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The report begins, "Saving your home from foreclosure is increasingly a do-it-yourself project. Lawyers are scarce and free legal assistance is overwhelmed in New Mexico, so a community center here is offering an hour long class in how to download the correct forms, decipher the lingo and mount a defense, however tentative and primitive, against a multibillion-dollar bank."

Norma Canales and Saul Valdez attend a do-it-yourself foreclusore workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 02/02/11 (photo: Mark Holm/NYT)

The Do-It-Yourself Foreclosure Fight

By David Streitfeld, The New York Times

03 February 11

Saving your home from foreclosure is increasingly a do-it-yourself project.

Lawyers are scarce and free legal assistance is overwhelmed in New Mexico, so a community center here is offering an hourlong class in how to download the correct forms, decipher the lingo and mount a defense, however tentative and primitive, against a multibillion-dollar bank.

"I don't see success for someone like me who doesn't understand the law," said Skylar Perea, a senior care aide who fell behind on her payments during the eight months she was out of a job. "But it's better than nothing."

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0 # MrBtfsplk 2011-02-04 19:02

Great Idea. There should be places a person could look for help without having to call an attorney...
You Guys could have been helpful, and compiled a list of places one might look for help in their own state.

0 # Bruce Jackson 2011-02-04 20:06

From all I've learned from checking out every foreclosure defense that I have heard of, the best is offering to cure the default upon proof of claim that legal assignment of the note and deed can be clearly demonstrated as required by state law. They will likely give old copies of the note with no endorsements and no proof of assignment. Then you must insist that you want to deal with the true legal creditor that can show the chain of title proving their status. If the loan has been securitized then they most likely have never moved it out of the original lenders name. If they say it belongs to some investment pool, get the name and number of that mortgage backed security. Then find the pooling and servicing agreement to find out when the window opened and closed for adding mortgages to the pool. Then when they try to add it to the pool at the time of foreclosure you can point out that the pooling and servicing agreement does not allow it to be added after the time period specified in the PSA indentures. If they cannot show that they are the creditor or authorized by one who can show they are the creditor, then they have no standing to foreclose. Challenging them usually does require a lawyer to keep you from being beaten by procedural maneuvers. Bankruptcy court is a favorable place to bring this all to light in an adversarial hearing as part of the BK.

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