These days, the process of selling a home is hard enough. Now imagine selling one you thought you owned but did not.
That’s what happened to Lily Diaz, a California woman who got two offers on her house, only to find that Wells Fargo had actually foreclosed on the home, according to CBS Los Angeles. Diaz says the foreclosure must have been a mistake because she has paperwork indicating she completed a loan modification with Wells Fargo in January, and has made her monthly payments in full since.
Wells Fargo called Diaz to straighten things out, but the home still can’t be sold until the mix up is settled, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, mistaken foreclosures aren’t a rarity. In fact, the nation’s five biggest lenders agreed in February pay $25 billion in part to settle allegations of robo-signing or foreclosing on homes without fully vetting the paperwork. In addition, the ranks of homeowners that fell victim to mistaken foreclosures were swelling as of 2010, according to an Associated Press report at the time.
The issue has become so widespread that federal regulators unveiled a plan to allow homeowners in foreclosure in 2009 or 2010 to have their foreclosures reviewed to see if there was a mistake, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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The problem didn’t end then. Just earlier this week, it was reported that subcontractors hired by Wells Fargo ransacked one couple’s home after foreclosing on it by mistake. That bank isn’t the only guilty party. Bank of America foreclosed on a Florida couple last year, even though they didn’t even take out a mortgage, according to FoxNews.com.