Utah AG To BofA: Continued Illegal Foreclosures Will Lead To Lawsuit

In Salt Lake City, Utah, The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

• The Utah Attorney General’s Office is preparing to sue Bank of America after sending a warning letter saying the bank was illegally conducting thousands of foreclosures in Utah.
• John Swallow, chief deputy attorney general for civil litigation, said Wednesday the office would file suit against the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant if its foreclosure arm, ReconTrust Co., continued to file foreclosure proceedings in violation of state law.

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• At issue is whether ReconTrust is violating state law by foreclosing on homes in its own name instead of that of an attorney who is a member of the Utah State Bar or a title company registered to conduct business here as required by state law. [...] Salt Lake County Recorder Gary Ott said Wednesday that ReconTrust is continuing to file foreclosure proceedings under its own name.

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• The state also has intervened in a federal lawsuit in which a St. George property owner argued that ReconTrust did not have the legal authority to foreclose on her property. After an adverse ruling in federal court in Salt Lake City, the case is before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, and the Attorney General’s Office has asked that it be sent back to Utah so it can defend the state law.

For more, see Utah A.G. to BofA: We will sue over foreclosures.