Certainly, there are some foreclosures which did not flow through MERS. But, MERS was not the only problem. While there were some foreclosures which were handled correctly, estimating the problem is difficult but some estimates say a majority of foreclosures were illegally obtained in the last few years. Titles on those illegal foreclosures are clouded and people may be able to get their homes back *years* after they were taken.
This is a mess. Lawyers are hungry and AGs are beginning to salivate as a campaign issue.
More facts would be needed, including the state, but *any* foreclosure in the last few years is suspect.
That is grossly misstated. Many foreclosures never even passed through a servicer and were directly foreclosed by the lienholder, who had complete records.
There are a lot of straight forward defaults in which the owner died, entered nursing homes, or just up and moved and stopped paying altogether and eventually, often after about a year or more of no payments (I've seen foreclosures that went more than two years after they stopped paying) the bank FINALLY got the house back. Got one back in which they had moved out, disconnected the sump pum two years earlier, and three feet of water in the basement had destroyed the furnace, water heater, interior basement partitions, and electrical service.
Or a borrower simply broke up with a coborrower and dug in their heels and refused to pay unless the lienholder agreed to reduce the payment to what only one of them could afford (because, heaven forbid, the co-owner actually make lifestyle changes like getting a roommate instead of expecting the bank to make it all alright - as if the bank is supposed to be mommy and daddy). They simply weren't going to pay, that'll show the ex!
Some borrowers appear to feel they have some entitlement that they should have the right continue to live in the whole house alone, even though it was they who chose a coborrower to whom they had no legal attachment and then broke up, and it's the banks job to make it affordable for them. not their job to take on a second job or houseshare to make up the difference. Or even the feeling that they should both no longer need to pay if they have moved in with a different Sweetie du jour.
Or some borrowers stopped paying and lived off the rents they continued to collect for a year or so while they played at having a Ch 13 plan that they never really intended to follow, but just filed to slow down the FC process.
And what about the deadbeat neices, nephews, or adult kids that move in after aunty or mom goes into a nursing home, or moves out of state to live with their daughter, and they simply squat there, allowing the house to rot around them, doing no maintenance and paying no taxes, simply trying to live there for free as long as possible, adding up sewer water and utilities on top of the loan and tax default. I see a boatlood of those foreclosures.
Oh yeah, there's the "we decided to retire and bought a different house down south, so, now, since we are on a fixed income by choice, we can't also afford the old house, so you can have it" borrowers.
Or the "I thought I wanted to be a landlord, but now that I own it and won't make a fast buck and am clueless how to find tenants and don't want to bother taking any of the free landlord training classes the county/city offers, and don't really want to be bothered with it, you can have it back" borrowers.
