Foreclosing Lender Agrees To Last Minute Sale Cancellation As Media Exposure Leads To Questions Regarding Bank's Lack Of Standing To Bring Suit

In Norfolk, Virginia, The Virginian-Pilot reports:

• Hope was beginning to fade last week that Michele McBeth could save her Bayview home from foreclosure. The Norfolk elementary school teacher had been working for weeks with a foreclosure-prevention counselor, and spent hours going through financial documents, filling out paperwork and pleading with her mortgage company to cancel the auction. But Wells Fargo Home Mortgage offered no help, and the Aug. 27 sale date loomed.

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• McBeth contacted Newport News attorney and state Del. Robin Abbott, who had offered to help for no charge after reading [about her story in an Aug. 16 Virginian-Pilot] article. Abbott, who specializes in consumer and mortgage law, scheduled an emergency hearing with a judge to stop the foreclosure. She also called the Richmond attorney hired to handle the foreclosure to point out what Abbott believed were several missteps in the process.

• "We had some conversations - that I didn't believe he had standing to bring the foreclosure," Abbott said. Among the problems, she said, was that the attorneys had not been hired by McBeth's current mortgage company, Wells Fargo. The attorneys, instead, had been hired by EverHome Mortgage Co., which had transferred the servicing of the loan to Wells Fargo before foreclosure proceedings began.

• On Aug. 25, the attorney handling the foreclosure agreed to postpone the sale. A new date has not been set. In the meantime, Abbott is preparing to file a lawsuit alleging mishandling of McBeth's case.

For the story, see Norfolk homeowner narrowly averts foreclosure.