A recent Land Court Decision Affecting Foreclosures in Massachusetts

I suggest investing in patience everyone.

Patience is right, this is 99% surely going to appeal. I just spoke to a firm impacted and they have indicated there has to be an appeal since no one knows how to handle going forward and backwards.

good luck......got some reading ahead of me!

I could see all our wait was for nothing. Judge did not say anything new from his previous ruling and left the door open for more appealing.... wonder what is the law firms appealing against. They broke the procedure, now admit it, fix it and move on.... Instead they are defensive and don't want to admit it was their mistake. I wonder how long they will appeal, as it does not seem Judge is worried about all he properties have to be re-foreclosed.

I am disappointed and trying to move on from my "dream home".. any thoughts?

I am as disappointed in the decision as you are. My Purchase and Sales contract was cancelled yesterday! Since the bank that owns the property now must reforeclose, I am going to watch for the auction announcements and will go to it. I'm not sure how long this process will take. The bank MUST start the bidding at what is owed on the home. If no-one bids that amount, I will then contact them and see if they will honor the bid I put in on it in March. Maybe this will work for you too! Peter

p.s. Meanwhile I will be looking at other properties!

hello all;
here are the time lines to reforeclose i'm hearing from the banks i work with.
locate mortagor to notify of options: 1 to 2 months.
offer 90 day right to cure (ma law) 3 months. subtotal 4-5 months
offer refinance option: 1 to 3 months. subtotal 5-8 months
offer foreclosure alternative (short sale or deed in lieu) 1-3 months subtotal 6-11 months
if none of the above are successful:
publish nod, soldiers and sailors act: 1.5 months subtotal 7.5 to 12.5 months
publish and auction 1 month
total time lines 8.5 to 13.5 months.
patience doesn't really seem like an option here.

I am not sure this is the case for this re-foreclosure process. The dispute starts from assignment and order of Notice... Most cases, Assignement is already recorded. What they would have to do now is to start Order of Notice and publishing it in papers. A week to do that plus 30 day notice for auction; After the auction date, it would be ready to go back to sale... So once the bank kick off the process of re-foreclosure, I think it may be all done in 45-60 days. I read same timeline in one of the posting by BL or somebody sometime in the past.

Hello all,

We are disappointed as well. To top it all off, the dead beat original owner of our dream home has just won a bid on a contract and has new found cash and has called the realtor to get his house back!!!! Seriously, after someone loses a house due to defaulting on his mortgage, back taxes, etc. they should not have any leverage on purchasing their home back. This judge has given all the dead beats the upper hand and from what we've been told he has every right to his property if he wants it! And of course he does....leaves us completely high and dry. how can this happen? I am mortified!

gmorin, I am soooo sorry to hear that. This Judge, did not know where this was going, apparently it caused quite the 800 pound gorilla on Thursday in the Senate Hearings. Martha Coakly apparently spoke on the issue of foreclosures and the land court decision came up several times.

I am wondering if the legislature enacted a new bill.....stating going forward..would the land Court ruling hold water.

Unfortunately, we are all subjected to this insanity and we have to just cross our fingers that the original defaulting home owners do not come flouncing about.

It is a sad situation to not be able to afford your mortgage NO DOUBT, but did it really matter what the name of the lender was, if it was BOA or JP Morgan, you still couldnt pay it, and yes shame on the banks for the amount of money they gave out to people that couldnt afford it. '

I am speaking with my own Attorney who is awaiting some input from Title INsurance companies.

Will advise,. Again, Gmorin, TERRIBLE!

Gmorin,

How did that happen? Was the house back on the market? This certainly seems unfair to me. This person lost the house, you put in a fair bid, and they just allow him/her to re-purchase it?

Blown away- Would appreciate any info you get regarding what is going on with title insurance companies etc! Thanks, Peter

Does anyone have any definitive information re: Dreamhome's re-foreclosure timeline? Thanks, Peter

I had posted timelines earlier. Although Dream home is correct the issue involved NOD and assignment. Once the FC process starts over again it needs to follow the changes in the law that have taken place recently. Anything and everything that took place with the previous FC is mute since the previous foreclosing instution wasn't the owner of the mortgage. That's the fact that started this whole fiasco, i.e. They cant reforeclose until they give the mortagor the 90 day right to cure as now required under MA. law, than offer a loan mod, than a foreclosure alternative, as required by more recent legislation. More of less as I laid out in my previous post. This isn't just my opinion, it was info passed on to me by my bank clients. I've already had some of the formers that are seeking access to their properties to move back in since the FC wasn't valid, hence they're still the owner. Counsel has also advised that there is litigation starting due to the evictions that took place. Something along the lines of, "how could you evict me if you never owned it". The info I'm receiving is that Long's ruling is the beginning of the process, not the end. Another delay is now starting to play out. With the huge amout of money tied up in the FCs, some banks have started to bulk sell the notes rather than wade through the mine field of reforeclosing. Less money now instead of more money next year. The company you have the deal with may not be the foreclosing institution later. You might also consider approaching the former owner to work out a short sale between the 2 of you and the mortgage holder, that's one of the foreclosure alternatives I referenced earlier. There's no quick, easy answer here. And please don't shoot the messenger; You folks follow this situation since you have a home purchase hung up in limbo. I follow it since I have $200,000 in commission checks tied up in limbo. My bank clients follow it because the have billions stalled due to this. We're all in the same boat, we just arrived there from different directions. Hope this helps.

I had posted timelines earlier. Although Dream home is correct the issue involved NOD and assignment. Once the FC process starts over again it needs to follow the changes in the law that have taken place recently. Anything and everything that took place with the previous FC is mute since the previous foreclosing instution wasn't the owner of the mortgage. That's the fact that started this whole fiasco, i.e. They cant reforeclose until they give the mortagor the 90 day right to cure as now required under MA. law, than offer a loan mod, than a foreclosure alternative, as required by more recent legislation. More or less as I laid out in my previous post. This isn't just my opinion, it was info passed on to me by my bank clients. I've already had some of the formers that are seeking access to their properties to move back in since the FC wasn't valid, hence they're still the owner. Counsel has also advised that there is litigation starting due to the evictions that took place. Something along the lines of, "how could you evict me if you never owned it". The info I'm receiving is that Long's ruling is the beginning of the process, not the end. Another delay is now starting to play out. With the huge amout of money tied up in the FCs, some banks have started to bulk sell the notes rather than wade through the mine field of reforeclosing. Less money now instead of more money next year. The company you have the deal with may not be the foreclosing institution later. You might want to consider approaching the former owner to work out a short sale between the 2 of you and the mortgage holder, that's one of the foreclosure alternatives I referenced earlier. There's no quick, easy answer here. And please don't shoot the messenger; You folks follow this situation since you have a home purchase hung up in limbo. I follow it since I have $200,000 in commission checks tied up in limbo. My bank clients follow it because the have billions stalled due to this. We're all in the same boat, we just arrived there from different directions. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the information, Reoma!

Thanks REOMA... don't want to shoot down the messenger for sure!!!! I could have been misled or was hoping that it won't take that long... If it takes as long as you say, not good... and original owners coming back to claim it does not make it sensible to wait that long at all. I would appreciate if you could pass on any information when you have.