FIGHT FORECLOSURE....ANSWER THE FORECLOSURE LAWSUIT AND/OR COUNTER SUE....FILE CHAPTER 13 BANKRUPTCY TO REORGINIZE DEBT FOR REPAYMENT.
File an answer to the Foreclosure lawsuit; it's absolutely essential for homeowners to respond to a foreclosure lawsuit by filing an answer. If a homeowner does nothing, judges have no choice but to rule in a bank's favor when a bank asks for a summary judgment. It isn't necessary to have a lawyer to file an answer. Just make sure a written answer is filed, even if you have to write it yourself.
YOU CAN ALSO COUNTER SUE, FORCE THE MORTGAGE COMPANY TO PROVE THAT THEY ACTUALLY OWN THE MORTGAGE WHEN THE SUIT WAS FILED.
"Judges are very, very reluctant to default someone who has made an answer," many attorneys will do an initial consultation for free or for only a small fee. If you are sued for foreclosure, talk to a lawyer and see if he or she thinks you have a chance to save your home.
Filing Chapter 13 reorganizes your debts and stops forclosure. Chapter 13 reorganizes your debts. You still have to pay off your debts but you'll have three to five years to do so. This gives you extended time to pay off those mortgage payments you missed, and it allows you to continue living in your home under a new mortgage payment schedule.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- For many people, filing for bankruptcy is seen as a scary, worst-case scenario, but consumer advocates say this last resort could be a real help for beleaguered homeowners. There is no shortage of proposals in Congress to address the housing crisis: the Depression-era Federal Housing Administration is up for a makeover, and there are other plans to ease the stress of pricey mortgages. Under veto threat is a proposal that consumer advocates see as key to helping more people stay in their homes: allowing bankruptcy courts to modify troubled mortgages on primary residences.
Under current Chapter 13 bankruptcy law, courts cannot modify the mortgage on a principal residence, though they may for vacation or second homes. Consumer advocates and others see bankruptcy, which is meant to adjust debt and make it easier for people to repay creditors over time, as an efficient and effective alternative.
"Most American homeowners understand the long-term impact of filing for bankruptcy. You have to wait before you can apply for a mortgage again. It impacts your credit,". Speaking Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., offered his support for the modification of loans to avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy.
"It's also time to amend our bankruptcy laws," Obama said, "so families aren't forced to stick to the terms of a home loan that was predatory or unfair."
Ruth Mantell is a MarketWatch reporter based in Washington.
Ohio Homeowner Fights Foreclosure and Lives Payment Free for 11 Years
By Moe Bedard on December 28th, 2007
Let the truth be known. Most homeowners do not respond or fight back when they are facing foreclosure. The lender files the notice of default and the court hearing comes and goes without a peep, answer or simple appearance from the defendant (homeowner). 120-180 days later, the trustee sale happens on the court steps and they become another foreclosure statistic.
Then there’s people that just don’t lie down and they fight back to protect their property rights and against injustice.
Meet Richard Davet, a homeowner from from Ohio. A man that I consider a modern day hero and he should be a role model to hundreds of thousands of other Americans that are facing foreclosure.
In 1996, Mr. Davet was served with a foreclosure action in his Cuyahoga County, Ohio 1940’s 6 bedroom home. Unlike many homeowners that just take their foreclosure medicine and move on to rent, Richard Davet decided he was going to fight back against NationsBanc Mortgage Corp. and challenge them till the end in a Ohio court of law.
Davet planted his heels firmly and turned his fight into a full time job as he hit the books at the library of Case Western Law. He began his fight by challenging the lawsuit and then pro-longed the suit by flooding the court with motions, objections and affidavits, and he appealed the judge’s rulings at every chance, which bought him 11 years, mortgage payment free in his home.
Wall Street Journal;
“Mr. Davet has litigated these same issues over and over again…and in each instance the courts have dismissed his claims,” said Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., which merged with the owner of NationsBanc.
Several years into the case, Bank of America took the unusual step of bringing in lawyers from a big corporate law firm, Jones Day. Five years later, in 2005, a judge granted foreclosure in the amount Mr. Davet owed and set a sale date for the property so that the creditors could take the sale proceeds. But when the property finally went to sale, Mr. Davet set up a shell company to win the auction, for $436,000. He couldn’t pay more than the required $10,000 deposit, but the move delayed his eviction by months.
Mr. Davet says it wasn’t a delay tactic and that he was trying to line up investors to buy the property. The house was later sold to another family for $410,000. The eviction finally happened on a snowy day in January of this year. Don Saunders, who lived three doors down from Mr. Davet and is a trustee of the neighborhood association, says it came as a shock in the upscale area.
Mr. Davet could be called a foreclosure fighter and pioneer or what a lot of critics have called him, “a deadbeat”. I call him a hero because he is a man of conviction and will power.
The Wall Street Journal;
The mortgage company that filed the suit, then NationsBanc Mortgage Corp., had so much trouble with the case that four years into it they brought in lawyers from Jones Day.
I obtained this quote from the law firms website;
Since 1893, Jones Day has grown, in response to our clients’ needs, from a small, local practice to a truly global firm with more than 2,300 lawyers in 30 offices around the world. Today, Jones Day is one of the most recognized and respected law firms in the world, and we count more than 250 of the Fortune 500 among our clients. I think it’s quite amusing that a homeowner from Cuyahoga County, Ohio gave this powerful, 2,300 lawyer and 30 office law firm a 11 year fight.
More form WSJ; Mr. Davet continued to try, unsuccessfully, to get the federal court to agree that the state judgment was invalid. Then, a possible lifeline arrived this past October, when a federal judge in Cleveland, Christopher A. Boyko, dismissed 14 foreclosure suits because the plaintiffs that brought them couldn’t prove they owned the mortgages when the suits were filed.
Such a problem can occur when mortgages are turned into securities and sold to investors. The companies involved in the transaction may not have checked that each mortgage was legally transferred, or “assigned,” to the new owners. In essence, the originating lender continued to legally own the mortgage — and would thus need to be the plaintiff in a foreclosure suit.
In Mr. Davet’s case, however, the mortgage, which was not securitized, changed hands multiple times and wasn’t actually owned by NationsBanc until three years after the company filed suit.
Other judges have since followed Judge Boyko’s lead.
The Ohio attorney general has asked numerous judges to dismiss or delay foreclosures based on similar grounds. Earlier this month, Mr. Davet filed a second federal appeal, this time citing the Boyko ruling, which he believes he inspired. It’s unclear whether the latest salvo will work. If it doesn’t, Mr. Davet says, he will set his sights on the U.S. Supreme Court.
There are many debates circulating in the blog-sphere and forum arena on the internet in regards to foreclosure defense actions and the recent Ohio rulings. We reported on the recent Judge Boyko ruling and other similar rulings that are coming out of Ohio in November. These cases and many like them are at the forefront of the foreclosure legal sphere and will remain a hot topic as the foreclosure crisis continue with now apparent end in sight.
