Wrongful Military Foreclosure Cases

Unfortunately, only subsidiaries of Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley will pay more than $22 million to settle allegations that the banks wrongully foreclosed on almost 200 active-duty military service personnel, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said last Thursday.

Countrywide, now part of Bank of America (!) and Saxon Mortgage Services, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley will have to repair any negative credit-report entries on those same foreclosures or near-foreclosures. 

According to the DOJ, those banks and their subsidiaries ordered foreclosure on these military personnel without first obtaining court orders. 

Don't you think they would have learned their lessons from the robo-signing?  Apparently not.  Some of the victims were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Isn't that enough sacrifice without have to worry that the home and homeland you are fighting for might be gone when you return?  Think about that.

Countrywide did not, according to the DOJ, "consistently check the military status" on borrowers on whom it foreclosed throught at least May 31, 2009. 

Thus, the Bank of America subsidiary, formerly known as Countrywide Home Loan Servicing , agreed to pay $20 million to resolve a lawuit alleging that it foreclosed on approximatlely 160 service members between January 2006 and May 2009 without court orders.

Check that link as well because it doles out more allegations, i.e.,

Countrywide Will Pay $108 Million for Overcharging Struggling Homeowners; Loan Servicer Inflated Fees, Mishandled Loans of Borrowers in Bankruptcy

If you check out the first link about Bank of America, you will also find some great information about how badly, as most of us who worked with Countrywide found out, Countrywide loved to sell and hated to keep its homeowners in homes.