Missouri Homeowners Tire From Banksters' Sleazy Practices; Begin Mounting Challenges To State Foreclosure System

In St. Louis, Missouri, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports:

• John Kevin Kennedy was an engineer at Anheuser Busch for 30 years. Then came the sale to InBev, and the big downsizing at the brewery left Kennedy out on the street along with much of his department.



• With no job, he asked his mortgage lender for a lower payment on his home in Barnhart. What happened next set in motion a lawsuit challenging the way foreclosures are done in Missouri. By raising questions about which lender actually owns the mortgages, the suit claims certain foreclosures weren't properly done and it asks the courts to give "hundreds, even thousands" of Missourians their foreclosed homes back.



• Kennedy's is part of a broader legal movement nationwide challenging the foreclosure process, which debtors say is slanted against them.

***

• In Missouri, lenders can foreclose without a judge's order. Unless the homeowner files suit to stop it, the house can be sold at a foreclosure sale on the mortgage holder's word alone. People who can't pay their mortgages usually can't afford lawyers, so foreclosures almost always go unchallenged. In Illinois, court approval is required before a foreclosure.



• But Kennedy, 62, had something that most troubled homeowners don't - money in a 401(k) retirement plan. He used it to hire lawyer Greg White, who specializes in fighting foreclosures.



• White teamed up with three other law firms to file a lawsuit challenging the state's foreclosure system. They hope to convert the case into a class-action suit.

For more, see Suits challenge Missouri foreclosure law.