Florida judge: We don't look at the mortgage foreclosure paperwork we process

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Florida judge: We don't look at the mortgage foreclosure paperwork we process

Isn't anything going to be done about this? Oh, never mind. What was I thinking?

Shortcuts on the foreclosure paper trail

Shortcuts on the foreclosure paper trail
By Todd Ruger

Published: Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 7:26 p.m.

To get a sense of the lawlessness in Florida's court-run foreclosure process, look no further than public records at the Sarasota and Manatee county courthouses.

There, on foreclosure documents open to everyone, is the evidence that at least one law firm's employees repeatedly broke a state law in a rush to push cases through the courthouse so banks could seize people's homes.

The evidence -- missing signatures and misdated documents that could not have been signed on the dates specified -- can be found on an important document called a "mortgage assignment." The paperwork helps prove a lender has the legal right to seize a property.
....

State regulators, who were given evidence that Stern-generated documents contained legal errors, dismissed them as isolated incidents, gave the notaries involved written reprimands and allowed all but one to continue processing documents.

"It's mind-boggling that these are in the public records," said St. Petersburg foreclosure defense attorney Matt Weidner. "It's mind-boggling that there is this volume. And somebody doesn't go, 'Wait a minute, something's not right here.'"

[gratuitous]

1. Details, details

Jeez, you bunch of beady-eyed nit-pickers. If a bank says they own a property, that should be plenty good enough! What possible motivation could a respected financial institution, pillar of the community, and valuable source of campaign contributions have to foreclose on a property that it doesn't truly own?

Titles to some properties will be so clouded, it will be a great temptation, possibly irresistible, for some judges to just throw up their hands and say, "Fuck it; let the bank have it" if for no other reason than to rehabilitate the property title. And hopefully, nobody will come along in the next few years to produce paperwork that lays out a colorable, alternate claim to the title.

Hopefully.