How We Find Mortgage Fraud
After the passage of the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act in 1982, a host of highly sophisticated mortgage products flooded the market. These products offered new combinations of interest rate and payment adjustments that most consumers and mortgage bankers vaguely understood.
Complicating matters even further was the use of differing amortization schedules and interest calculations that weren’t revealed to homeowners before or during the consummation of loans.
MFI-Boston examines the copies of homeowners’ loan documents from the closing, as well as the lender’s documents, the closing agent’s documents and the appraisal. Unlike our competitors, MFI-Boston looks for more than just HOEPA, RESPA and TILA violations. We search for violations of MGL Chapter 93A, MGL Chapter 140d, 940 CMR 8.05 and 940 CMR 8.06. These laws were enacted to protect homeowners and are routinely disregarded by brokers and lenders.
MFI-Boston conducts an investigation to determine whether the broker and/or lender was properly licensed at the time of consummation and ensures that they followed guidelines required by the both states.
The creation of MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems, in the late 1990s allowed lenders and banks to trade mortgage notes behind a shroud of secrecy, further complicating the mortgage process.
What is MERS? It’s essentially a cartel that was created to streamline the securitization process. The mortgage lists MERS as a nominee for the note holder. This was done so that mortgage notes could be traded without the need to pay state and county filing fees or comply with state filing regulations.
Through its experience and connections on Capitol Hill and Wall Street, MFI-Boston has been able to circumvent MERS by not only accessing the pooling and servicing agreements, but by verifying if the property is actually in the securities certificate claimed by the servicer and/or the trustee.
MFI-Boston also conducts research to see if the certificate was already paid as part of a credit default swap. This information is important. It can prove or disprove any monetary claims that the lender may use against the homeowner. This information can also show whether the lender actually has legal standing to execute the terms of the note.
MFI-Boston Packages
The Standard Package includes an examination and report based on:
• The client’s closing package
• The lender’s copy of the file with a qualified written request sent to the servicer
• The title company’s copy of the file with a qualified written request sent to them
• An appraisal review
The Optional Premium Package includes everything in the Standard Package plus:
• A review of the pooling and servicing agreement
• A review of mortgage-backed security certificate from the note
• A review to see if the certificate was part of a credit default swap that was paid as part of TARP
The Modification Prep Package can be purchased individually or as part of any of the above packages and includes:
• Calculating your income, housing values, and ratios to see if you qualify for a loan modification or a short sale
