Sunday, February 20, 2011

Utah AG To Federal Appeals Court: BofA Sub Legally "Unqualified To Carry Out Trustee Foreclosures"

Bloomberg reports:
  • A Bank of America Corp. unit is breaking the law by foreclosing on homeowners in Utah because it doesn’t meet state requirements, the state attorney general’s office said in a federal appeals court case.

  • ReconTrust Co., a subsidiary of Bank of America, the biggest U.S. lender by assets, isn’t a member of the state bar or a title insurance company and is unqualified to carry out trustee foreclosures, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote in court papers filed yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver. “ReconTrust Co. N.A. is a non-depository national bank initiating approximately 4,000 home foreclosures in Utah each year in violation of Utah law,” the attorney general’s office said.

  • The court filing was made in a homeowner’s lawsuit against ReconTrust and Bank of America. “National banks must abide by state law,” said John Christian Barlow, an attorney for the homeowner, Peni Cox. “ReconTrust just wants to foreclose, period,” he said.

  • A Utah state judge issued an injunction last year blocking ReconTrust from trustee foreclosure sales in the state, Barlow said. A federal judge later lifted the injunction.

For more, see BofA Unit’s Utah Foreclosures Violate Law, State Says.