Part of rebuilding New Orleans caused residents often to be challenged with the task of tracing home titles back potentially hundreds of years. With a community rich with history stretching back over two centuries, houses have been passed along through generations of family, sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership. Here’s a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA on behalf of a client: You have to love this lawyer……..
A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral.
The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply.
(Actual reply from FHA): “Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.”
Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:
(Actual response): “Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France in 1803 , the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France , which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain . The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus ‘s expedition. Now the Pope, as I’m sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana . God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our damn loan?”
The loan was immediately approved
From an e-mail passed around by NC Lawyers.
Absolutely, and without a doubt… priceless !
Agree, whit! Russell really brightened my day with this post.
I don’t know if this is the story that prompted this but… if not, as an fyi:
This is a tale of governmental insanity.
Negligence amounting to malfeasant criminality in office.
Dale Atkins and Orleans IT have LOST mortgage and conveyance information and backup for the City.
That is ALL paper has not been retained. And paper after all is what is required by our 200+ year old laws, but never mind that, that would just be doing basic civil duty.
Atkins, a former judge and former favored candidate to replace $Bill Jefferson in Congress (only to be stampeded by Harry lee, Aaaron Broussard and the JP powers that be who brought in Shepherd to siphon votes… (digressing)), has THROWN OUT volunteers and experts who have offered to help.
http://www.wwltv.com/news/Clerk-of-court-Large-gaps-in-more-mortgage-data-recovered-from-computer-crash-107385238.html
This is reminscent of Fight Club’s ending.
Without property records and proof of ownership and conveyances and transactions, whither our society???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxYikbiB0nY
I’m going to tell you a little different story that has to do with “property taxes” in the CESSPOOL called New Orleans. I live at 6034 St. Charles Avenue, between State and Webster Streets. My house, while very “nice”, is only 3200 square feet. Here are my “assessments” since 2006. Multiply $100,000 to approach “market value”: 2006 – $37,190; 2007 – $42,070; 2008 – $78,200; 2009 – $78,200; 2010 – $117, 880. The Assessor’s Office shifted me to another City Hall Office today to obtain the actual tax assessed, but they wouldn’t answer the telephone. My recollection is that my taxes have gone from @ $7,000 in 2006 to @ $18,000 in 2010, while property values are going DOWN, while City services are going DOWN, and while we are on the verge of a DEPRESSION. I really don’t know what to say, except that I’m glad I’m in bankruptcy (such taxes for the “privilege” of living in your own house are CONFISCATORY), and that things may be better in jail, assuming of course that I lose the criminal case against me (If I had intended bodily harm to anyone, THEY WOULD ALREADY BE DEAD!). Could things be worse on the outside? Ashton O’Dwyer.
WHOOPS! Make that “Multiply by $1,000.” AROD.
telemachus,
Probably not that specific story, but certainly something related.
Recall that 50 State Attorney General offices are looking into the robo-signer and various related frauds by the various mortgage servicing companies.
Some of the States in particular are trying to find examples where banks foreclosed on people who were in the process of working out their loan, or had simply been foreclosed on by error. They don’t actually need that to show fraud, but it does make a more compelling story of wrong-doing by the banks.
There was no attached story to it. But I suspect that the robo-signer issue is why NC lawyers are suddenly interested in title proceedures. The originator was a personal e-mail, and I am guessing that they cut and pasted it in to cut down the length of the chain: so I am not sure where it started.
Wait until you hear about Dale Atkins Russell.
Start with the following link.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/11/new_orleans_still_working_to_f.html
Clusterfuck doesn’t begin to describe it.
sop
Actually, the story was on NPR yesterday. Someone in New Orleans was trying to put a positive spin on it.
Amazing that you could even begin to try to put a positive spin on that mess. As SOP points out in another post, Dale Atkins is too busy trying to practice law on the side, again at the public trough, to focus on the clerk of court’s office. That office is a joke. You walk in there and people are filing their fingernails or sitting around shotting the breeze. Sometimes you have to wait for someone to tear themselves away from their personal business to get out of their chair to get you a record.
Then, say what you want about Jon Geggenheimer, and there is plenty to say there, but the guy runs a tight shop at the clerk’s office. He was way ahead of the curve on online records, while Dale was busy practicing law, I guess. Dale Atkins cannot even run the clerk’s office, and to think she wanted to run for a higher office. That’s scary.
IMA this would not be the first time a national media outlet was bamboozled by local politicians. I think Andersen Cooper still has a “dupe” tatooed on his forehead from his oil spill reporting.
There is so much more to this story and even the local media has missed it IMHO. Rest assured we will fill the void in coverage and it won’t be with baby talk.
sop
Sooner or later, falsified property deeds that were recorded after FRAUDULENT FORECLOSURES via DEFUNCT mortgage companies will come to light.
Collusion regarding mortgage and foreclosure frauds involving entities such as these people: federal judges Kurt Englehardt, Lance Africk, Dougla$$ Dodd A.J McNamara, Civil District Court judges Lloyd Medley and Piper Griffin, Clerk of Court Dale Atkins, Sheriff Paul Valteau, Wells Fargo, and Freddie Mac, that is being engaged in by FORECLOSURE MILL LAW FIRMS is a longstanding Louisiana reality!
Some realtors who think that New Orleans Clerk of Court Dale Atkins