Calif. atty. general asks GMAC to cease foreclosures

[September 25, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California's attorney general wants GMAC Mortgage LLC to stop foreclosures in the state until it proves it is complying with a state law aimed at preventing foreclosures.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Friday that he directed Ally Financial Inc., which owns GMAC, to prove it is complying with a law that prohibits lenders from taking steps to foreclose a home before making an effort to work with the borrower.

The state law covers mortgages made between Jan. 1, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2007. It requires lenders to attempt to contact a borrower to determine if they're eligible for a loan modification before issuing a notice of default on the mortgage, the first step in the foreclosure process.

On Monday, GMAC said it had halted certain evictions and sales of foreclosed homes in 23 states -- California is not among them -- to correct a "potential issue" in its foreclosure process.

On Friday, the company went further and said procedural errors were made in certain affidavits required by some states as part of the foreclosure process.

"The error is not related to the accuracy of the underlying transaction or the ultimate decisions to have exercised the foreclosure proceedings," the company said in a statement.

Moreover, the company said its review of the matter has revealed no evidence of any factual misstatements about details such as loan balance, its delinquency or the validity of the note and mortgage.

An Ally Financial spokeswoman declined to comment specifically on the California attorney general's directive.

The Florida attorney general is investigating three law firms for allegedly providing fraudulent affidavits that identify who holds the original mortgage note in foreclosure cases. In Florida and in other states, this document allows lenders to bypass a costly trial and proceed with a foreclosure.

Two of the three firms being investigated -- the Law Office of Marshall C. Watson and the Law Offices of David J. Stern PA -- have represented GMAC in foreclosure proceedings. And the person who signed many of these allegedly false affidavits was an employee of GMAC.

In a deposition taken in December, GMAC employee Jeffrey Stephan said he signed 10,000 affidavits or similar documents a month without personally verifying who the mortgage holder was. That means many foreclosures could have taken place based on false documentation.

Brown alluded to Stephan's deposition, saying California homeowners facing foreclosure are "clearly in jeopardy since an Ally Financial official admitted his review of thousands of critical foreclosure documents was really a sham."

The company has not addressed how many homeowners would be affected by its suspension of evictions and foreclosure sales. It expects the issues to be resolved within a few weeks or, at latest, by year-end.

California has the nation's fourth-highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 194 households receiving a foreclosure-related warning last month, according to foreclosure listings service RealtyTrac Inc.

[Associated Press; By ALEX VEIGA]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.