Back in October, I mentioned the website that gone viral: “Where’s the Note.com.” It allowed homeowners to easily request to see a copy of their mortgage note.
Yesterday, I noted that at least one Homeowner had made a “wheresthenote.com” Mortgage Note request, only to see Bank of America report the request as a dispute to the credit agencies, knocking 40 points off his FICO score. If these facts check out, that is a violation of the Fair Credit reporting act, and possibly other state and local laws.
As it turns out Wheresthenote.com has received numerous complaints about this. Their response has been to set up a form to file a complaint to your State Attorney General about illegal bank intimidation.
This may turn out to be a smart tactic. Elected Senators and Congressmen seems to be bought lock stock and barrel by the banking lobby. And the State AGs seem to be harder to buy off. Congress does the bidding of their banking masters, so looking for any positive outcome there is futile. But ion the Fraudclosure issue, the state AGs have been dead on.
Here is the Wheresthenote announcement:
Update: Homeowners are sending us reports of banks responding with threats and intimidation.
It is your legal right to demand to see your original, signed mortgage note.
It is illegal for banks to negatively report to your credit file during the 60 day period after requesting your note simply because you made a request to see it.
If you received a response that you feel is threatening or intimidating in nature, contact your state’s Attorney General and push them to hold the banks accountable under the law.
UPDATE: December 15, 2010 11:05am
Here is a stunning example of this: A state legislator in Arizona was sued for asking Colonial Savings about their Note. Michele Reagan is current on her mortgage, never missed a payment, was never even late.
Her and her husband were sued for even asking. Here is local TV station CBS 5 (KPHO):
“Arizona Rep. Michele Reagan, R-District 8, is better known for fighting for new laws, but now, she is speaking about her fight against a lawsuit.
Reagan is being sued by her mortgage company after she questioned who owned held the note on her home. “It’s really scary,” she said, “I think that this really needs to be brought to light that this is happening to people in Arizona.”
Reagan had wanted to find out she and her husband, David Gulino, could refinance their south Scottsdale home. “In doing research, I began to wonder if the lender even owned the note to my home,” she said. “So I sent them a letter and asked them and asked them several things. I want to know who owns my property. Am I paying the right person?”
Soon after, Colonial Savings filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Reagan and her husband. The company says the couple is trying “to rescind their home loan,” or back out on the loan. “We’re not interested in walking,” Reagan said. “We’re not interested in saying we’re not going to pay. We just need a little help with the interest rate.”
Bank Sues State Lawmaker
Sarah Buduson
KPHO.com 8:55 pm MST March 30, 2010
http://www.kpho.com/money/23008529/detail.html
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