MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - prosecutors in the Minneapolis-St. Paul continued a register of mortgages across the country Friday, saying the company and its lenders of Member can cost counties of Minnesota millions of dollars by deliberately failing to register every transfer of mortgage with county offices - avoid paying the required fees.
The trial against based in Virginia Mortgage Electronic Registration Service Inc., or MERS, filed by the public prosecutor in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, but it seeks class-action status for all counties in Minnesota to reach.
Prosecutors have said that seas is a private company created in 1995 to make it easier for lenders to buy and sell mortgages. The company said that it operates a database listing the changes that has interest in mortgage loans. SEAS is composed of about 3,000 members, including lenders and investors.
Prosecutors have said the company and its members did not save each assignment of mortgage, which is the transfer of title from one party to another loan and pay the associated fees. They said that the system works at the expense of the integrity of our public land records.
"We act today to reclaim and preserve the right of the public to property records," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement. "Our counties and taxpayers have suffered significant financial losses due to a system of backdoor to privatize our public registration system, and we intend to recover this loss."
SEAS spokeswoman Janis Smith said in a statement that the claims have no merit. She said that the system is legal in all 50 States and complies with the law of Minnesota.
"All MERS mortgages are recorded in land registers County and all the required fees are paid ', she said.
Prosecutors did not say how much money they believe counties have lost. The trial said registration fees are approximately $46 by mortgage and assignment. Damage is tangible, the trial said, but: "the only variable is the total public money illegally withheld of and / or counties, or a proportional amount deliberately concealed by and therefore unknown to all except the defendants. ''
Prosecutors say it is likely private Sea States and all counties of about 7.2 billion $ at the national level.
Similar lawsuits were filed by local governments throughout the country. Several cases are pending, and at least six have been rejected. At least one case has been solved.
According to the Minnesota lawsuit, several lenders and other members of the seas avoided recording mortgage assignments - and avoid paying - using sea as a placeholder in the public registers. Prosecutors claim seas issued as a single entity which is held in a mortgage, while in fact many mortgage assignments could be made electronically without ever be recorded with the County.
According to a company fact sheet, seas claims that it is the holder of privilege in land registers, each time that transfers occur between members. He said that his registry is not a legal system of registration or replacement of documents relating to public lands. Claims of the seas: "no interest shall be transferred on the system; they are only followed."
Hennepin County Attorney John Freeman said in a news release that the public never agreed on a system in which some pay taxes and some do not, or a system in which some property record information in a public database, while other information is private.
Prosecutors have also said that, because the seas and its members have not registered publicly mortgage assignments, it was difficult for the authorities to identify the lenders who have seized on the properties, and which may be legally responsible for the maintenance of a property.
The prosecution seeks an order requiring the seas save each assignment of mortgage with good County and pay fees. Prosecutors also want to recover the shortfall.
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