Time to revise Statute of Limitations on Wrongful Foreclosures

Things that make you go hmm. The Huffington Post reports that the Independent Foreclosure Review process is dead as of December 31, 2012. The New York Times reports that new, but up to now secret negotiations are in process to create a new settlement for $10 billion dollars, with 9 additional banks. (For a total of 14). According to my research, 500,000 (updated 1/3/12) Americans who met the criteria for the Independent Review process filed an application for an Independent Review. Not all of them qualified. So, what's happening here? How do foreclosure audits cost "billions of dollars" to process? Is it truly the cost of the not so "independent reviews?" Or, is it the damages that the five banks in the original 49 state mortgage settlement might be required to pay to distressed homeowners, who were wrongfully foreclosed on, if the process were to continue?

I'm sure the answer will be flushed out over time. After all, we have journalists like Paul Kiel, who are monitoring the behavior of federal regulators and the banks. Meanwhile, this open letter to the Washington State Legislature was just posted on the Stop Foreclosure Fraud in Washington State blog.

Here's the Link to the full post on Stop Foreclosure Fraud in Washington State. Excerpt from letter can be found below.

Dear Members of the Washington State Legislature:

Many Washington homeowners who had homes foreclosed on between the dates of January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010 are seeking redress for the financial harm that they have suffered at the hands of unscrupulous servicers . It is common knowledge that many of the foreclosures completed during this period had improperly executed documents, fraudulent affidavits, notes that were listed in the servicer’s, not the beneficiary’s name. Additionally, thousands of distressed homeowners were attempting in good faith to negotiate a Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) with a servicer that in many cases, didn't even review the paperwork that was submitted to them. To date, it has been reported that 800,000 homeowners who would have been eligible for HAMP did not receive a modification. That is 800,000 homeowners and their families who needlessly lost their homes across this nation. Link to entire post