San Francisco (Obama.net)- It was just a few weeks ago that Bank of America announced that it would freeze its foreclosure process. The freeze came after the nation found out that the system for the foreclosures involved improper assessments that often resulted in incorrect information and improper foreclosures. The system of foreclosures went from a program of quality to quantity as law firms were being paid by the case rather than the usual system of by the hour.
The court system of the United States handles foreclosure cases in 23 of the 50 states. Bank of America reported that it went back and revisited approximately 102,000 cases and will now be resuming the foreclosure process.
The company announced that new affidavits will begin to be filed next Monday. The bank also announced that in the other twenty-seven states, the review process is still going on.
A spokesperson for Bank of America said that no problems or mistakes were found in any of the more than 100,000 cases. In addition, it was reported that less than 30,000 of the cases are going to be delayed because of the temporary freeze and review.
The bank also said that the revisiting of the cases “has been an important step to give customers confidence they are being treated fairly.”
Many are surprised by the speed of the review process. FBR Capital Markets’ Paul Miller said, “This is an even better outcome than we previously thought. WE thought January was a more likely time to restart the process” of foreclosures.
The news came just one day prior to Bank of America’s report for their earnings for the third quarter. In addition, the news was followed by an increase in the company’s stock.
With other major banks still in the freeze, 3.1 million loans hang in the balance, with 1.8 million of those cases being in the 23 states where the courts run the process.
As Bank of America has managed to review so many cases in under three weeks without reporting one mismanaged case, the question now stands as whether or not the other major banks can report the same results in the weeks to come.
With the information we know about how rushed the cases were handled by the law firms who were paid $1,300 on average per case, it is difficult to assume that at the end of the day the other lenders will report the same findings as Bank of America.
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