Register of Deeds wants investigation into major mortgage companies : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

GREENSBORO — Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen wants an investigation into a service used by major mortgage companies who may have made false statements to avoid fees that cost the county $1.3 million in lost revenue.

According to Thigpen, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), a system established by mortgage lending heavy hitters like Wells Fargo, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. and Bank of America, has allowed these companies to re-package and sell loans without filing with offices like his to maintain a publicly available chain of ownership. Thigpen said $1.3 million is a "conservative estimate" of what his office may have lost in recording fees since 2005.

Thigpen issued a press release Wednesday in which he said he is conferring with County Attorney Mark Payne, the NC Attorney General and the Secretary of State to see what can be done about recovering these fees and making information on who owns what available to the public at large.

"As register of deeds I have two primary responsibilities in land records," Thigpen wrote in the release. "A sworn durty to protect the chain of title and a fiduciary responsibility to collect recording fees. Quite frankly, MERS has undermined both. Through their own 'private-for-profit' Register of Deeds mortgage tracking office, MERS has created a dangerous centralization of power whose sole purpose is to protect and serve the interests of major banking conglomerates and undermine public recording officers."

The MERS database tracks more than 65 million mortgages for its paid members, largely mortgage lenders who use it in an estimated 60 percent of U.S. mortgages. It has recently been at the center of the controversy over the foreclosure crisis. It has been the subject of civil suits alleging racketeering in its handling of mortgage backed securities and class action lawsuits alleging false statements in its filings. Recent court rulings in Maine, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas have questioned the legal standing of MERS in a number of home foreclosures.

In a Wednesday interview Thigpen said North Carolina law doesn't currently require the reassignment of mortgages to be filed in local register of deeds offices like his. But Thigpen said it has been common practice in Guilford County for 300 years and the creeping privatization of such information keeps the public from being able to see who owns what and follow a clear chain of title.

"Owning property is a foundational principle of our democracy," Thigpen said. "People who buy and sell property should be able to do that and have confidence that as part of living in the United States if America, the people and the laws mean something. Who really owns my property? Who am I really buying property from? For 300 years people have been able to walk into their local register of deeds office and find that out. They should be able to."

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com

java323

March 2, 2011 - 3:11 pm EST

Go get 'em, Jeff!

retiree

March 2, 2011 - 4:41 pm EST

This is all about political posturing in times of budget cuts. A good way to show teh Commissioners that he's on top of things. He even admits in his statement the practice he points out is not against the law. You know a politician is not telling the truth when they open their mouths.

goatjoe

March 2, 2011 - 5:01 pm EST

I've been following MERS and it's such a scheme! The "unjust enrichment" legal argument Thigpen mentions makes sense but you are right it is legal that they can run over homeowners. UNLESS they are making false statements. If so, MERS is soo busted because there are class action suits all over the country.

Waldo Leidecker

March 3, 2011 - 7:07 am EST

So how much money DO you have invested with these larcenous banking institutions? Or are you one of their many highly paid lobbyists out to screw over people that work for a living???

NRay

March 3, 2011 - 8:01 am EST

Retiree:
If MegaBank sent you a foreclosure notice, wouldn't you like to be able to go down to the courthouse and see whether they really hold the paper that gives them the right to foreclose on your house? You cannot do that under the MERS system. And if you don't know the true parties in interest, how do you defend against a wrongful foreclosure? That is Mr. Thigpen's basic point.

m mann

March 3, 2011 - 2:28 pm EST

Yes you can! Pick up the phone and call them.

Yvonne1

March 2, 2011 - 6:58 pm EST

Appalling information. This practice has just come to surface because? No one realized practice was deceiving and shorting Guilford County why? Will mortgage companies settle up $$$ and when? What about property. Does this mean many properties have erroneous owner names? Who's been paying the taxes --- the mortage companies? County employees earn a good living, register of deeds employees are county employees. Where's the leadership in the register of deeds office? Who are the "fingers" pointing towards?

March 2, 2011 - 8:30 pm EST

The finger is pointed straight at WALL STREET my dear! Thigpen is a small potato. I hope he sues them!

scribonz

March 2, 2011 - 10:58 pm EST

Thigpen is apparently right on this. One of MERS goals is to lower the expenses to the banks by circumventing the normal county deed recording process. It may not be illegal but it is bending the law to enrich the banks.
See Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MERS

March 3, 2011 - 2:10 pm EST

The borrower pays the price ultimately.

3610305

March 3, 2011 - 12:30 am EST

Just another example of big business getting something for free. We have let monsters be created with no way to stop them. Why can't we admit that the big corporations are the ones trying to take over this country. They do not want regulations to protect citizens and don't want to pay any taxes. This is the way it will be until something can be done with the lobbying process in Washington. Money talks and it doesn't speak to the middle class.

InventorNC

March 3, 2011 - 4:25 am EST

Pardon? Is this officer not a "registrar"? I thought that a "register" is a compilation or book.

Is this against the law or not? We all need clarification on that minor point.

March 3, 2011 - 7:39 am EST

The office that records land records in North Carolina is "The Register of Deeds".

The holder of a note secured by a deed of trust (mortgage) is not required to record an assignment of that note and its security. But see my comment below.

March 3, 2011 - 7:36 am EST

Anyone who certifies titles to real property has for years cringed whenever he sees "MERS" on a document registered in the office of the Register of Deeds. We don't know who MERS are, or what they are, or what rights and powers they have with regard to property titles. Jeff is right: North Carolina law does not require registration of the "assignments" of mortgage notes (NC law should, but it does not). He is also correct that the national registration system employed by MERS has circumvented the county by county registrations of evidence of land title across the United States for many years now, thereby costing local taxpayers millions and millions of dollars in lost recording fees. And he is right that the existence of MERS obscures just who or what may be the real party in interest in a particular land title. As such, the effect of MERS is contrary to centuries of British and then American law, each of which have long stood for the proposition that in a free society the holders of real estate titles should be easily determinable.

MERS is yet another outgrowth of the "bigger is better" trend in real estate, and in much of the rest of society. The big banks didn't want to be bothered with pesky recordings in the thousands of counties of the United States, so they created a national registry to "hold" their mortgage information. Unfortunately for the scheme, we poor human beings eat, sleep, live and work within those discreet thousands of counties around the country, and have no access to MER's private information. Therefore, as Jeff stated, the true holder of any particular mortgage paper may be unknowable without extensive professional effort (very expensive).

All of this was under the public's radar until the problem of sham foreclosures broke last year. Unfortunately for the banks, but luckily for us human beings living out here in the boonies, away from their shiny, new national database, a foreclosure on our property must be done in the county in which our property lies. When the big banks which claimed they had the right to foreclose began doing so, they realized that there might be no connection between their debt and the property given as security lying in, let's say, Guilford County. That led to the, to put it politely, fudging on some documents regarding the holders of debt.

To any freedom-loving citizen MERS, as now configured is an outrage, philisophically more at home in the Middle Ages than in a free society--unless you aren't interested in who is really controlling the single most important commodity in any society, our land.

Dogwood

March 3, 2011 - 2:21 pm EST

Raleigh needs to hear Jeff Thigpen. Legistative members must understand the many real concerns that occur daily in 100 counties of North Carolina. NC must act to claim back real property. Suffering phony property hege funds and quickies can be eradicated with enough noise from the people of the State of North Carolina. Jeff is a good guy and I support him 100%.

March 3, 2011 - 2:09 pm EST

Give me a break......ANYONE can access MERS information about who owns a loan by simply calling the phone number listed on the Deed of Trust which is public record. You can also access the information online as well. This is all about the money and what you folks don't realize is that the consumer is the one that pays the higher price. MERS can do what the Register of Deeds does for assignments at half the price to consumers!

March 3, 2011 - 2:53 pm EST

Will a thirty year mortgage ( Deed of Trust) phone number with a deed be useless after the first 15 years? There are real problems that cannot be solved with majic Google. Consumers lose more and traders flee more than common homebuyers can realize today.

March 3, 2011 - 9:50 pm EST

M Mann,
So let's see. Let's presume your low-priced registry became the public record. Then, if I wanted to sell you my house, would you be satisfied if I gave you a phone number to call to assure that I indeed owned the house? I doubt you would hand over to me hundreds of thousands of dollars on the basis of a phone call. You do understand that when you call your MERS phone number you get a verbal answer, and receive precisely nothing that is prima facie evidence of a property interest, don't you? That's the whole point. Information recorded in the Register of Deeds office is proof in a conflict (court of law) and your MERS answer is, well, hearsay. Public records are not about maybe; they're about rock solid reliability. Your MERS answers are probably right. The answers in the Register of Deeds' offices is nearly absolutely right. If your property falls outside of your MERS probability, you're in a world of hurt.

March 3, 2011 - 9:55 pm EST

And I nearly forgot,M Mann, a citizen shouldn't be required to have a telephone or a computer to access records about his property. The public record is also about the freest possible access to the public record, as a primary support to a free and open society.

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