Leading Consumer and Homeowner Rights Attorneys: Protecting Families, Achieving Economic Justice

Bank of America Wrongful Foreclosure on Paid-Up Home

The St. Petersburg Times ran another story on Bank of America's "foreclosure" on Charlie and Maria Cardoso's home in Spring Hill, Florida.  The story emphasized the fact that the Cardosos had paid cash for the house years ago but Bank of America ignored their cries that bank was foreclosing on the wrong house.  The online comments to the article capture the tenor of the American people at a time when bank executives and managers are receiving outrageous, SUPER-SIZED bonuses and the average American is struggling to keep their family afloat.  

Since we filed the case in federal court for the Cardosos, we have been hearing real life stories of how the foreclosure industry -- and it is a booming industry -- works on the street.  In a conversation with a real estate appraiser today, I learned that the companies that have the foreclosure contracts with the banks get paid a relatively small sum to seize the home, winterize it and "trash-out" (remove all possessions from the home and property) the homeowner's possessions.  I am told that the contactors trashing-out homes flat-out steal or destroy the homeowner's possessions.  We know from news articles that irreplaceable family possessions, such as photos, have been sent to the nearby landfill. 

Many banks have grown so big that one department does not even appear to know what the other department is doing.  We see this in the case of loan modifications.  Homeowners are told by the bank not to make payments on their loan while the loan modification application is pending but the bank proceeds to foreclose, racking-up legal and late fees.  The borrower suffers in the end.

There needs to be a moratorium on foreclosurers until the banks establish the policies, practices and procedures to ensure that the people paying the taxes in this country, the middle class, are being treated fairly by the banking institutions they bailed out.