The Bared Fangs Of Foreclosures

Posted in Foreclosures, October 16th, 2007 |

Deborah Tipton has survived cancer but is doubtful if she can survive the bared fangs of foreclosure. She is standing up to one of the largest banks in the world trying to eye her house.

Deutzche Bank is suing her for $1.3 trillion for her Greenacres modest condo without having written her a loan or checked her credit ratings. She has lived in the house for the last 20 years. The bank has not bothered either about her illness or the income she gets from baby-sitting.

It is the same story with many loans being packaged and sold off in bundles to investors who have never seen the units. In the process down the line money changed hands fast in the form of commissions and fees. Records were fudged, as bank coffers got bloated.

Divorce, illness and job loss have always played a hand in expediting foreclosures. But when there are millions of foreclosures across the country one has to look for other basic common causes. Lenders aggressively sold loans to ignorant gullible borrowers.

Tipton earned $100 weekly and naturally she could not qualify for a loan. But when cancer came knocking and there was no health insurance back up she became desperate for funds. Finally she did get the money but it was at a price. No mention of her humble wages was made in the loan documents but rather she was made out to be a district manager earning $3,800 per month! It qualified for a $146,000 loan at 10.48% interest with $10,39 as closing fees. This latter was split up among the sharks. Tipton did not know about her fictitious job until served with the foreclosure notice.

These types of loans requiring no documentation became wildly popular from 2003 to 2006. The companies operating such loans soon began to do the vanishing trick and became untraceable. Deutsche Bank purchased Tipton’s loan along with millions of others and sold them to investors. Until the court compels it to disclose facts the bank is remaining tight-lipped and refuses to comment.

Some of the lenders like Fremont who duped Tipton are being brought to book. Why did they advance loans without checking the ability of the borrower to repay? This summer Fremont sent foreclosure notices to 2,200 house owners in Massachusetts but had to suspend them when state officials began to raise queries.