Yesterday’s announcement that Nevada joined 48 other states in a $25 billion settlement with the nation’s five largest residential mortgage services is certain to impact Nevadans but it could take as long as three years to find out just how many homeowners will be helped.
Nevada may be leading the fight to bring banks to task for their role in the current mortgage crisis. However, since so many people do not fully understand the facts, this fight will probably be hard fought until more people and states come on board. There has been so much bank chicanery it seems just as one problem is dealt with, eight more come to light. Many states that haven’t been as hard-hit by the mortgage crisis either don’t have the resources or the inclination to get as deeply involved as Nevada. To date, Nevada is the only state to file a criminal prosecution against anyone related to a bank for foreclosures. Furthermore Nevada is only one of two states to file complaints against Bank of America and the only state to file against Lender Processing Services. Las Vegas has benefited from excellent reporting on the mortgage crisis as well with Channel 8 I-Team George Knapp and Colleen McCarty’s report, Desert Underwater, which has distilled so much information and detail down to the root causes of the problems. So while Nevada may be leading the charge to right the wrongs of the mortgage industry, the biggest relief can only come once more people and states get educated on what can and should be done. They might do well to learn from Nevada and its efforts.
Improper foreclosure practices are so widespread in Las Vegas that one reporter trying to expose them instead found he too was a victim of foreclosure fraud. Las Vegas foreclosure attorney Tisha Black told Knapp that nine out of 10 foreclosure filings aren’t done properly, jeopardizing the ownership status of the house in the future.
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Click here to listen to the Legal Hour on KDWN AM720 from November 16th, 2011 in which Managing Partner, Tisha Black Chernine, Esq., discusses her contribution to Channel 8′s Desert Underwater series and talks with Chief Investigative Reporter, George Knapp, about the effects of the Real Estate crisis on the Las Vegas valley. Assemblyman Marcus L. Conklin also makes a guest appearance to talk about the government’s role in Real Estate and the new legislation that seeks to restore the foreclosure process such as AB 284 and AB 273. (22:15)
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One of the most insightful reports about the mortgage crisis gripping the nation, and especially Nevada, took an unexpected twist of irony when the leading reporter for the series found out that he himself was a victim of mortgage fraud. Channel 8 News Now has been airing “Desert Underwater” for the past two weeks with Chief Investigative Reporter, George Knapp. According to an article from Poynter, during an interview with Black & LoBello’s Managing Partner, Tisha Black Chernine, Esq., Knapp discovered that the foreclosed home he had bought had “some kind of problem with…chain of title.”
To read the full article, click here.
The foreclosure crisis has several causes, but government investigators now believe that high risk gambling by major banks is mostly to blame for the economic meltdown. Millions of Americans who played by the rules and paid their bills have lost their homes because banks and their service providers cranked out mountains of bogus mortgage documents.
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Watch Tisha Black Chernine, Esq., Managing Partner of Black & LoBello on the Channel 8 week-long special titled, “Desert Underwater” at 5 PM and 11 PM. Las Vegas, used to decades of continuous building and growth, is now in the middle of an unprecedented housing crisis. With unemployment over 13 percent and thousands of homes underwater and going into foreclosure every month, Southern Nevadans are wondering how we can possibly find our way out of the worst economic predicament in the state’s history.
Watch a preview here.