http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/mers.php http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/business/27gret.html?_r=1 Im from Australia so I would like to hear some opinions from people in the USA If a bank cannot forclose on a MERS based loan then why bother to make repayments? Whoever then holds the properties as security on money they have lent then have their CDO's marked down to zero?
There is a principle of "fairness" in the law. A lender is not totally screwed but has the right to sue in court for a "fair" result. Usually a lender has a forclosure "mechanism". If by splitting up mortgages he loses the "mechanism", there will be other procedures to follow. Most likely a law firm will specialize in a recovery proceeding based on the fairness principle. Lenders could then assign their rights to the law firm and get paid for most of the mortgage.
I dunno, I think there's more to this then "fairness." Contract law is pretty clearly laid out and adhered to in the U.S. If we're going to use that argument to defend the bonuses of Wall Street, AIG, etc. then I'd expect that once enough judges who have family and friends getting foreclosed on we're going to see this become a bigger deal. Especially if these same judges start demanding that the actual owners of these contracts be produced in court.
Is it hard to find out if ones mortgage is on this MERS system? Would there be an increase in mortgage defaults where the homeowners choose not to pay if this news were to get into the main stream media?
· No Note No Foreclosure In reality MERS is really nothing more than a shell, or a front corporation for its so-called "members". Many of these MERS members were once some of the most prestigious names in American finance. Many MERS members are now reporting hundreds of billions of dollars of losses as result of their illconcieved scheme to ramp up mortage orgination so they could pretend to flip millions of mortgage loans into trusts in exchange for trillions of dollars of investors money. MERS members, mortgage industry executives, invented the so-called MERS paperless system to short cut standing mortgage lending safe guards and circumvent the legal requirements for originating mortgage loans and/or for selling and transferring these loans to subsequent holders. This would allow MERS members like Countrywide Financial, Fieldstone Mortgage, and Option One Mortgage to make loans to anyone with a heart beat and then quickly flip these questionable loans to other MERS members such a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers to name just a few. ("Secondary Mortgage Market Playersâ) http://www.theconglomerate.org/2008/05/mortgage-electr.html