Ohio Foreclosures Continue Moving Forward, Despite Obviously Problematic Paperwork

In Franklin County, Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch:

• [A]t least 55 Franklin County homeowners will lose their houses at an auction Friday despite the fact that their foreclosure cases appear to contain mistakes, omissions of critical evidence or questionable affidavits, The Dispatch found in a review of court documents.

• The newspaper examined the files of more than 130 homeowners whose houses are slated for auction Friday. Half of the cases had issues that consumer advocates call troubling and should have raised red flags before a judge ordered the homes sold.

• In 13 of the 50 questionable cases, the lenders failed to produce the promissory note, as required by law. The note is the legal agreement that spells out how much is owed, how the loan will be repaid and to whom it is owed.

• The default judgments in 19 other cases were built upon sworn affidavits by people who appear to be “robo-signers,” lending-industry employees who aren’t verifying the amounts owed or the ownership of the mortgage and note, as required by law.

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• Issuing a default judgment without reviewing the original note is a clear-cut error, said Douglas Whaley, an Ohio State University law professor and expert on the Uniform Commercial Code, the law that governs promissory notes. “You cannot foreclose unless you have the original promissory note,” he said. “The law is clear.”

• For at least a dozen foreclosed homeowners whose lenders did not produce the note, it’s too late. On Friday, they will be former homeowners.

For more, see Lenders skirt foreclosure rules (Local homes going on sheriff’s auction block despite problems).