Thousands of homeowners have lost their homes, and many others are still struggling with their mortgages today because of this disconnect; a disconnect that causes many homeowners to lose their homes. Homeowners are being held back the most by the extreme lack of communication between various departments of mortgage lenders. For example, many people who had successfully received loan modifications from their lenders were illegally confronted with foreclosure after cementing the terms of their loan modifications.
One of our clients faced three foreclosure sale dates due to Green Tree Mortgage Servicing's disorganization, but our foreclosure defense lawyers intervened to force Green Tree mortgage to play by the rules. We enabled him to keep his home.
When this client retained (hired) us in February 2013, he was already facing a foreclosure sale date on his home. As we began the process of examining his foreclosure Summons, Complaint and other documents closely, we discovered, that the Notice of Foreclosure filing had a forged version of our client's signature.
This gave us the opportunity to use the fraud as a tool to force Green Tree to grant our client a Loan Modification to keep their home. We fought the foreclosure long enough to obtain a loan mod for the client.
At the end of February, we stopped the sale date in court by proving that the client was qualified for a loan modification plan. Not long after, Green Tree granted the client a trial mortgage modification. The terms of the trial modification were that if the client paid 3 trial loan modification payments on time, then he would be eligible for a permanent loan modification. One might assume that this would be the end of the legal battle for our client's home – but the ordeal was not over.
Green Tree scheduled another sale date.
After the client completed making the three trial modification payments, Green Tree scheduled a third sale date!!! Unbelievable!
This sale date should have been stopped by Green Tree's attorneys, but in Palm Beach County, 6 days are required to stop a foreclosure sale date and they didn't cancel it soon enough. Due to the short time frame, our attorney, Alex Pearlberg filed an Emergency Motion to stop the sale.
In Palm Beach County, FL (where this client lives), in order to file an emergency motion, you must e-file first, then deliver a paper copy to the judge, with conformed copies and self-addressed, stamped envelopes for the Judge to consider the Emergency Motion.. Otherwise, the judge will deny the emergency motion and the defendant's home will likely be sold.
We followed the proper protocol when we submitted our emergency motion. Inexplicably, the court Clerk didn't do their job and take the motion to the judge. We had to rush and hand deliver a second copy to the judge. Upon seeing the emergency motion, the judge ordered Green Tree to Vacate the Sale and Dismiss the case within 10 days, because the client had proven that he fulfilled the terms of his trial loan modification.
This victory should be a lesson to banks everywhere: if you're going to foreclose on a homeowner, it would make sense to ensure that you aren't also helping the homeowner keep their property at the same time. This is the equivalent to helping someone get up off the ground, then knocking them down again. It also sends a clear reminder to lenders that our foreclosure defense attorneys stand up for the rights of our clients.
photo credit: sally_monster via photopincc