Many people contact me about saving their home from foreclosure. For some people, it is kinder to tell them the truth: If their home is currently under water financially, and will soon be under water physically, then you don’t want to be in the house when it’s time to swim, unless you are a fish.
For example, a lady contacted me from south Florida about using a land patent to fight her foreclosure. For example, let’s say that, about six or seven years ago, her house was worth $150,000, so she borrowed $135,000. Let’s say that now her house is worth $85,000 and projected to lose more value in the near future. When a person owes more for a property than the property is worth, this means that the property is financially under water. Some people, whose income is stable and who have perfect credit, decide that it is better to walk away from one property and purchase another one because the “under-water” debt makes their mortgage or rent “too damn high”. Like the song goes in “The Gambler”, you’ve got to know when to walk away and know when to RUN!
Add to this problem that scientists are predicting particularly strong solar storms in 2012-2013.
This is what scientists ARE saying. What are they NOT saying?
* If a solar flare can knock out satellites and fry electrical grids, would a communications and electrical blackout be the BEGINNING of our problems? What if the radiation from the solar flares also melts the polar ice caps?
* If the polar ice caps melt, the oceans can flood worldwide. Coastal communities would be most at risk. Indeed, FEMA has already mapped how coastal flooding could overflow Manhattan so much that Wall Street would be under water.
A depiction of the 100-year flood zone in Lower Manhattan shows landmarks and infrastructure that could be frequently flooded in the future unless they are protected. (Graphic: Applied Science Associates Inc.; Sources: Google/Sanborn).
I therefore told the lady from Florida that her South Florida home was in a flood zone and could be under water physically, as well as financially, in the next couple of years. I advised her that, rather than devoting her precious resources to a court fight that will keep her in the South Florida home, she should spend 2011 relocating to a safer place, more inland from the ocean coasts.
If you are in a high rise or near a coast, please take the advice that I gave the woman from South Florida. At particular risk are places like:
* New York City (all five boroughs)
* New Orleans
* London and all the UK, Scotland, and Ireland
* Italian peninsula
* Florida peninsula
* Atlantic and Pacific coastal states
* Hawaii
* Australia
* Japan
* Philippines
* Pacific Islands
* Caribbean Islands
The purpose of this blog is to not promote panic, but to encourage emergency preparedness and early warning. Please heed the warning. During a fierce solar storm, if communications systems and electrical power are knocked out, there may not be any other warning given. Better to relocate now than evacuate later!
For more information, please download the free e-booklet, “Sun-Kissed”, by clicking the “Add to Cart” button below.
Please forgive me, folks. I’ve been preoccupied with helping a paying client save their property, so much so that I didn’t know my domain name “www.mylandpatent.com” had expired until it was too late to buy it back. Now a company in Israel owns that name. Ironic, because land patents are an American legal document, not Israeli.
Neither did I know that this domain, “justice4homeowners.com” wasn’t mapping to my Preventing Foreclosure blog. I corrected the problem today.
I’m letting go of some of my foreclosure prevention websites to focus on a bigger problem: The SECRET that banks and the government do not want you to know is that the sun’s cycle of solar storms is due to become unusually active in 2012 and 2013. What does that have to do with you? Everything!
Imagine if major solar flares knock out satellite communications so that there is no Internet, cell phones, TV, GPS navigation, etc. Even if that knock out only lasts hours or days, then imagine if the solar flares produce such a power surge that transformers are blown out. The result is a blackout that can last longer than hours or days. The blackout can last for months or years!
America is SO dependent on electricity:
* It runs our computers. How would we be able to perform financial transactions? How would Social Security, pay checks, welfare, and food stamps be direct deposited? Credit cards would become worthless. There could be runs on the banks to withdraw cash, but how would tellers know how much money to give each customer without electricity and communication systems? Without money, how could you go to retailers and buy emergency supplies? There could be riots, looting, panic, and mayhem!
* If people aren’t able to get paid, would first responders come to work? Right now, so many cities, like Detroit, are near bankrupt that first responders, such as police, fire, and EMS, are overwhelmed. What will happen during a natural disaster?
* Medical records are more computerized, meaning that pharmacists may not be able to fill prescriptions for chronic illnesses. Indeed, how would hospitals be able to treat patients after backup generators run out of fuel.
* It cleans and pumps our water and sewage. Imagine being unable to flush a toilet, take a shower, or have access to water from fire hydrants.
* It pumps the gasoline that fuels our cars, buses, airplanes, and subways. Having a bicycle will be very important! Would we go back to horse and buggy days? In fact, a power surge can blow up gas pipelines, causing fires and explosions that will be more difficult to extinguish when a blackout limits access to water.
* People living in high rises, particularly senior citizens and the disabled, could be stranded if they are unable to walk flights of stairs.
* All the electric toys that people purchased at “bargain” prices may soon be paperweights. How will we keep our kids entertained without a Wii, TV, or X-box?
If banks and Fortune 500 businesses know that a natural disaster, the cost of which would be 20 times more devastating that Hurricane Katrina, is coming to a power grid near you, would they hire a lot of people that they aren’t sure how they’ll be able to pay? Consequently, even though the Great Recession is “officially” over for Wall Street, unemployment is still sky high. A secret is that it is unlikely to go down much.
Ultimately, saving single family homes and small for-profit or non-profit businesses will save people’s lives, but when money becomes worthless, land becomes more valuable. Hence, there is the foreclosure crisis! The bank wants your land, not a modification of your mortgage. For more info, please watch the video below:
I’m not a solar scientist. I just have a law degree. I am giving you a legal perspective of the impact the solar storms can have upon your life. I decided to focus on how to save lives. I will be writing more about this over the coming days. However, to obtain a copy of the free e-booklet mentioned on the video, “Sun-Kissed”, please click button below.
I say that we won as best as homeowners can in Detroit because the institutional bias of Detroit judges is in favor of the banks and against distressed homeowners. If you fall upon hard times, as many people in Michigan have, and become unable to pay your mortgage, the courts treat the homeowners as if we caused the Recession/Depression. Distressed homeowners are blood-sucking leeches upon society but the banks are good, noble, and the “white knights”. The “white knights” always tell the truth and distressed homeowners forge documents. In fact, my attorney was admonished for interrupting the bank’s attorney as if my attorney was the bully.
Let me begin by stating that Trott and Trott changed attorneys on my case. I can’t say with certainty that my case alone caused Trott to fire or “accept the resignation” of Gregory MacKay (P62030). Instead, I will say that the Trott foreclosure mill, along with Gregory MacKay, made at least one glaring mistake that could deserve scrutiny by the Michigan Bar.
The sheriff deeds that are signed by county sheriff designates are composed by attorneys for the foreclosing mortgage company. For example, John T. Harrison (P67841), of Trott & Trott, drafted the sheriff deed and affidavit of auctioneer for the sheriff sale of our house on August 29, 2007. (See page 4 of the sheriff deed on link http://www.scribd.com/doc/34406528/Sheriff-Deed-Dated-August-29-2007.) Both the sheriff deed and the affidavit of auctioneer are notarized and sworn to be true. However, both documents contain a misrepresentation, that the auctioneer, Sterling Harrison, is a deputy sheriff. I submit that a deputy sheriff is statutorily different from a special deputy sheriff, and that the affidavit fails to disclose that the auctioneer’s true job title is that of special deputy. I submit that the appointment of the deputy sheriff should be attached to the sheriff deed instead of an affidavit which may contain misrepresentations.
If the appointment had been attached instead of the affidavit of auctioneer, then the appointment could be examined to see whether it comports with the statute MCL 51.70. It would then be obvious to everyone, including Trott & Trott, that Sterling Harrison’s special deputy appointment was signed by the chief undersheriff rather than by the sheriff. In addition, although the appointment was notarized and filed in 2006, it was effective for the year ending December 31, 2008. Our sheriff sale was in 2007. Obviously, this means that Sterling Harrison was not properly appointed as a special deputy, and if he wasn’t a special deputy, then he was merely a civilian employee. (See the link http://www.scribd.com/doc/34406530/Special-Deputy-Appointment-for-Sterling-Harrison for a copy of the special deputy appointment.) MCL 600.3216 lists that only sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and others specifically designated in the mortgage may auction the foreclosed property. My mortgage didn’t specify that civilian clerks employed by the county sheriff could conduct sheriff sales, so the sheriff deed signed by such a clerk is invalid.
When Judge Ziolkowski compared the special deputy appointment to the sheriff deed, he accused us of forging the appointment. After all, the appointment was so ridiculous, when compared to the sheriff deed, that an “objective” observer like a judge, would have no choice but to rule in the homeowner’s favor. Thank God Judge Ziolkowski’s judicial assistant, Lori, came in to assure him that ours was not a forgery case. Even the new Trott attorney, Michelle Clark, conceded that, to the best of her knowledge, the appointment was authentic.
Rule 3.3 of the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct forbid attorneys from making knowing misrepresentations. This rules states:
Rule 3.3 Candor Toward the Tribunal.
(a) A lawyer shall not knowingly:
(1) make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal;
(2) fail to disclose a material fact to a tribunal when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by the client;
(3) fail to disclose to a tribunal controlling legal authority in the jurisdiction known to the lawyer to be directly adverse to the position of the client and not disclosed by opposing counsel; or
(4) offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer has offered material evidence and comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures.
(b) The duties stated in paragraph (a) continue to the conclusion of the proceeding, and apply even if compliance requires disclosure of information otherwise protected by Rule 1.6.
(c) A lawyer may refuse to offer evidence that the lawyer reasonably believes is false.
(d) In an ex parte proceeding, a lawyer shall inform the tribunal of all material facts that are known to the lawyer and that will enable the tribunal to make an informed decision, whether or not the facts are adverse.
Let’s give Trott & Trott the benefit of the doubt and say that the law firm didn’t know that the auctioneers for the sheriff’s office were special deputies rather than deputy sheriffs. Let’s say that they never checked, never asked, and just assumed that the sheriff’s office contained other white knights with impeccable reputations for always being good, noble, and following the letter and spirit of the law. Let’s assume that the law firm is not part of a massive conspiracy to re-gentrify Detroit, make distressed homeowners homeless, deprive people of the relative freedom and financial security of property ownership, create a feudal class of tenants, etc. Never mind that other counties, like Oakland and Macomb, are also improperly appointing special deputies to conduct sheriff sales. Let’s assume this is all one big “honest mistake”. The court rules give homeowners a year to discover the mistake. The trial court rendered a Possession Judgment on March 23, 2009. We pointed out the invalid sheriff deed, due to the defective special deputy appointment, on January 4, 2010. Thus, by January 4, 2010, Trott & Trott’s attorneys were put on notice about their misrepresentations. Whether or not the specific attorney, Greg MacKay, left the law firm, any attorney from the firm taking over the case should be able to read the file. If the Trott attorney then continues to try to evict us from our house based upon an invalid sheriff, I say that the Trott attorney is making a knowing misrepresentation that violates Michigan ethics and commits fraud upon the courts.
Good news for all you “sports fans”: The “honest mistake” in my case could serve as notice for yours, too. That’s why I posted the links to my documents. Use them. Get your sheriff deed. See who was the auctioneer. Go to your county’s clerk and request the appointment of the auctioneer by the sheriff.
In Macomb, the clerk’s office couldn’t find Suzanne Meli’s appointment but I know of at least one sheriff sale on which she was the “deputy sheriff”.
In Oakland, the deputy clerks, at first, couldn’t find Thomas Rabette’s special deputy appointment by Sheriff Mike Bouchard (who is running for Governor of Michigan) to conduct sheriff sales. The next day after my visit to the Oakland County Clerk, Ruth Johnson, a church filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Oakland County for the invalid sheriff deed issued from their foreclosure. Suddenly, mysteriously, the special appointment for Thomas Rabette to conduct sheriff sales conveniently appeared. However, one thing Wayne County’s Clerk, Cathy Garrett, does is date stamp when documents are filed. Oakland County’s clerk doesn’t date-stamp when documents are filed, so we don’t know when Bouchard decided to file the appointment. For all we know, the notary back-dated it to 2009 to cover the dates of church’s foreclosure so the county and the sheriff couldn’t be sued. I am afraid that more underhanded tricks would take place if Bouchard becomes Governor. Indeed, the supposed special deputy appointment of the auctioneer for Oakland County, Thomas Rabette, states that he’s not even an employee of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office but is an employee of a a private corporation, American Process Service Inc. This means that Oakland County has gone a step further than Wayne County: Rather than using civilian employees to conduct sheriff sale, the Oakland County Sheriff outsourced a sheriff duty to Attorney Thomas Rabette (P25018). Is that what MCL 600.3216 intended? I think not.
Ultimately, the goal of exposing the invalid sheriff deals, defective special deputy appointments, knowing misrepresentations by bank attorneys, civil rights violations of counties, and fraud upon the courts is to put banks in the mood to negotiate modifications for mortgages. Heretofore, banks have behaved like oppressive rulers holding all the cards to intimidate homeowners into surrendering their homes. However, more and more homeowners are not being intimidated. We are standing up for our property ownership rights. Homeowners are adopting my theme song. It is an old Negro spiritual or civil rights anthem, “We Shall Not Be Moved”, sung beautifully by Mavis Staples.
Going through foreclosure is a stressful time. You’ll get advice from many places. Some will tell you to try unconventional legal strategies and swear that it worked for their cousin or someone over the Internet. However, I challenge those proposing these ideas by asking them to prove it by showing me the court order. If Cousin Pooki was able to use a bonded promissory note or UCC-1 to stop a foreclosure, then she should have a court order, a mortgage modification, clear title recorded in the Register of Deeds, or some sort of paper trail. No job is finished until the paperwork is done.
Stop wasting your time and/or money. Get some advice from a reputable source. Contact me today!
Your help is urgently needed to preserve the appeal that shows the Wayne County sheriff deeds are invalid. The evidence is undisputed but the appeals court will refuse to hear the appeal on the merits unless $1000 is placed in court escrow in less than a week. Please donate $10 or more immediately! Donations can be made via PayPal to the email foreclosureprevention@mylandpatent.com. You may also donate through Twitter’s TwitPay @motownbelleand please retweet.
I finally figured out the code to make “Turning Lemons Into Lemonade”FREE Again! Thanks to all who tolerated the $2 charge. Definitely, the material in the book is worth far more than $2, which is why I’m making it FREE so everyone can afford the information. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Click “Add to Cart” in order to download the FREE e-book, “Turning Lemons Into Lemonade”.
(Detroit, Michigan, UNITED STATES) December 3, 2009 – Thelma Belle is an 82 year old senior citizen who has lived in her house for nearly 37 years. Twice, she became the victim of predatory lending and mortgage fraud. Twice, she lost her Detroit home to foreclosure. Sheriff sales were conducted in 2002 and 2007, but the Belles are asking a federal judge to invalidate the sheriff deeds.
Michigan law requires that a sheriff, undersheriff, or deputy sheriff conduct a sheriff sale. Wayne County, like virtually every other Michigan county, permits “special deputies” to conduct sheriff sales, even though the Michigan statutes do not list special deputies among those authorized to conduct sheriff sales. In addition, other Michigan laws require that the sheriff appoint the deputies and special deputies, that these appointments be in writing, and that the appointments be filed and recorded with the county clerk.
The “special deputy” who conducted the 2007 sheriff sale of Thelma Belle’s property had a written appointment on file with the Wayne County Clerk, but that appointment was not signed by the Wayne County Sheriff and it did not cover the correct dates. The “special deputy” who conducted the 2002 sheriff sale had a written appointment but that appointment did not contain the Wayne County Clerk’s file stamp, it did not cover the correct dates, and was thus signed by a person who was not sheriff for the time period covered by the appointment.
If the special deputies were not properly appointed, then they must be considered merely civilian employees of the Wayne County Sheriff. Because Michigan’s non-judicial foreclosure law does not permit civilian employees to conduct sheriff sales or sign sheriff deeds, some courts have set aside the Wayne County sheriff deeds as invalid. This is precisely what Thelma Belle and her daughter Anita Belle are asking federal Judge Julian A. Cook to do in their Eastern District Court of Michigan case, Belle & Belle v. First Franklin et al, 08-cv-11465.
“My mother never really lost the house in 2007, because the 2007 Wayne County sheriff deed is invalid,” says Anita Belle. “But that doesn’t mean that Wayne County can get its act together and the mortgage company simply foreclose all over again. It means that we can go back even further and look at the sheriff sale in 2002. She never really lost title to the property then either, so every transfer of her property since 2002 has a cloud or defect on the title. Ultimately, the invalid sheriff sales mean that my mother should now own her house free and clear.”
In a hearing on December 8, 2009 at 9 a.m., the Belles will ask Judge Cook to allow them to amend their complaint so that they may sue Wayne County for violating their civil rights by conducting the sheriff sales illegally. The Belles’ case is similar to the class action lawsuit initiated by local attorney Paul Nicoletti who is also suing Wayne County for violating civil rights by issuing invalid sheriff deeds. Both cases promise to be landmark precedents that seek to bail out Michigan homeowners threatened with homelessness due to unemployment woes and lenders’ unwillingness to modify mortgages.
The Detroit Free Press has recently estimated that, during the past three years alone, more than 65,000 people have been foreclosed upon in Wayne County. Belle estimates that thousands more have been illegally foreclosed upon because Wayne County has been issuing invalid sheriff deeds for almost 10 years.
“Nowadays, public sentiment looks down upon judicial activism,” says Anita Belle. “However, the executive and legislative branches of government have created stimulus packages that benefit Wall Street. The news media declares the economy is recovering, but the stock market gains haven’t improved the job market. The courts, the judicial branch of government, can do the right thing. The courts can accept a settlement that gives a stimulus package to Main Street, this time to Wayne County homeowners who’ve been foreclosed. There are thousands of vacant properties in Detroit. If Wayne County can’t afford to adequately compensate all the homeowners they’ve wrongfully deprived of their property rights, if the people can’t get their original homes back, then why not correct the wrong by letting the people have the vacant houses? Why not have Wayne County help with renovating those vacant houses? My vision is to empower people by putting them back in those vacant properties. It’s a win-win for the people and the beleaguered county, cities, and local school boards because homeowners generate property taxes, reduce crime, stabilize neighborhoods, and increase property values.”
For more information about the Belle’s federal case or the Nicoletti class action lawsuit, visit http://www.justice4homeowners.com or contact Anita Belle at 313-736-5505.
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Sometimes your body is sent pain to symbolize the pain others are feeling. For the past few days, I’ve endured intense pain from a tooth that needs a root canal. The dentist said I had an infection, so she prescribed antibiotics and pain killers. Who’d thunk that something so little, a tooth, could pack such a powerful punch!
The same can be said for Michigan’s foreclosure system. It is infected. It needs a root canal.
Michigan has a nonjudicial foreclosure procedure that allows mortgage lenders to foreclose by simply advertising in a newspaper of general circulation. This newspaper is usually something like the Detroit Legal News. Although the Michigan statutes outline the precise steps by which lenders may foreclose, when lenders violate those rules, Michigan courts let the banks get away with “murder”, which in this case means they can deviate from the statutes and take your home with impunity. This is the infection that is devastating Michigan’s neighborhoods with abandoned, bank-owned properties. The “joke” in Detroit is that if the bank evicts the homeowner on Wednesday, the property will be vandalized, stripped of any copper, and even the kitchen sink will be gone by the weekend.
Everyone’s deviating from the statutes, meaning that it’s the OK Corral in Michigan. There is no respect for the law, which explains why there is so much lawlessness here. Even the sheriffs are deviating. The Michigan statutes plainly state that, in a foreclosure by advertisement, this type of foreclosure results in a sheriff sale. The statute requires that the sheriff sale be conducted by a sheriff, undersheriff, or a deputy sheriff. However, virtually every Michigan county uses “special deputies” to conduct sheriff sales. My question is: The title “special deputy” has been in existence in Michigan since the 1800s. The foreclosure by advertisement statutes were enacted in the 1960s. If the Michigan Legislature intended for “special deputies” to conduct sheriff sales, then why didn’t they specify such in the statute? It seems to me that since the statutes didn’t specify that special deputies may conduct sheriff sales, then the sheriff deeds signed by special deputies are void.
But let’s take the lawlessness to another standard of deviation. Wayne County is the county that contains Detroit, Michigan’s largest city and the place experiencing the most foreclosures. The Michigan statutes plainly say that sheriffs must appoint or depute the undersheriff, deputy sheriffs, and even special deputies. However, in Wayne County, Michigan, the undersheriff signs the appointment of the special deputies who conduct the sheriff sales! Again, 110 state legislators, 38 state senators, and a Governor who signs a law are all ignored: If this group of 149 people, presumably intelligent people (I think the Governor even has a law degree, considering she was attorney general before being elected governor), meant that undersheriffs could appoint special deputies, wouldn’t they have said so?
Because the Legislature and Governor didn’t say that undersheriffs can appoint special deputies to conduct sheriff sales, doesn’t this mean that the sheriff sales in Wayne County, Michigan are void? So far, two judges think so. These judges have thus set precedents for other judges to follow. Finally, a bailout for Main Street! This is a root canal! I’m using the legal strategy of setting aside the sheriff sale in my mother’s foreclosure cases, with the goal of negotiating a settlement with the lender.
For more information about setting aside Michigan sheriff sales, please contact me at 313-736-5505 or place your comment below.
I am pleased to announce that I was finally able to get the link to work for the e-book “Turning Lemons Into Lemonade”. However, one concession I had to make to get the link to operate was to set it up so that it comes through PayPal. This means that I was forced to create a nominal charge for the e-book in order to cover PayPal’s processing fees. Feel free to save the e-book and distribute it, just don’t edit it.
May we all be blessed with success in saving our homes, praying and singing according to the old Negro spiritual “We Shall Not Be Moved”.
I am Anita E. Belle, an activist, author, and personal branding coach. My website, http://www.anitabelle.info, is in limbo. I’m not a techy person. The website had a free ebook, Turning Lemons Into Lemonade, that was available for download, but I can’t figure out how to make it download from my server. I tried contacting tech support, but decided instead to post the ebook in this blog.
Please feel free to leave comments about the ebook.
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