Already fragile US financial firms are facing a raft of law suits and potential fines after three major mortgage lenders admitted to mishandling thousands of home foreclosures.
Major mortgage lenders Bank of American, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC have in recent days announced they were suspending tens of thousands of foreclosure processes across the country due to apparent improper handling of documents.
Attorney generals in six states are already investigating claims by borrowers that lenders have committed errors in the foreclosure documentations.
Foreclosures have evolved into a massive industry since the start of the economic crunch as Americans faced massive debts, with the number of mortgage defaults soaring from an annual average of one percent before 2008 to 10 percent today.
In 2010, more than three million foreclosures were expected to take place in the United States, figures show.
Documentation problems "are in all probability" likely to exist in 80 percent of them, according to Richard Kessler, an attorney that heads a company dealing with foreclosures.
The influx of hundreds of thousands of foreclosures led lendinginstitutions to employ people who processed the paperwork as quickly as possible in order to put the property on the market in what has become known as "robo-signing".
"This is a case of someone being understaffed cutting corners and trying to get the work down. I didn't see this story as a malicious attempt against borrowers," said Michael Moskowitz, CEO of Equity Now, a Manhattan-based mortgage lender.
Most of the foreclosures are expected to remain in place once the lending institutions re-examine the myriad of cases, even though the process may take years, said Kessler.
"This is something that in all likelihood may also result in disciplinary proceedings and fines but it will not stop the foreclosures because the money is still owed."
But still, the reviews were likely to reveal serious documentation flaws in several cases, which will place the lenders under heavy pressure and risk of big lawsuits from people whose homes have already been foreclosed.
"The likelihood is that people currently facing foreclosure have a better chance to negotiate some kind of compromise with the lender" that will prevent foreclosure, Kessler said.
"There is a potential for class action liability in the United States for billions and billions of dollars on behalf of homeowners who lost their homes in proceedings where lenders used these kinds of phony documents."
Even without massive lawsuits, the suspension was bound to damage the already fragile financial market andhousing industry, Moskowitz said.
"It is going to encourage people who are in default already to drag it out. In most of the cases it means they will have to start the process again, even though actually speaking, they defaulted," he said.
"This isn't healthy for the market. It is unhealthy for the real estate market because the values are artificially high because all the foreclosures are not on the market yet.
"It is bad for the finance market because the lenders can't get their money for years. The losses for the banks will be much bigger."
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