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Property Title Trouble In Non-Judicial Foreclosure States: The Ibanez Time Bomb?, Elizabeth Renuart

Elizabeth Renuart

The economic crisis gripping the United States began when large numbers of homeowners defaulted on poorly underwritten subprime mortgage loans. Demand from Wall Street seduced mortgage lenders, brokers, and other players to churn out mortgage loans in extraordinary numbers. Securitization, the process of utilizing mortgage loans to back investment instruments, not only fanned the fire; the parties to these deals often handled and transferred the legally important documents that secure the resulting investments—the loan notes and mortgages—in a careless and sometimes fraudulent manner.

The consequences of this behavior are now becoming evident. All over the country, courts are scrutinizing whether …