While many homeowners had expressed excitement over the moratorium Bank of America announced on foreclosures in all 50 states, that excitement was squashed today as Bank of America announced that it would resubmit foreclosures in 23 states.

Home Foreclosures

The resubmissions apparently are an attempt to overcome any charges of “robo-signing” of the authorizations.  It has been reported that this announcement covers 102,000 mortgages currently in foreclosure.  Many pundits believed that the moratorium would last much longer than just a few days.

Why has Bank of America moved so quickly?

Perhaps they’ve concluded that the longer the delay continues the more likely that they will experience a huge number of attacks on their foreclosures.  Even with the fairly quick restart BOA will definitely experience more challenges.  How could you challenge the foreclosure?

1.  Perhaps you may say you are current on the payments.  If so, be sure to be ready to prove the payments you’ve made.  Normally its expected that the banks records are more complete that the homeowner’s.  You might want to begin now collecting evidence of your payments.

2.  Perhaps you want to argue that BOA doesn’t own the mortgage.  This is the biggest challenge as many of the loans were generated in what is known as the secondary market, then packaged and sold in bundles.  The term often used is “securitization” of the mortgages where $1 Million in mortgage bundles were sold.

In order for the lender to foreclosure, it actually has to own the loan.  If the deed of trust was registered in the MERS then you might have a good challenge.  Be prepared to fund the expense of the contest.  The cost to contest the foreclosure is likely what will stop most borrowers from the fight.

If you fall into a group that was just hoping the foreclosure would go away, today you’re probably realizing that that isn’t going to happen.  Of course if you can make-up the overdue payments you should consider doing that.  For most folks that is not an option.  As a result you might want to consider filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to save your home.

I’ve written before about the benefits to a homeowner that a Chapter 13 bankruptcy filed in Knoxville will provide.  Briefly you can often

• cure any overdue payments
• stop late fees and penalties
• buy a little time to re-commence payments
• pay overdue real estate taxes over an extended period

A Chapter 13 is often especially helpful if you’re behind with other debts.  I offer a free consultation to individuals who just need to get straight forward advice from a lawyer who’s been filing bankruptcies in Knoxville  for over 25 years.

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