Pennsylvania Homeowner Uses "Produce The Note" Self-Help Strategy In Attempt To Fend Off Foreclosure

In Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, KDKA-TV Channel 2 reports:

• A Lawrence County man is trying a new strategy to save his home. Mark Strohecker, of Ellwood City, is a former firefighter who is on disability. When his adjustable rate mortgage jumped, he was unable to make payments. Facing foreclosure, he used a strategy promoted by a Florida-based website called the Consumer Warning Network. He filed a motion asking the lender to "produce the note." "Provide to me the promissory note to show to me that they are indeed the rightful owner of my property here," Strohecker said.(1)

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• Strohecker tells KDKA his lender has told him they can't find the note. It's unclear what will happen next. He plans on filing more paperwork in court next week.

For the story, see Ellwood City Man Uses 'Note' Strategy To Save Home.

For the KDKA-TV Channel 2 video, see 'Note' Strategy Could Stop Home Foreclosure.

See also The Consumer Warning Network: Homeowner Stops Foreclosure after filing “Produce the Note”

• [T]he fight for Strohecker’s home is not over yet. The Judge’s order delays the foreclosure sale until May 13th. The order gives the plaintiff, LaSalle Bank National Association, time to come up with the original note, or, if it was lost or destroyed, to prove that LaSalle is the rightful owner of the note. The Judge’s order cites a potential loan modification as a reason for stopping the Sheriff’s Sale. “Said sale is stayed until the next sale scheduled for May 13, 2009, as there is the strong possibility of federal relief for mortgage foreclosures,” Judge Cox wrote in his order.

Go here for more on Produce The Note “How-To”.

Go here for Sample Foreclosure Legal Documents.

For posts that reference the failure of mortgage lenders and their attorneys to file the proper paperwork when bringing foreclosure actions, Go Here, Go Here, Go Here, Go Here, Go Here, and Go Here.

(1) For those in Mr. Strohecker's position, it might be a good idea to request that the mortgage company prove, not only that it has the note, but that it also has the legal right to enforce the note through foreclosure by demanding that it produce, among other things:

• a complete "chain of title" tracing assignment of the mortgage from the loan originator or other party named in the mortgage;
• all necessary affidavits, powers of attorney, etc. that impact on the validity of the written assignments of mortgage;
• the pooling and servicing agreement if a loan servicer is involved (see Max Gardner’s Top Resasons for Wanting a Pooling Servicing Agreement). ThetaMissingDocsMtg