Thursday, December 16, 2010

Banks Threatening Homeowners Who Ask : " Where's The Note?"

Barry Ritholtz, of The Big Picture Blog fame, broke the news yesterday about receiving a note from one of his readers stating:

“FYI Just to let you know I ended up doing Where’s the Note and it resulted in this for me, see the 2 reported disputes in the attached screenshots below for my Jumbo 1st mortgage. 40 point hit on my scores. I will be speaking with an attorney soon. We need to get a warning out (SEIU has not responded).”

Of course "ended up doing Where's the Note" is a reference to the now famous web based service of the same name hosted by the Service Employees International Union. The site generates a formal request to the bank to provide a copy of the original mortgage note based on information entered by the user.

As many of you already know, many mortgage notes have been forwarded or lost in the multi-party securitization orgy that led up to the financial collapse of '08. This has been documented very well by Karl Denninger over at The Market Ticker.

Now we see this warning on the Where's The Note website:

Update: Homeowners are sending us reports of banks responding with threats and intimidation. It is your legal right to demand to see your original, signed mortgage note. It is illegal for banks to negatively report to your credit file during the 60 day period after requesting your note simply because you made a request to see it. If you received a response that you feel is threatening or intimidating in nature, contact your state’s Attorney General and push them to hold the banks accountable under the law: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/intimidation

So if I was a bank and one of my clients asked to see a note I didn't have, I might panic and try to bully and intimidate said client by hurting his credit score. Nice. Sound management.

Do these people read ANY financial blogs? Don't they know they're being commonly referred to as "banksters"? A chainsaw could do a better PR job! Instead of bringing their clients closer and working with them (whatever happened to the client is always right?) they are doing their best to reinforce all the negative perceptions people, rightfully, have of them.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got a threatening note from BoA--twice. They temporarily froze my credit because of the inquiry and then told me I had no "legal authority" to request a copy of the note.

Here's their problem. In addition to them servicing my mortgage, I also bank with BoA. So now I'm gonna close all my accounts with them and transfer the money to a credit union. Also I will be sending a formal complaint to my state attorney general. Two can play the bully game.

Anonymous said...

Can we see these notes or letters or what ever the banks are sending . I mean saying the bank sent me a bullyish note but note showing the note , kinda leaves me with what is your vision of a bully

Anonymous said...

If you really want to hurt the bank when you close your account, demand the proceeds in CASH. Because of fractional reserve banking, such a demand leverages the pain you're trying to apply to that bank

Anonymous said...

Where's the note? In your bank box stupid. Bank docs are executed in duplicate, one for the bank and one for you. Otherwise the contract is unenforceable. If you lose your copy, your bad.

If you make your payments, you won't have a problem.

Anonymous said...

"Where's the note? In your bank box stupid. Bank docs are executed in duplicate, one for the bank and one for you. Otherwise the contract is unenforceable. If you lose your copy, your bad.

If you make your payments, you won't have a problem."

The contract was changed without my knowing it. One bank sold the note to another. I have a copy of the original note. However, the new bank (BoA) cannot prove they are the legal owners of the new note. That's the rub.