Here’s some disturbing news coming out of the San Francisco Chronicle: According to assessor-recorder Phil Ting, in excess of 80 percent of residential mortgages that wound up foreclosure had at least one legal violation.
Earlier this week, Ting said that the process was “broken” and is “not working for any of us at this time,” according to the paper. Though many of these violations are technical and not criminal in nature, it’s still a rude wake-up call as to the precision as well as the ethics of the industry.
The Chron reports that Ting hired an outside firm to investigate a sheaf of complaints about mortgage papers that were inaccurate or outright missing. That company, Aequitas Compliance Solutions of Newport Beach, reviewed a sample of San Francisco’s slightly more than 2,400 foreclosure sales between the beginning of 2009 and the fall of 2011.
Of those 382 loans, not only did 84 percent show violations, but nearly all had irregularities of some sort. Many had multiple problems, such as backdated documents or lack of an original signature.
The paper quotes the report as saying: “Given these well-documented and widespread … issues, it is not implausible that there are homeowners who are alleged to have defaulted on loans to which they never fully agreed and, further, are being foreclosed upon by lenders that might not even own those loans.”
Disturbing to say the least!
Dreaming of San Francisco? Cece Blase offers local advice to San Francisco buyers, sellers and owners-- and feeds the dreams of those who wish they could live in Tony Bennett's 'City by the Bay.' Call or email at 415-577-0809 or email at cblase@paragon-re.com. www.ceceblase.com
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