Oct 09
4
Over the last couple of weeks, a huge mortgage and foreclosure story has been slowly developing. You’ve probably already heard about judges throwing out foreclosure cases because the banks didn’t have their documents in order. One judge in Kansas made a ruling that could — if upheld on the Federal level — invalidate the mortgages on 60 million homes. Judges in other states have already made similar rulings.
It goes back to the way mortgage companies have sliced, diced, and sold off mortgages into mortgage backed securities. This often involved a private company, a clearinghouse called MERS. Well, because it would be difficult for a consortium of 10 companies to file foreclosure, MERS did it for them. And this judge says MERS doesn’t actually have the legal standing to do that. In short, they can’t prove they own the mortgage because they don’t.
How do you find out if MERS is involved in your mortgage? That’s hard without getting lawyers involved. The best (only) advice on that I’ve heard is to call your mortgage servicer. The phone number should be on your statement. Ask the nice person at customer service. The problem is they may not know, and even if they do they may not be allowed to tell you. I know it seems like you should have a right to know, but that nice person in customer service doesn’t want to lose his or her job by telling you.
It is pretty easy, however, to tell if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac holds your mortgage, and Forbes tells you how.
Actually it is pretty easy to find out if MERS is involved in your mortgage. It is on the FRONT PAGE of every mortgage it is involved with. If for some reason you do not have a copy you can look up the mortgage in the county records. Or just go to their website and look it up.
https://www.mers-servicerid.org/sis/
Great tip! Thanks much. Is this true when the mortgage changes hands? Usually it doesn’t get re-recorded with the county.