If, like many Americans, you are concerned about who actually owns your mortgage, write a letter to your bank and interested parties requesting this information.
Which Bank?
Just because Bank of Arizona is on your mortgage statement that does not mean they actually own your loan. They are the 'servicer'. Which means they collect your monies, take their fee and send the rest to the parties who own it. Since ownership changes the servicer may also change or may just keep track of where to send the money. If Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are the 'owners' of your loan, well....many people invested a Mutual Fund in Iowa or pension fund in Norway could be 'fractional owners' of your loan.
It is rare these days that your local bank you may have gone to for a loan, actually owns your mortgage. The speed with which loans were packaged and sold on Wall Street into traunches of Mortgage Backed Securities (which were then traded and and retraded) is why ownership of individual home loans is proving hard to unravel. One mistake at any point along the way is like putting cement on the icing of a baked cake, forever freezing any imperfections.
Use this template letter to send to your servicing bank to find out who owns your loan:
Enter your name of all persons on your home title
Address of home and Loan Number
Address the letter to your Servicing Bank
Date
Re: Request for original mortgage note and additional information
To whom it may concern:
This is a Qualified Written Request under Section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). I/we own the property at the address listed above, and your bank services my/our mortgage.
Your company name is shown as the servicer on my monthly mortgage statement.
I am very concerned about recent news articles documenting that some banks have been foreclosing on homes without proof that they own the loan. I understand that in many cases, banks like yours do not even know who owns the loans you service.
I have read reports of bank staff admitting they allegedly falsified mortgage documents to cover up their mistakes while some parties have misrepresented their relationships with both the bank and the trustee assigned to handle the foreclosure.
There have been reports of two banks trying to foreclose on the same home, banks foreclosing on homeowners who were current on their payments, and even of a bank foreclosing on a home where the homeowner had never taken out a mortgage.
As a homeowner and a customer of your bank, I am horrified. I had always believed that if I played by the rules, I would be protected, but now I know that banks like yours think the rules don't apply to them.
To protect myself and my family, I need to know who owns my mortgage. Within sixty days, I would like to know the name, address, and phone number of the bank or investor that owns my mortgage.
Furthermore, in light of the recent allegations of foreclosure fraud, I demand to see the original mortgage note proving ownership over my home loan. If you fail to produce a mortgage note proving that you have a right to collect my mortgage payments, I will be forced to consider all options available to me to protect my interests.
I ask that I receive my response in writing. I understand that under Section 6 of RESPA you are legally required to acknowledge my request within twenty business days and must try to resolve the issue within sixty days.
Thank you for your urgent attention to this matter.
(all parties on title or party to the loan should sign the letter)
NOW GO TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
What the heck, send a copy to your local newspaper Editor and report on your progress. Email this to your friends and family and urge them to do the same. If more people did this -- imagine the response letters banks would have to write much less the research necessary to find out who exactly owns each loan they service.
Keep at it!
If you don't get a response within 20 days to the day, send it again, certified mail, with a cover letter, asking once again for this information relating to your first request on such and such a date and include a copy of the original letter.
This link takes you to a list of the main mortgage servicing banks and how to contact them online using a letter similar to the one above. http://tinyurl.com/26vntht
Frankly I prefer certified mail and a paper trail. If you write a letter yourself, just keep the language clear and to the point, no insults. You want a response!
Copy the letter to your State Attorney General, and your Congressional Representatives http://www.congress.org
You might also copy The The Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection is supposed to protect you against deception and fraud, should you feel deceived or defrauded.
If your loan is with a National Bank, send a copy of your letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Here's their handy site: http://www.helpwithmybank.gov
Each organization you write to or cc: should ideally see on their copy the other parties you sent your letter to. The more eyes, the better!
Video Expose
Watch this shocking video of a "Robo Signer" who signed documents as a notary for Nationwide Title Clearing: http://tinyurl.com/robosigner
All the best! equitytalks
© copyright 2010 susan templeton equitytalks
