California Appellate Court is Fed Up with Bank of America: Homeowner’s Claim Upheld Even Though Not in Proper Form

This appeal represents another example of what is becoming a well established and predictable pattern. A homeowner in distress because of the meltdown of the financial markets applies to a lender for mortgage relief. The lender approves the homeowner’s participation in a government-funded program meant to lower mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure. The homeowner tries to comply with the terms of the mortgage modification program. He or she contacts the lender to make sure everything is proceeding according to plan and either receives assurances that it is or is passed from person to person, each of whom professes to know nothing about the loan in question or its modification. Sometimes both. Then the foreclosure notice is posted on the door, and the house is sold.

The kindest interpretation to place on this scenario is lender incompetence – the left-hand loan modification department and the right-hand foreclosure department appear to be…