Judge Lifts Holds On New Jersey Foreclosures
TRENTON, NJ (WCBS 880/AP) - A New Jersey judge has ruled that four major banks can resume uncontested foreclosure actions in the state under court monitoring.
WCBS 880's Levon Putney With The Story
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Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo were among six large lenders targeted by New Jersey's Supreme Court last December.
The high court ordered the banks to produce evidence that their foreclosure practices weren't tainted by irregularities reported around the country.
"The floodgates are now going to open. Foreclosures are going to get filed very rapidly over the next several weeks," New Jersey Citizen Action executive director Phyllis Salowe tells WCBS 880 reporter Levon Putney.
She is also concerned because state cuts to legal services could hamper some distressed homeowners' chances to get counseling.
A report had described instances where employees weren't trained to process foreclosures and signed hundreds of documents a day without checking them for accuracy, a process known as "robo-signing.''
The banks argued the state overstepped its authority and said they had already begun remedial action last fall.
It was not known if a decision on the other two lenders, OneWest and GMAC, would be released Monday.
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