Someone/people took out 2-3 mortages on her home in a single month. She is in court trying to fight a fraudulent eviction (her original mortage had been paid off), but is getting the runaround by Citibank and US Bank. Meanwhile, people show up at her home for various reasons -today a crew started digging in her yard saying she had called in a gas leak - she had not!. They tried to intimidate her. We tried the police - no help. A lawyer she hired also was part of the mortage scam. We contact the Attorney General, to no avail. She has no more money for legal services. is there anyone who provides legal services pro bono for the elderly? She lives in NY while I live in another state. I am very worried somethi ng will happen to her (seems someone/people asre after her home). Does anyone know of anything that could help?
imho there are 2 different plans of attack to deal with this. Stuff you can do on her behalf from afar (assuming she wants you to help and you are going to actively try to help her) and then stuff you need to go to NY to do with her. She is likely overwhelmed and frightened.
Stuff to do now from afar (all this is based on you doing this on her behalf and that it is all kum-ba-ya with her and no major family friction if you do):
1.a Letters to the big 3 credit reporting agencies from her stating that "I a victim of identity theft....". You send this as if you are her with her address on the letter.
1.b this will trigger letters from all her credit card companies. She can wait to answer their letters or be proactive and request new cards issued. Personally, I'd suggest to her that she has a couple of cards and close department store ones.
2. Letter to her bank(s) stating again I am a victim of ID theft and asking them to monitor for unusual activity in her account and to contact either her or you, her trusted niece, when that happens.
3. Go onto her county tax assessors site and find her home's address &/or parcel number and get a copy of all the legal filed on it. Most counties have it so you can do all this on-line and it is inexpensive. These are public documents. You need these documents for when you see an attorney and also for...
4. Go through all the legal that you get from the tax assessors site and send letter(s) stating that document # 1245 related to parcel # 678 aka the street address is fraudulent because of identity theft of the property owner to EACH & EVERY person or institution on the legal documents (whether it's a Deed or Trust, Quit Claim, Warranty Deed or whatever the documents are called)
4. The AG's office will move on things only when there is a possible class action involved. So it is good that you send them something in writing anyways. Mortgage fraud is usually an FBI thing rather than a state action because mortgages often involved FHA, HUD or other federal agency or stuff that crosses state lines.
5. But you are better served writing a complaint to her states Commissioner on Banks and Financial Institutions OR it could be called the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations. Each bank involved (Citi, US Bank, etc) gets it's own letter of complaint. Again, mention fraudulent action etc. Again this comes from your aunt and states to contact her or you for follow-up.
6. I'd send a letter to Gov. Cuomo's office.
7. Contact the NY State Coalition on Elder Abuse in Rochester. NY's state clearinghouse on all things elderly. Again your tax $$ at work so use them.
IMPORTANT: all these letters need to be sent via USPO certified mail and with a return receipt card (the green postcard). Each will run about $ 7.00 to mail and you can go on line to track and print out the delivery info. All the letters are written as if she is writing them and from her address. For the return receipt, I'd do the green card Mrs. Jean Smith c/o your name and your address just in case someone is stealing her mail and also you are less likely to lose or misplace it than auntie.The green card is important legally as there will be a signature on it.
7. Mechanic's leins - again you can likely do this on-line to. Most county tax assessor or city safety & permits will have mechanic's liens or unclosed permit information on-line. Sometimes with mortgage fraud, there will be lots of others involved like roofing or renovation companies which place a mechanic's lien on the house for work that was never done but nevertheless has a lien that the homeowner gets stuck with. Nasty, nasty scam. I saw a lot of this after Hurricane katrina when a homeowner under duress would hire one of the many disaster chasers roofing companies - they pull a permit and do the work but they have all your data and signature which they sell to another "repair/renovation/elevation" company which then places a mechanic's lien on the house, then when the homeowner is trying to get a grant or loan they have to pay off the lien.
8. Contact the Agency on Aging in her county. AoA is nationwide and is your tax $$ at work. They should have a list of certified elder care attorneys, see which will see her for a free initial consultation. If there is a law school in her city or a city closely, they will have probono clinics. Schedule appointments with each for the future date when you will be in town
The green cards should take about 2 weeks to come back to you.
Can you take a few days off and go to see her after you get the cards? When you go, schedule a visit with an elder care attorney to get the legal needed to be able to act at her DPOA, MPOA, etc. The above contacts may have names to give you for attorneys who do probono work. If not and she lives in a city or closeby to a city that has a law school, they will have probono clinics.
Whatever the case, you need to take all the documents you've gotten and whatever auntie has and organize them and make copies to leave with the attorney. Being organized will be critical to keeping sanity. Good luck.
Blockshopper is especially good if you are being a sleuth and want to find out other properties that a person owns and sometimes who the Realtor was. This will be helpful if you go to court against whomever scammed your aunt.
it.
Blockshopper is especially good as it links owners names to other properties they "own"
See if you can get a copy of the court reporter records so you can read what has been actually said. Auntie may be confused. They can sometimes be costly if you go to the courthouse to get but sometimes the court reporter company can sell the transcripts to you directly. Most of these are women owned firms and often understanding to your plight.
Out of curiosity, who is the name on the 3 mortgages? Are there 3 separate mortgages or is it one with addendum's on it? have others in her neighborhood been scammed?
You need to get the letter from the DA's office regarding the dismissal of the case and a copy of the dismissal document.
So is this correct, she is going to court on her own??? OMG - no. She needs an attorney, this cannot be done by a layperson.
When the dust settles, think about if she could move closer to you or another family member or into a senior housing situation. Her name and identity is out there and it's very likely that it has been shopped out to other thieves. yep it's totally disgusting.