Chase Bank: We Took Your House By Mistake - Our Bad

It just keeps happening - the WSJ reports on another erroneous foreclosure, this time by Chase bank.

...last Saturday, [Julio Burmudez and Magaly Cervantes] received a letter saying Chase foreclosed and the condo was sold online.

Just a few minutes after 9 a.m., on Tuesday Ms. Cervantes and Mr. Bermudez stood before the judge. In broken English, they tried to explain the situation. “There’s nothing I can do about the sale,” Judge Deehl says matter-of-factly. “You’re going to have to deal with the bank.”

They tried calling Chase many times, they said, but couldn’t get anywhere. After inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, Chase looked into the matter and discovered they made a mistake. In an email, a Chase spokesman said, “We are working to reverse the sale, and are reaching out to the customer to apologize. We have also been reviewing the application for a permanent modification.” No further detail was provided.

Just picture that, you're paying your mortgage and you get a letter from your lender saying they've SOLD your house.

As in - it's already happened. Just FYI.

I hope they sue. Where are the blood sucking litigators when you need them? Somebody needs a free house.

(Via CJR)

Oh, and Chittum tags an investigation in Florida that finds that mortgage fraud extends to summonses as well.

So, not only are foreclosure mills screwing up the essential paperwork of who owns the loan - but when they use that screwed up paperwork to begin foreclosing on property they may or may not own - they're committing fraud when they notify people they are being foreclosed on.

In [Florida resident Patrick Jeffs's] case, Circuit Judge Frederick Tygart ruled that there were two important problems with the affidavit of service that said papers were served on Oct. 16, 2007:

- The summons was allegedly served to Jeffs' mother, Jeanne Jeffs, at 10:09 a.m., but the lawsuit wasn't filed until that afternoon. "That means the summons served on Mr. Jeffs was not a summons issued by any Florida court," Tygart wrote, "and, therefore, must have been counterfeited."

- The affidavit was signed by the process server, LaTarshag Armstrong, who lives in Jacksonville, but notarized by Ruby Lee French, who lives in Tampa, "which means that Ms. Armstrong was not present when her signature was notarized."

Madness.