Ooopsie!!

This is rich. Bloomberg (02.22.08):

"Joe Lents hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002.

That's when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton, Florida. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents's mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house."

Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish

"Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork."

This may turn into a very big problem for our JollyBankers. "Judges in at least five states have stopped foreclosure proceedings because the banks that pool mortgages into securities and the companies that collect monthly payments haven't been able to prove they own the mortgages."

Proof? What's up with that? A lender's attorney is exasperated. "Requiring banks to produce the paperwork at a foreclosure hearing is a nuisance, said Jeffrey Naimon, a partner in the Washington office of Buckley Kolar LLP."

"'It's a gigantic waste of time,' Naimon said. 'The mortgage may have transferred five, six, eight times. It's possible that you don't have all the pieces of paper, but it was enough to convince the next guy in the chain. There's no true controversy over whether the owner owns the loan.'"

Well then. Shouldn't have a problem proving that, huh Jeff.