[INresponse]

I have heard occasional talk about people contacting their mortgage holder, who is most likely not the financial institution that you received the loan from, and demanding to see the original copy of the loan note. If the currant loan holder can not produce the paperwork they can not force you to pay it back and can not foreclose or damage your credit rating.

Here is one article I was looking at, but it is more related to fighting foreclosures.
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-th...may-be-missing-the-underlying-mortgage-2009-4

Has anyone had first hand experience challenging the financial institution to produce the 'Original Note' for the mortgage? Anyone have info on how to properly do this?

I am planning to refinance, I owe far less than the actual value of the home (even at todays prices), and before I start over with a new payment I want to make sure the people who bought my note, which is on the 4th owner by now, actually can show I owe them money.

 

[jandg]

I'm going to assume you mean Deed of Trust instead of mortgage as DOTs are by far more prevalent (depends on your State). The Deed of Trust Note is usually recorded in the same county as the property and is available to the public. Since recorded documents are usually considered "true copies" they're often (notice my care with "usually", etc.) sufficient for foreclosure purposes. The Deed of Trust, due to its size, itself is usually not recorded and coming up with one (well, the buyer has a copy which he probably won't volunteer) can be tricky.

Where this became an issue is with an outfit named "Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS)" who was supposedly was the successor trustee for about a gazillion DOTs but which a couple of State courts (Kansas is one I think) doesn't have standing to foreclose.

Problem is, if MERs doesn't have standing, who does? As you mentioned, these notes have been partitioned, divided, sold, collateralized, transferred, assigned and assumed to the point where it's become nearly impossible to determine who does have standing. In addition, the $100,000 DOT Note on your house is now represented by something in the neighborhood of $300,000 in paper assets such as derivatives, mortgage backed securities and who knows what else.

Sorry, I digress. If it were me and MERs was the successor trustee, I think it might be worth the fight. I doubt that you will ultimately prevail but you could delay the foreclosure process a long, long time.

 

[INresponse]

Thanks jandg. I will look into some of that helpful info. I am not being forclosed on, and I am not behind or even having problems, I just know my loan was sold a few times and I suspect the people I am paying now probably only have a file with a balance and account number that goes with my name and address. I have paid a bunch of money over 15 years, just trying to see if I have paid enough yet.

 

[chipmunk]

I was thinking you probably have a copy of it with your other paperwork when you bought your house. It may help to ask the company servicing it for a pay off amount. Then run a calculation and compare figures. Since its a pain to do it with a calculator, go to a finance site like yahoo and plug in your numbers, then look down to the bottom to find where you are on your loan say in months. They should be pretty close unless you have made extra payments etc. As bad as banks are, everything I've read on real estate articles about servicers make banks look like a tooth fairy

 

[ex-hunter]

I'm pretty sure the mortgage will be noted on the land title abstract which is public record and recorded at the county courthouse ...

 

[INresponse]

Well, I was right and wrong at the same time. The loan handling was sold, or contracted out to 3 different companies who collected the payment, but our Credit Union still holds the note. We refinanced for 30 years at 5.125%. Not too bad, I think. I will love the $500.00 monthly payment as opposed to the $1700.00 per month we are sending now. The payment includes the loan, insurance and tax payments.