Ask Your Mortgage Lender: Where’s the Note?

By Rosie Martinez, RN

Chances are, you or someone you know has had trouble with their mortgage.
Whether you are facing foreclosure, have an underwater mortgage, or are just a concerned homeowner, it’s important that you contact your bank and demand to see the original note on your mortgage.
It only takes a few minutes at www.WheresTheNote.com.
A mortgage note is the document you signed when you purchased your home loan. Banks need it to prove that they own the loan and can collect payments from you.
The problem is, banks now buy and sell mortgages up and down Wall Street. The bank you bought your mortgage from two years ago may not be the bank that owns it today. But, in all the shuffle, the mortgage notes often don’t get transferred along with your debt, and it’s now often impossible to figure out who actually owns mortgage notes and therefore has the authority to foreclose on properties.
Recent events have exposed a handful of banks that are throwing families out of their homes even though they don’t have the mortgage note that proves they actually have a legal right to do so. There have been instances of two banks trying to foreclose on the same home, and in at least one case, of a bank trying to foreclose on a house where the homeowner had never even taken out a mortgage with anyone in the first place.
That’s why it’s so important to ask: Where’s the note?
We can’t rely on Wall Street banks to follow basic rules. We have to hold them accountable. At very least, they must provide the mortgage notes.
Rosie Martinez, a retired public health nurse, is involved with the Coalition to Stop Evictions and Foreclosures, a project of SEIU 721’s Latino Caucus, which offers free- and low-cost services and may be able to help SEIU 721 members facing foreclosure. For more information, call 213-494-8314.