Robo-Signing: Checking for Differences and “Tracers”

Robo-Signing:  Checking for Differences and “Tracers”

One way to keep the banks honest is not to pretend now that the settlement is over that the robo-signing has stopped.  One of the most frequent challenges lawyers bring to foreclosure complaints is when a Plaintiff fails to attach an “Assignment” of the mortgage.  If you find that your mortgage was sold to another company after you closed on your home, then there is supposed to be an “Assignment” somewhere.  The problem is that in order to cut corners during the high times, many of the lenders don’t have these “Assignments” or the Promissory Notes or anything else anymore, so they have to “recreate” them now.  That is fraud, plain and simple.

Many laws in different states require that all material documents should be attached to the Complaint, including these Assignments.  If you get your Assignment with the Complaint then make sure to study it closely.  Look for a signature by a President, Vice President, or CEO.  Also, look for a corporate seal.  Chances are you will get an Assistant Secretary and no seal which is contrary to Florida Statutes.

Look closely at the signatures on the Assignment and the dates.  Make sure it was notarized at the same time of the signature.  Then look at who is assigning what to whom.  Once you figure that out, look online for your clerk of court’s website.  There you can search public records.  In the search see if there is some way to limit your search to Assignments.  Then start looking for Assignments similar to yours.  For example, if your loan was assigned to Bank of America, look for Assignments that are to them from the same person that assigned yours.  Often it will be Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS).  Try to stick around the same date that your Assignment was recorded.  The truth is whoever signed your paperwork may have quit shortly after.  These people don’t stick around too long.

Start looking at the signatures.  It may take a while and is tedious work, but keep looking as far back or forward as you have to.  Eventually you will find one with the same signature that is on your Assignment.  See if they match up.  There are many companies who will prepare these in groups and file them so look for groups of Assignments filed on a certain date or month by the same person that yours was assigned to.   For example, one company that is now frequently recording Assignments is CoreLogic (you will see their name at the top as the preparer).  Even if those don’t match up keep looking.

If you don’t find signatures by the people that are on your Assignment, don’t give up.  Go to another county in the same state, and stick around the same date that your Assignment was recorded.  When you find a signature that is the same person as your Assignment, save it even if it looks the same.  A lot of tracing is taking place now that the robo-signing has been brought to the forefront.  Then keep looking.  Eventually you may find a “tracer” who does not trace so well.

If there is any hope of holding the banks accountable and countersuing back for the false and fraudulent documents they have filed, we have to learn to prove those documents are indeed fraudulent.