Wrongful foreclosures across the nation
Over the years, we’ve reported on dozens of cases in which homeowners have been wrongly foreclosed upon because of bank errors or because of overzealous law firms stacking up stats or even because of the robosigning scandal where foreclosure papers were never manually reviewed by a person. Today, a different situation presents itself in the form of a Houston family that purchased a home, have never made a late payment, and have received foreclosure notices because of a failed transfer of title by the title company at closing. How did this happen?
In 2008, the couple bought their Houston home through a Bank of America mortgage which they have paid every month, but just shortly after purchasing their home, the title company responsible for the transfer of title went under and the title was never transferred, nor were the homeowners notified in any way, leaving the property technically property of Wells Fargo, loan holder of the previous owners.
Wells Fargo allegedly unwilling to cooperate
The title company’s bankruptcy has been in process for nearly two years and the couple says Wells Fargo has been unwilling to work with them. “We did everything we were supposed to do,” they told MyFoxHouston in the interview above. “All this had been going on for two years. Nobody has communicated with us, notified us. We had been paying our mortgage and everything.”
To add insult to injury, the homeowners say Wells Fargo has sent foreclosure notices, increasing the cost to purchase the home from $130,000 to $170,000. A Wells Fargo Bank representative told MyFoxHouston, “We are exploring all options available to us to resolve this matter.”
Because the title was never transferred, technically, Bank of America does not own the title but accepted payment anyhow, and Wells Fargo is now looking to get paid twice for the same property. Technicalities like this happen every day and don’t make it to the mainstream media, but with one in ten homes sitting vacant, it seems that part of foreclosure prevention could include banks taking the simple step to make sure they own (or do not own) the title to a home.
