Demands Continue For MERS To Cough Up The Cash For Unpaid Recording Fees

In New York City, WNBC-TV Channel 4 reports on some of the calls demanding that Mortgage Electronic Registration System begin coughing up the cash for the millions it may owe for fees it has avoided by failing to record assignments of mortgages when loans are sold between its members:

• [Southern Essex, Massachusetts Register of Deeds John] O’Brien has officially requested that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley file suit against MERS, seeking $22 million in unpaid recording fees associated with home loans that were bought, sold, and securitized since 1998. “I have challenged them to open their books and show me how many times they have moved people’s mortgages around,” O’Brien said.

• In [New York State's] Suffolk County, former county clerk Ed Romaine is making a similar request. Now serving as a county legislator, Romaine has asked the Suffolk County attorney explore a lawsuit against MERS that he says would claw back more than $100 million for taxpayers. Romaine unsuccessfully tried to block MERS from doing business in Suffolk County back in 2001. “I saw a problem because we would not know who would be the owner of these mortgage notes because they would be sold in a private system and not recorded in a public system,” Romaine said.

• The prediction wasn’t far off. Mortgage industry insiders say a major reason many of the nation’s foreclosures are stalled or progressing at a slow pace is the inability of MERS to identify what parties actually hold title to distressed mortgage loans. The problem has led housing advocates to begin demanding foreclosure agents show proof of which investors actually hold legal claim on properties.

For the story, see Counties Seek Millions From Mortgage Giant (MERS under fire for unpaid fees).