Your Mortgage Documents are Fake - article

[nmoira]

This happened to a woman across the street from us. After being taken advantage of by a series of predatory lenders (long story, documented in a local paper), her house was foreclosed upon. Proceedings were halted when the documentation couldn't be located (always, always, always ask), but restarted when they were "located" with "her" signature. The problem was not only that it was a forgery, but a forgery of the signature of another local woman with the same name. Ooops.

 

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/12/your_mortgage_documents_are_fake/

[Joker]

I've heard of it happening as well, and I've often wondered if our current holder has our documents. We have copies of the originals, but our mortgage has changed hands three times since then (the second mortgage holder we had was actually shut down by the FBI). We missed that month's payment because there was no where to send it. When our current holder picked up the loan they said we paid and wouldn't listen to us saying we hadn't. So, I keep expecting them to finally figure it out, but it could be they just don't actually have the documents.

[FaithManor]

We have a land contract - well, until October when it's paid off. The church we bought this place from never filed the land contract with the court and since it's been seven years, the place is legally ours even if we never paid off the rest of the mortgage. They've lost the real estate documents from the title company, so they would not have a leg to stand on! Good thing A. Dh and I have our originals, and B. we are honest people who will pay the balance in full.

 

I suppose the upside is that we won't have to pay to file anything at the courthouse.

 

I have heard of the scam, but do not personally know anyone on the receiving end of it. It's so sad when this kind of scam happens.

 

It's really hard to keep up with paperwork, filing, making sure you don't inadvertently get rid of originals, etc., but everyone needs to be vigilant about this kind of thing.

 

[Arcadia]

 We missed that month's payment because there was no where to send it. When our current holder picked up the loan they said we paid and wouldn't listen to us saying we hadn't. So, I keep expecting them to finally figure it out, but it could be they just don't actually have the documents.

Check your credit history report, that is free.  My hubby's report shows a check for each month he pays the mortgage and HELOC on time. Our HELOC is paid up so now it shows only the mortgage.

[Joker]

Check your credit history report, that is free.  My hubby's report shows a check for each month he pays the mortgage and HELOC on time. Our HELOC is paid up so now it shows only the mortgage.

 

Everything shows it was paid, but we know it wasn't.

[LisaKinVA]

Wow.

 

Well, when we signed our documents there were 12 people in the room.  Lawyers from all sides (bank, seller, buyer), real estate agents, buyer, seller, bank reps, etc.  You would have thought we were purchasing a small country.

 

I don't think this is a problem if your lien (mortgage) is still held with the company you signed with...but most banks do not keep the mortgage, they are typically sold off to other companies (bundled & sold).  They may be bought and sold many times (especially true before the housing bubble burst).  All of that bundling, buying and selling was done sloppily, and now documents have gone missing.