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New Penalty For Mortgage Defaulters; Prisoners Cashed In on Tax Credit

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Lina Maini

New penalty for Mortgage Defaulters

In the past year, we’ve noticed a significant uptick in subject locate service requests by clients chasing mortgage defaulters.

Every type of dodge (for averting service) has been employed: from occupying the home only late at night for sleeping, to renting the house to someone other than the homeowner while attempting to individually selling the house to simply abandoning the property.

In an effort to discourage homeowners from walking away from their mortgage responsibilities, government-sponsored mortgage buyers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have announced a new, tougher policy that will ban defaulters from obtaining new loans for seven years.

The policy is aimed at the troubled borrowers who refuse to make good faith efforts to work out a deal to repay their loans.

The justification for the new Fannie and Freddie penalty is meant to discourage strategic defaulting, (when a homeowner simply stops making mortgage payments although s/he has the capability to do so).

Strategic defaulting default has become alarmingly popular in neighborhoods experiencing sharp house value declines.  In turn, this wave of unprecedented foreclosures has devalued entire communities.

Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac together, own or guarantee roughly half of all mortgages – 31 million loans valued at $5.5 trillion.

The federal government seized control of Fannie and Freddie in 2008, sending taxpayers a $145 billion bill, so far.   Neither of these two companies exhibits any signs of being self-sufficient in the foreseeable future.

When BNI becomes involved in locating mortgage defaulters, we advise our clients that these are not standard locates.  The people we are attempting to find are actively avoiding just that.  Whether the defaulter is in denial or trying to sell the property and recoup his/her investment, repay the loan and potentially even make money on the sale, the sheer number and complexity of these locates has certainly changed the scope of how we definitively identify and trace this particular group of subjects.

Our focus had broadened to include uncovering relatives, friends, co-workers, current and past business associates… It is extremely rare that a person will simply disappear, especially those with children.  Our experience has been that mortgage defaulters on the run will generally live with relatives or friends, and not unusually, will move out of state (mistakenly believing that crossing state lines will somehow absolve their debt).

How long will it take for commerical and private mortgage providers to install harsher default penalties?  Probably within several months, and undoubtedly sooner than government agencies Fannie or Freddie actually enact their new penalty policy.

Cease and Desist

In related news, after investigating hundreds of consumer complaints, NYS Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stated that as of Jun 24, 2010, his office has issued 180 cease and desist letters to national mortgage rescue companies that misrepresent themselves by implying an affiliation with the federal government. 

What Went Wrong Here??

1,300 tax filers grabbed $26.7 million in tax credits from the federal first time home owners incentive meant to boost the sagging housing market.

So why is this an attention-grabber?  These 1,300 individuals are all behind bars.  A common  scam by these prisoners had multiple (alleged) tax payers purchasing a single home, with each claiming the tax credit.  One home was simultaneously “purchased” 67 times. 

The IRS states it is taking steps to take this money back.  Good luck.

BNI Operatives: Street smart; web savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Filed under: General Information, locate | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Med Mal Reform Passes in NY. Still No Budget.

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Lina Maini

Med mal tort reform quietly passed by Gov. Paterson (D, NY).

So how far behind can “modifying” (lowerng the injury threshhold, including several categories of soft tissue injuries) no fault auto insurance  be?

The med mal just cost every NYer an additional $3.50 a year and the NF modifications will hit the individual pockets of auto insureds by another $100 annually. 

But the NYS budget is now 79 days late. Way to go, Albany.

Filed under: medical malpratice, No Fault | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

To Whom, What and Why are We All Texting?

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Lina Maini

A teen, mom or banker  texting on his/her ubiquitous cell phone is a common site anywhere in the United States.   It’s now a global trend.

Mobile phone use has exploded in the last seven years, according to a U.N report.

The number of global subscriptions quadrupled from around 1 billion in 2002 to 4.1billion at the end of last year.

The sudden surge in uptake of mobile phones is most marked in developing  countries where they are now an invaluable tool among the world’s poor.

In Africa 28 per cent of the population now has a mobile phone, compared to just two per cent in 2000.

An Indian lady

A customer visits a mobile phone shop in Mumbai, India.

Developing countries account for two-thirds of phone use, compared to less than half in 2002.

Money transfer services which allow people without bank accounts to send money by text message is believed to be one of the main reasons for the sudden increase in take-up.

Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace from  1 billion to 1.27 billion over the same period, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Internet use has more than doubled with one in five (23 per cent) using the Internet last year. However, poor countries still lag far behind on Internet access, with only one in 20 people in Africa going online in 2007.

Despite offering the fastest Internet connection, fixed broadband makes up only 20 per cent of connections in developed countries and five per cent  in developing ones.

The 106-page report ranked Sweden as the most advanced in using information and communications technology. They were followed by South Korea and Denmark. The UK came 10th ahead of the U.S, France, Germany and Japan.

Myanmar bucked the trend of growing internet use. The Southeast Asian country saw internet bandwidth drop 90 per cent during the five-year period.

Myanmar’s military government has cracked down on Internet use by dissident groups, temporarily shutting down international connections and jailing bloggers.

graph

The United Kingdom was ranked 10th most advanced country in using information and communications technology. It was judged on criteria including infrastructure, broadband coverage and literacy levels

As per research conducted by Access Systems Americas and Amplitude Research, buyers of new cell phones look at video capability (33%), music (34%), accessing the Internet (61%), email capabilities (63%), camera (67%), and text messaging (73%) as the most important features that they look for.

Interesting insights from the survey:

  • 62 percent said they would use Bluetooth while 51 percent will use the hands-free microphone to comply with restrictions when driving
  • 39 percent said they have added new applications to their cell phones.
  • 41 percent said they send or check emails one to five times a day while 28 percent said they do not use their cell phones for email
  • 40 percent said they use their cell phones for traffic, weather, and stock market alerts
  • 30 percent said they use their cell phones for banking transactions

Related Site of the Week:   For parents of teens, we researched and located an excellent Teen Chat Decoder.  (It’s named just that!)   OMG and T+ but you should definitely keep your child away from that P.W.H.A.  Input any text abbreviation you wish to decode and the answer is before you in microseconds.  Combine  TCD  with the  Urban Dictionary and you should soon be able to decipher any text speak!

BNI Operatives: Street smart; web savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Filed under: cell phone, General Information, texting | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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