Nevada homeowners file class-action lawsuit over foreclosure robosignings
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Nevada continues to be plagued by high foreclosure rates.
Wednesday
21 December 2011
9:29 a.m.
Updated
21 Dec. 2011 1:58 p.m.
Lender Processing Services Inc., the company targeted by Nevada’s attorney general in a foreclosure robosigning investigation, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit filed by Las Vegas and Henderson homeowners.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based LPS, one of the nation’s largest foreclosure processors, has insisted its robosigning problems in Nevada involved mere paperwork issues, have been addressed and did not involve wrongful foreclosures.
But Tuesday’s homeowner lawsuit said LPS’s use of “forged, fraudulent and/or erroneous” foreclosure documents tainted the foreclosure process to the point where LPS and banks it worked with “did not have authority to foreclose or to continue with the foreclosure process.”
The suit filed in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas alleges violations of Nevada’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, seeks to block pending foreclosures involving allegedly forged LPS documents and seeks unspecified damages for completed foreclosures.
Besides the Nevada attorney general’s lawsuit filed against LPS last week alleging widespread fraud in its foreclosure paperwork operations, criminal charges have been filed in Las Vegas against two LPS officers and four notaries in what state prosecutors call a scheme in which thousands of foreclosure documents were tainted by forged signatures and bogus notarizations.
Also named as defendants in Tuesday’s class-action lawsuit were lenders and foreclosure trustees that work with LPS. They are Bank of America, its subsidiary ReconTrust Co.; IndyMac Mortgage Services, a division of OneWest Bank; and Regional Service Corp., which acts as a foreclosure trustee.
Tuesdays lawsuit was filed by five homeowners and is proposed as a class action representing “countless” more plaintiffs, likely thousands. Four of the named homeowners face foreclosure and the fifth has been foreclosed on, the suit says.
The proposed class of plaintiffs is defined as borrowers in Nevada who received foreclosure documents, called notices of default, “that were improperly executed by LPS, its predecessors or its subsidiaries.”
Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks a court declaration that LPS and its codefendants violated Nevada’s law governing foreclosure proceedings “in that they proceeded with the foreclosure process despite relying upon forged and falsified notices of default.”
“Plaintiffs and consumers have paid the ultimate price through bankruptcies, evictions and foreclosures that were predicated upon false, forged, fraudulent and/or inaccurate documents,” the lawsuit charges.
The suit also seeks a declaration that the notices of default issued by LPS “are null and void” and asks for an injunction blocking LPS and the codefendants from proceeding with the allegedly tainted foreclosures.
“Plaintiffs’ properties face foreclosure as a result of defendants violations of NRS 107.080 (the foreclosure law),” the suit says.
The suit also seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages and attorney’s fees. It was filed by attorneys at the Las Vegas law firm Callister & Associates LLC.
An LPS spokesman said the company had no immediate comment on Tuesday's lawsuit but reiterated its earlier statement: "LPS acknowledges the signing procedures on some of these documents were flawed; however, the company also believes these documents were properly authorized and their recording did not result in a wrongful foreclosure."
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"Plaintiffs' properties face foreclosure as a result of defendants violations of NRS 107.080 (the foreclosure law),"
This could also read "Plaintiffs properties face foreclosure as a result of Plaintiffs not making their house payments."
You would not be in foreclosure status if you were current on your mortgage, I can not see how this suit has any real basis or help to those who were foreclosed on, any one of them could have stopped it by paying their mortgage, most lived in their properties for free for a year or more, what else could they get?
I'm inclined to agree Peter. If you stopped making payments, then you should have been foreclosed on. If you made your payments and have proof of said payments, then I think this lawsuit would be good for those people.
Dead wrong, Peter!! Mortgage lenders are notorious for deliberately foreclosing on people whose payments are current or have no mortgage at all to skim the equity and create bogus "Fees". They hire idiots who won't ask questions to sign them. Happened to me and I'm an expert on staged false foreclosures by lenders. See: MSFraud.org.
Robo signing was not the problem with foreclose homes in Las Vegas, it was homeowners unable to pay their mortgage. If you failed to pay your mortgage what right do you have to the home you bought, you owe someone. Its too bad home did not have the same law as vehicles, then we could just repossess it.
Every single homeowner who was foreclosed should sue and force it into a court. Clog the courts.
Make this as big of a pain in the butt for the banks as possible. I don't care if you have a case or not, just get it filed.
I am in. Going to call the law office today. This is long time coming. My home was foreclosed on when we lived in north las vegas. I was able to pay the mortgage, but the ban refuses to work with us or the doc and process was all messed up no one knew anything. But they moved forward with the foreclosure anyway over a 5000k fees. I had equity in the home due to a large down payment.