Category: sham transactions

How to fight foreclosure

May 30, 2024

Exposing the Fraud in Foreclosure: How LivingLies.me Can Help You Fight Back How to Fight Foreclosure: Behind the scenes of foreclosure, there’s a maze of lies and complexity. The real story of mortgage transactions is often hidden under layers of financial trickery called securitization. Let’s break it down and see how the big banks use this system to commit fraud and injustice, and how the team at LivingLies.me can help you fight back. The Truth About Securitization Securitization is a fancy term for a process that makes mortgages look like traditional loans when they’re not. Big financial institutions like Citi,

The irrefutable logic at the foundation of all successful foreclosure defense narratives

February 2, 2023

The mortgage lien is designed to protect against financial loss — not to promote financial gain. If Wall Street wants to protect the financial gains it created from its crazy scheme using weapons of mass financial destruction, then the least it should do is share a little of that with homeowners, consumers, the government, and investors. * I continually get the same question, mostly because neither the homeowner nor the “investigators” understand anything about being a licensed, educated, experienced investment banker, lawyer, or accountant. If they were any of those, they would not ask the question. * The latest question

TRID may be another easy win for Homeowners

May 5, 2022

since loss mitigation is a statutory condition precedent to foreclosure, there is a failure to comply with the condition that requires loss mitigation exhaustion before pursuing foreclosure, the steamrolling of homeowners is not just wrong, it is also a breach of statutory duty for which the homeowner can seek injunctive relief, damages, and attorney fees. TILA-RESPA integrated disclosures (TRID) is a series of guidelines that dictate what information mortgage lenders need to provide to borrowers and when they must provide it. TRID rules also regulate what fees lenders can charge and how these fees can change as the mortgage matures. But

FCRA Might Be Fertile Ground for Individual and Class Actions Especially under CFPB Rules

May 3, 2022

if the CRC does not perform the investigation or performs it incorrectly, you can sue them. In a world where the ability to access credit matters more than the ability to access savings, nothing could be more important than these provisions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Anyone who read the book or saw the film “The Firm” knows that it is often a boring statute that can take down the worst offenders. It was mail fraud in that story. For more information ask the descendants of Al Capone who died in prison of syphilis after being convicted of

Why the CFPB Announcement is Very Important

May 2, 2022

when the time comes that a judge enters an order or judgment containing findings of fact, for example, that the records of the designated “servicer” are not business records that are not exempt from the hearsay rule, the poop will hit the fan. I received multiple emails from lawyers and homeowners who were confused when I posted an article about the latest CFPB announcement. Most people are not clear on why this announcement is so important. I can say this — the lawyers who represent “industry actors” are sending up flares about this announcement. See the Troutman Pepper Analysis.

Interpleader Might Be Useful in Revealing the Absence of Any Unpaid Loan Account

April 28, 2022

One of my constant comment contributors recently informed me and others that she was trying a new tack. She writes “My attorneys are making a demand that any refi money be placed with the Court and that the judge decides who he wants to pay.” This is very close to an Interpleader action which is virtually unknown amongst laypeople and many lawyers. In an interpleader action, a party says to the court I have this asset and there are two conflicting claims to get it from me. In its purest form, the Interpleader says that he doesn’t care who gets

Notices To and From Servicer Might Mean Nothing at All

April 18, 2022

In homeowner finance, ALL claims start with notices from third parties with whom the homeowner has previously had no communication. My suggestion is that homeowners start challenging those letters, statements, and notices as soon as they arrive. Such challenges make “tracks in the sand” for later use in litigation. But the real issue arises repeatedly because the condition precedent to foreclosure about which there is no dispute is that first there must be a declaration of default. And in the world of securitization, there is no creditor, loan account, or any loss or ven risk of loss arising from a

How Evidence Works for and Against the Consumer/Homeowner

April 7, 2022

(Once again, because of minor medical issues I decline to do the Neil Garfield Show. I offer this instead) It is easy to get lost in the weeds. Don’t make up your own words or definitions because your definitions have no relevance to your case. Do hold the accusing side to their words and to the legally accepted definitions of those words as contained in statutes and cases. But above all, start at the beginning — a rookie mistake made by nearly all young litigators and pro se litigants who skip over the gold to pick up a few pieces

Why the UCC Matters in Foreclosure Cases

April 5, 2022

The problem as illustrated by many scholarly articles and articles on this blog is that courts are given to treat plaintiffs and claimants as holders in due course without anyone asking them to do so. The first thing you need to know about Foreclosure is that it is only about money. If you have the money and you pay it, there is no claim — or at least no claim against you. You might have a claim against a “debt collector” seeking to enforce a nonexistent debt for a nonexistent claimant. The second thing to remember is that, by definition,

The Payment History is not the Loan Account. Only the Loan Account Can show the Balance. If there is no Loan Account receivable on the Accounting Ledger there is no Balance. If there is no Balance there is no Balance Due.

February 15, 2022

The problem starts with the Homeowner, who thinks that because he or she applied for a loan, they received it. This assumption is completely unfounded. The law is mostly procedural and logical. It requires building a foundation for a fact to be accepted as true. If there is no foundation, there is no fact. Every case I have ever won has been based on a lack of foundation. * When money is paid to or on behalf of a Homeowner, a financial transaction has occurred. But the payment of money does not create a loan without a lender and a

Why the SEC Needs to Regulate Falsely Labeled "Mortgage Backed Securities"

February 14, 2022

The SEC should be regulating these transactions because the investment banks are evading regulation through claiming an exemption that defines their financial product as a private contract and not a security subject to regulation by the agency. But they still label the financial product as a “mortgage backed security.” It does not take a legal genius to know that they can’t have it both ways. Either it is a security or it is not. * Consumers and homeowners have been continually frustrated by the lack of any support from any federal or state agency whose charter requires them to protect

"Payment History" is not the loan receivable account

February 2, 2022

The payment history is not the loan receivable account by definition and it is never presented as such. Failure to recognize this obscure fact often results in failure. But those who do understand it, raise their chances of a successful defense from unlikely to very likely. A lawyer (Scott Stafne) shared with me a case that he is apparently working on. This case is interesting because the lawyer for the homeowner has filed the final round of motions in the discovery cycle, which is a Motion in Limine — i.e., a motion to limit testimony from the sole robowitness expected

Use of QWR and DVL is extremely important in counteracting the tracks laid down by securitization that fake a contractual relationship with the homeowner

January 31, 2022

If you are not willing to challenge the basic assumptions of the loan or debt, then you probably should not even start any challenge or defense. If you are willing to do that you will probably win or force the “dark side” into a settlement that you find favorable to your interests. You don’t need to understand how the debt vanished. You only need to know that if you challenge its existence and therefore its owner and agents, the dark side will fail. The inability of consumers to understand the securitization process is not a legal excuse for preying on

Getting a piece of the pie: How securitization can work FOR homeowners and not against them

January 19, 2022

There is no sale of the obligation, note or mortgage and so there is no securitization of debt. By splitting the attributes of behavior from the provisions of the executed documents and changing the description of the behavior, an investment bank could, in essence, sell the apparent debt an unlimited number of times without ever recording the sale of the debt, note or mortgage. In most instances, the “closing” of a transaction with a homeowner results in the issuance of a note and mortgage promising payment that is not supported by any reciprocal consideration. In most of the other cases, the “closing” results in very

How Those Refi's Were Turned Into Gold by the Investment Banks

January 12, 2022

Most people cannot conceive of why they should have been paid more at the purported “Closing” of their transaction than what they received or what they think was paid on their behalf. * But the bottom line is that in most cases, whether the transaction involved a resale of the home or “refinancing,” only a fraction of the money you thought was transacted was actually present. It’s not just that they should have been paid more — it is that the homeowner did not receive the money he or she promised to pay back. This fact is part of a

Homeowners need to understand that they are investors, not borrowers.

January 10, 2022

In nearly all cases that the amount of money paid to a “prior lender” is entirely or mostly fictional in all cases of refinancing and nearly all cases in purchase money mortgages. As long as the same underlying investment bank is the same for both the Buyer and Seller or the same for both the new “Lender” and the old “lender.” * But in cases where the Seller gets money (equity) at least some money is actually produced for closing. And as long as the refinancing produces cash to the homeowner, some money is actually produced at closing. So for

Finding the FINTECH Companies who really do the work of "servicing" payments and disbursements.

January 6, 2022

Hat tip “Summer chic” Here is an example of someone who is asking tough questions that the banks and their lawyers will never answer. They won’t answer because any answer that is truthful would lead inevitably to the revelation that there is an absence of a loan account receivable and therefore any right to collect on it. **** Please find my QWR to verify who granted Exela’s and its subsidiaries Transcentra, Inc and Regulus Group LLC (“Exela” ) authority to act as Servicers who collect my checks from P.O. Boxes in Dallas TX and Los Angeles CA and process my

THREADING THE NEEDLE: IT IS WHAT THEY DON'T SAY THAT REVEALS THE TRUTH — AND YOU CAN USE IT!

January 5, 2022

So talk about splitting hairs — here is a statement from a company that is claimed by third parties to be the servicer of a “loan.” Note that the parties making the claim do NOT swear that PennyMac is servicing claims to administer, collect and enforce for them, but rather for some unknown creditor or some other entity that does NOT make such a claim. Think about that. Here is the quote: PennyMac, who, as the loan servicer, is authorized to accept payments for your loan. And here is the analysis of that statement: PennyMac IS authorized, although not by

Why I Think Homeowners Are Entitled to Receive a Second Payment From Investment Banks

January 4, 2022

All homeowners who think they have a mortgage loan have received one payment at a “closing” — or a payment allegedly made on their behalf. For reasons explained elsewhere on this blog, such payments on their behalf are mostly fictional where the underlying investment bank is the same “director” of funds. * The significance is that a second tree springs up in which the scheme described below is duplicated — with little or no cost to the investment banks. Each time the myth of “refinancing” is employed a new securitization tree springs up with dozens if not hundreds of branches.

Stop Using the Labels: Homeowners Lose Foreclosure Cases When They Refer to the "Servicer"

December 27, 2021

You need to challenge the status of the company claiming to be a servicer by finding out what functions they really perform. * I know I have contributed to the problem, but I think it’s time to stop using the labels that are promoted by the banks. * Companies that are claimed to be the “servicer”, by all accounts, do not perform any functions normally attributed to that label. This it is against the interests of the homeowner or the lawyer representing the homeowner to accept the use of the term unless there is foundation testimony as to the actual

Why You Need to Perform Investigation of Real Facts in the Real World

December 22, 2021

I state with great confidence that among those homeowners who perform and achieve a slam dunk win over the foreclosure lawyers, the great majority enjoy that victory because they did the investigation and hired a lawyer who knew what to do with the information (as opposed to slinging it at the judge and expecting the judge to make sense of it). Question received from one of the readers of this blog: “I’m trying to understand how a house in NJ. Is alleged to be notarized in Florida and recorded by a company in Idaho (whose Name of course, is not

You Can Use This As a Template for How I Would Respond in a Discovery Dispute — Especially with Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae and Wachovia as the Originator

December 14, 2021

In a dispute between the attorney for the homeowner and the attorney for the alleged “lender”, there are a number of devices that are nearly universally applied across the country in order to ridicule and defeat the homeowner. The more you are aware of them, the better you will be prepared to deal with them. Opposing counsel is instructed to accomplish several things (winning being the last of the things on his or her menu). First, the idea is to undermine the confidence of the homeowner and to undermine the confidence of the lawyer for the homeowner in any defense

Tonight! Q&A on Prelitigation Strategies — QWR, DVL and Complaints to CFPB and State AG 6PM EST 3PM PST

December 9, 2021

Thursdays LIVE! Click into the Neil Garfield Show Tonight’s Show Hosted by Neil Garfield, Esq. Call in at (347) 850-1260, 6 pm Eastern Thursdays As a follow-up to our FREE presentation CLE webinar on Prelitigation Strategies and Practices, we offer an open mike Q&A on tonight’s show. Please think about your questions in advance and refrain from long monologues about your case. As an introduction let me state the obvious premise of this work: If as a consumer you have executed a promissory note and mortgage (or deed of trust) and you think that there is a loan account receivable somewhere

"Black Knight": Banks Are Peddling A False National Narrative of Declining Foreclosures

December 7, 2021

I’m busy today so I can’t publish my usual long analytical article. But one thing that is constantly staring at me is the fact that the national press and news releases are in basic conflict with local media. And the fact that local media is going out of business isn’t helping. Black Knight is a company whose size and reputation is entirely based upon preparation, presentation, and use of false documents and information that were forged, robosigned, and back-dated. Those were the days when it was called Lenders Processing Services in which DOCX was used to produce the false documents.