LAWYERS TAKE NOTE! COURTS ARE ALLOWING TITLE QUESTIONS IN EVICTIONS

From: Charles Cox [mailto:charles@bayliving.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 11:20 AM
To: Charles Cox
Subject: LAWYERS TAKE NOTE! COURTS ARE ALLOWING TITLE QUESTIONS IN EVICTIONS

LAWYERS TAKE NOTE! COURTS ARE ALLOWING TITLE QUESTIONS IN EVICTIONS

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Neil Garfield

“The mere fact that the pretenders are avoiding trials at all costs is proof unto itself that they do not have the goods, they do not have title, they are not the creditor and they are merely sneaking into the system to fill the void created by the real creditors (investor/lenders) who want no part of the foreclosure process nor any need to defend against predatory, deceptive or illegal lending practices. ” — Neil Garfield

OREGON COURT DENIES EVICTION: SHOULD HAVE BEEN A QUIET TITLE LAWSUIT

EDITOR’S NOTE: The eviction laws were mostly designed for landlord tenant situations. Once again, pretender lenders are using questionable practices using laws that don’t apply to the cases they are bringing. But ever since Judge Shack in New York and Judge Boyco in Ohio started questioning whether the homeowners were actually getting their day in court, the courts have been shifting away from the old rules.

The old rules basically prevent a tenant from questioning the title of his landlord as a defense to an eviction. The reason is obvious. You sign a lease with someone, pay them for a while and then stop paying — the issue of who has title is basically irrelevant. You have a contract (lease) either oral or written, you breached it, and so the summary procedure for eviction makes it easier on landlords to get tenants out and begin renting the apartment, condo or house. The only real defense is payment and some issues like retaliatory eviction for reporting health problems, and similar landlord tenant issues. You see these laws in Arizona, Florida and every other state I’ve looked at.

Along comes massive foreclosures and instead of having a contract with the landlord you have a claim by someone you never heard of, with paperwork you’ve never seen, much of it unrecorded, and claiming default without being the creditor or even establishing that they represent the creditor. So in non-judicial states for example, this is the first time you have seen, met or had any day in court and you are told that you are in a court of limited jurisdiction and that if you want to raise issues regarding fraudulent or wrongful foreclosure you need to do it in another court. In the meanwhile, the court is going to evict you no matter how much proof you have that the party doing the evicting obtained title illegally and may never have obtained title.

As I have been saying for 4 years, eviction is not a remedy to anyone claiming to have a right to possession of a foreclosed home unless there has been an opportunity to examine all the claims of the pretender lenders to actual ownership of the obligation and the possession of the proper paperwork. Even in judicial states this is not working right because the foreclosures are considered clerical by judges and many of them don’t believe, or at least didn’t believe until recently, that the banks would be so arrogant and stupid as to make claims on mortgages that were never perfected as liens and never transferred to them or anyone else.

So here we have an Oregon judge that spots the issue and simply states that this is not an eviction, it is a quiet title issue and if you want possession you need to prove title. If you want to prove title, considering the defects that are apparent and alleged by the homeowner then you need to file a quiet title action. This is the same as I have been saying for years. If they really had the goods and they really could prove that US Bank, or BOA was going to lose money because of the alleged default on the obligation, then all they needed to do was go to trial on a few dozen of these cases and the issues raised by homeowners would go away. Instead the issues are growing in volume and sincerity.

The mere fact that the pretenders are avoiding trials at all costs is proof unto itself that they do not have the goods, they do not have title, they are not the creditor and they are merely sneaking into the system to fill the void created by the real creditors (investor/lenders) who want no part of the foreclosure process nor any need to defend against predatory, deceptive or illegal lending practices.

Court rulings complicate evictions for lenders in Oregon

“Those issues give credence to Defendant’s argument that this case is better brought as one to quiet title and then for ejectment.”

OregonLive-

Another Oregon woman successfully halted a post-foreclosure eviction after a judge in Hood River found the bank could not prove it held title to the home.

Sara Michelotti’s victory over Wells Fargo late last week carries no weight in other Oregon courts, attorneys say. But it illustrates a growing problem for banks — if the loans’s ownership history isn’t recorded properly, foreclosed homeowners might be able to fight even an eviction.

“There’s this real uncertainty from county to county about what that eviction process is going to look like for the lender,” said Brian Cox, a real estate attorney in Eugene who represented Wells Fargo.

Michelotti’s case revolved around a subprime mortgage lender, Option One Mortgage Corp., that went out of business during the housing crisis. Circuit Court Judge Paul Crowley ruled that it was not clear when or how Option One transferred Michelotti’s mortgage to American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., which foreclosed on her home and later sold it to Wells Fargo.