Bundled Mortgages and Dubious Fees Complicate Foreclosure Cases

When Ohioans head to the polls Tuesday to vote in one of the nation’s most scrutinized presidential primaries, Mark and Gina Wellman of Circleville, Ohio, will be watching another vote — what buyers are bidding for the house they built themselves when it goes on the sheriff’s auction block.

The auction is scheduled, even though the lender forcing the sale was not the owner of the note underlying the mortgage when the lender began foreclosure proceedings in 2002.

The Wellmans may lose their home even though their accountant testified to the court in 2006 that the lender had levied improper charges on the borrower of about $40,000, or almost 13 percent of what the bank said the Wellmans owed at the time.

Every home foreclosure is different, of course. But the Wellmans’ case shows the uphill battle facing many troubled borrowers who believe that they are losing their homes for questionable reasons, like onerous fees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/business/04auction.html?th&emc=th