest. Government granting Servicer powers will not protect your interest.

https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/docs...cer/sd0909.pdf

Loan Mod
https://www.hmpadmin.com/portal/prog...urrent.html#11

[/left]

You have rights with original mortgage. Beware of signing loan modification agreements.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...n-promise.html

Suits: Banks didn't keep loan promise

Families in Mass. say BofA, Wells Fargo not helping enough with mortgages

By Stella M. Hopkins
shopkins@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010

More frustrated homeowners turned to federal court this week for help with their mortgages, saying Bank of America and Wells Fargo failed to provide promised payment modifications.
The two cases, filed Tuesday in Massachusetts, seek class action status.
Three specific families are identified, one with a loan serviced by Bank of America and two by Wells Fargo - the nation's two largest mortgage servicers. They were granted trial modifications, according to court documents, but haven't received long-term modifications despite having submitted all required documents and made timely payments for more than three months.
The claims are simple, the two filings say: "When a large financial institution promises to modify an eligible loan to prevent foreclosure, homeowners who live up to their end of the bargain expect that promise to be kept."
The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is the main federal plan for reducing mortgage payments, part of a $75 billion plan to stem the national foreclosure crisis. HAMP calls for a three-month trial period, intended to give time for the homeowner to demonstrate an ability to keep up with the lower payments. However, there are growing reports of homeowners in trial plans ultimately being rejected for modifications despite making their trial payments or even being foreclosed on during the process.
The modification process has generated so many complaints that regulators and lawmakers are pressuring lenders to improve.
The Massachusetts cases, which are not open to borrowers in other states, say homeowners are "living in limbo" and spending scarce resources on payments that might ultimately not save their homes.
"Some are in fact continuing to receive foreclosure notices," said Stuart Rossman, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, which brought the lawsuit, along with a law firm and another advocacy group.
Bank of America said it couldn't comment on the lawsuit because it hadn't yet been served. The Charlotte bank has said its "extraordinary measures" include sending workers to borrowers' homes, to help them fulfill requirements for long-term modifications.
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the company "will respond to the lawsuit once we have a chance to review it."
The San Francisco bank, which bought Wachovia late in 2008, has been "diligently working to convert - from trial to completed modifications - customers who meet the HAMP guidelines," Debora Blume said in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, not all customers who enter a HAMP trial do ultimately qualify for the program. In these instances, we work to determine if another foreclosure prevention option is available to them."
Earlier this month, 10 Ohio homeowners filed a civil case in federal court against Bank of America, also saying the bank broke promises to modify their payments.
The circumstances differ, in that the Ohio homeowners say they were promised modifications during a federally sponsored event last year. As of the filing date, they hadn't received documents or had their payments reduced, meaning they are not as far along in the process as the Massachusetts families.