Foreclosure Fighting Words: ‘Produce the Note’

Date:June 24, 2008 | Author: | Category:Mortgages

Greg Hunter of CNN Money \

Here’s an interesting tactic that Chris Hoyer, an attorney who advises consumers about foreclosure on Consumer Warning Network, is suggesting: tell the banks to “produce the note.”

What this means is that if you are in foreclosure trouble, and the bank or lending company threatens to take your home, you can buy some time and possibly renegotiate a new mortgage (without tacked-on fees) if you ask the bank to “produce the note.” Evidently, in a large number of cases, banks are having a tough time producing the promissory note since mortgages are packaged up, sold, bundled again, and re-sold and the original promissory note gets lost in the process.

In this CNNMoney video titled, “New Way to Fight Foreclosure,” reporter Greg Hunter has a clip with Hoyer’s mantra, plus a snippet by University of Iowa law professor Katherine Porter who says, “banks fail to attach a copy of the promissory note in 40% of situations” and that 4 out of 10 consumers are being asked to make payments for the mortgage, but the bank didn’t provide evidence to establish what those debts were.

So, if you face foreclosure, don’t abandon your property and move out. All is not lost. Get a lawyer and make sure the bank “produces the note.”