foreclosure

$318 million for Massachusetts victims of unlawful foreclosures; state to seek additional money

adamg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:10:32 +0000

Settlement with large national banks; Attorney General Martha Coakley said she will continue to purse a separate lawsuit against lenders.

State charges foreclosure, lending fraud by giant lenders

adamg — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:19:55 +0000

Attorney General Martha Coakley today announced a lawsuit against five large banks and mortgage companies, alleging they falsified documents, seized property they had not right to, lied to borrowers about refinancing programs and attempted to circumvent state property registration laws by using a private clearinghouse - which is also named in the complaint.

The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, names Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, GMAC and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System.

They take out the trash - and leave it on bank president's front steps

adamg — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:15:57 +0000

Malden Patch reports foreclosure protesters gathered up trash from a foreclosed Malden house they say Bank of America has let go to hell, then took it over to the Beacon Hill home of the president of the bank's Massachusetts division and dumped it there.

Court extends protection of law against stupid evictions to tenants getting evicted before law was passed

adamg — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:26:56 +0000

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a 2010 law aimed at protecting tenants of foreclosed apartments against evictions "without just cause" also applies to tenants who were in the process of being evicted before the law went into effect, but who never left their units.

Project documents Boston's foreclosure crisis, one victim at a time

lex.galloway — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:25:43 +0000

Taylor: Photo from We Shall Not Be Moved

The loan officer told Paula Taylor she could qualify for a $259,000 mortgage despite her $20,000 yearly salary. Eager to own a home, she signed up and bought a condo in Roxbury. Despite having her sister move in to help with expenses, she couldn't keep up with the mortgage payments and lost the house in just seven months - later finding out the loan company - Countrywide Financial had listed her salary at nearly $90,000 so she could get the mortgage, and it could get the fees.

The Taylor story is one of many being tracked by We Shall Not Be Moved, an on-going media project to tell the story of the grassroots movement that is working to keep Boston-area families in their homes after foreclosure. We Shall Not Be Moved holds an opening reception on Saturday, Feb. 19, from 4-7 p.m., at the Great Hall in Codman Square.

Boston neighborhoods could soon see fewer boarded-up foreclosed houses

adamg — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:26:47 +0000

But not because there are fewer foreclosures. In fact, City Councilor Rob Consalvo said today, foreclosures are up 5% over last year. Consalvo (Hyde Park, Roslindale) has proposed letting the city force banks and mortgage companies to use indoor framing and locks to secure their foreclosed houses.

Squatting comes to Roxbury

adamg — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:18:20 +0000

The Globe reports on a woman who moved into a foreclosed house without permission as a statement. And it worked. Rather than evicting her, the bank agreed to sell the property to a local non-profit.

Mike Ross: Let foreclosed homeowners, tenants stay in their homes

adamg — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:57:49 +0000

The city council president is proposing legsilation that would let people who live in foreclosed properties continue to stay there as long as they pay "full market value rent" each month - until the property is sold.

... Foreclosures and evictions lead to abandoned properties. Banks have left over 1,000 properties abandoned in Boston, having catastrophic impacts on neighborhoods. These abandoned homes provide easy opportunities for crime. They become homes for squatters and drug dealers, and lead to crashing property values and skyrocketing crime rates.

The foreclosure crisis also tears apart the fabric of our communities. In March, I took a tour of the Four Corners area of Dorchester with people who'd been affected by foreclosure. The stories I heard that day were not of irresponsible homeowners, but of predatory lending practices that made it impossible for these hardworking individuals and families to keep their property. ...

Go figure: Foreclosure-help ad in the Metro may not have been legit

adamg — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:50:05 +0000

The state Attorney General's office has gotten a temporary restraining order against a New York firm that allegedly used ads in the Metro to drum up business among homeowners facing foreclosure by promising legal services it couldn't deliver. Among other things, the company demanded $1,500 up front from prospective clients, which is illegal in Massachusetts and also, despite calling itself Loan Mods by Lawyers, it, in fact, employed no lawyers, the Attorney General's office reports, adding the Metro cooperated fully with state investigators.

'The encroachment of decay' in Fields Corner

adamg — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:50:43 +0000

The Dorchester Reporter takes a tour of foreclosed properties in Fields Corner that are becoming neighborhood trash dumps - including 225 Westville St., from which an entire family of squatters was evicted this week. Most of the properties are owned by out-of-town banks, which don't seem to much care about cleanliness, but the Reporter also says neighbors had been complaining about 225 Westville for two months before the city finally did something. With a photo of the property and some details of just how gross the building had become.

Time, temperature and foreclosures

adamg — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:52:04 +0000

Julia Spitz posts a photo of an electronic signboard outside a Marlborough real-estate office that, instead of telling you the time and temperature, tells you how many foreclosed properties they have available.

Squatter family evicted from abandoned, foreclosed house

adamg — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:18:23 +0000

Channel 4 reports:

An abandoned foreclosed home in Dorchester was condemned after it was learned people were illegally living in the trash-covered home.

225 Westville St. property record.

View Larger Map

John Hancock office tower foreclosure

BostonLogic — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:26:23 +0000

Thoughts: I'm not surprised to hear about this happening. Just like people investing at the top of the residential market, some investors are bound to be burnt. What I still don't understand is why some companies still pay the $60-100/sq. ft. to be in a building in the middle of a city. If your company has no need to be near a city, why pay those prices? I think after this downturn you will see a lot more office construction outside of cities.

follow more of the breaking developments here.

Mortgage broker ordered to stop telling people he's a lawyer who can save their homes

adamg — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:24:10 +0000

The state Attorney General's office has gotten a temporary restraining order against a mortgage broker who allegedly soaked troubled homeowners for fees he claimed would help him stave off their foreclosures. According to the lawsuit filed against David Coleman of Methuen yesterday:

... Coleman would target vulnerable homeowners on the brink of foreclosure by combing newspapers for victims' contact information in foreclosure notices. He would then allegedly make unsolicited calls to the homeowners where he would offer to save their homes from foreclosure by assisting them in filing for bankruptcy in exchange for a $1,000 cash fee upfront. The complaint further states that Coleman held himself out to consumers as a bankruptcy expert and an attorney, even though he does not hold a license to practice law in Massachusetts or in any other state. ... In many instances, the bankruptcy petitions were deficient and dismissed because they were incomplete or lacked the proper information. Homeowners allege that when they attempted to contact Coleman about these deficiencies, he was either not reachable or, if reached, he brushed off consumers’ concerns. ...

State's highest court lets state block foreclosure on irresponsible sub-prime mortgages

adamg — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:24:42 +0000

Terry Klein alerts us to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling today that forbids a company that made "unfair" mortgages to people who could not possibly repay them from simply foreclosing on them.

The ruling in Commonwealth v. Fremont Investment & Loan only applies to roughly 2,500 mortgages issues by Fremont, a California company, between 2004 and 2007, but it could give the state an additional legal weapon to keep people in homes they purchased with subprime loans.

The court agreed that Fremont's mortgages, typically requiring no money down but with a 20% "piggy-back loan," all with adjustable rates, were "unfair" because there was no way borrowers could ever hope to repay them unless housing prices continued to rise indefinitely and they could ultimately sell their properties. Loans made on the foreclosure value of a property rather than the borrower's ability to pay "lies at the heart of predatory lending," and Fremont could not evade a state ban on foreclosures by selling the mortgages to another company.