MERS Gets Hammered In Recent Oregon Federal Court Rulings As 100s Of F'closures Stall; Resulting Crappy Titles Will Be Uninsurable, Warns Underwriter
The Oregonian reports:
- Sales of hundreds of foreclosed homes in Oregon have been halted or withdrawn in recent weeks after federal judges repeatedly questioned their legality, according to a number of real estate attorneys in the state. Lenders have withdrawn more than 300 foreclosure sales since February in Deschutes County alone, one of the Oregon area's hardest hit by the housing collapse. About 130 of those notices were filed in the past week, attorneys say.
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- And, in a potential deal breaker for other foreclosure cases, one of the nation's largest title-insurance companies is warning lenders that it might not guarantee title in some cases.
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- The legal concerns revolve around Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., a Reston, Va., corporation set up in the mid-1990s by the mortgage banking industry to rapidly record the ownership of mortgages so they could be packaged and sold as securities.
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- Since October, federal judges in five separate Oregon cases have halted foreclosures involving MERS, saying its participation caused lenders to violate the state's recording law
.(1) Three of those decisions came last month, the key one in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Eugene.
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- In response to that ruling, First American Financial Corp., one of the nation's largest title insurers, began warning lenders and buyers in title documents that it wouldn't insure titles with a cloudy public record in Oregon, company attorney Alan Brickley said. "It's simply saying we have a concern, and you should have a concern," said Brickley, who's based in Portland.
Fotr more, see Hundreds of Oregon foreclosure sales stopped after judges' rulings.
(1) For these Oregon federal court decisions, which raise questions about the legality of hundreds of foreclosures in the state, see
posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 4:04 AM
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