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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Couple's Hellish Mortgage Marks Need for
Centralized Record System
-Daily
Business Review (12/28/00)
By Julie Kay
Review Staff Writer
Bob and Cheryl Balcom though they were putting a $95,000 down
on their dream house. Instead, they bought the biggest nightmare of their lives.
It was, as they soon learned, the mortgage from hell.
When the family went to refinance their Fort Lauderdale house
in 1997 two years after buying it, they were floored to learn that their mortgage
had been sold -- to a parade of different lending companies. All wanted payment
in full.
It took more than three years for the Balcoms' attorney, Roy
Oppenheim, two judges, and a private mediator to unravel what had happened.
"It was hell," says Bob Balcom, a pilot with American
Airlines. "I was held hostage by my mortgage company. The title company told
me they had never seen anything like this before."
Their case sheds light on a loophole in the mortgage industry
that can enable an unscrupulous person to assign the same mortgage to several
lenders, one the industry how seeks to close by setting up a central electronic
database to track who holds what mortgages.
The Balcoms' saga began in 1995, when they bought the $430,000
house on Bayview Drive in Fort Lauderdale. They borrowed nearly $335,000 from
SC Funding Corp., a mortgage broker with which Bob Balcom's credit union put him
in touch. (SC Funding is now defunct and has been named in a lawsuit brought by
California investors who accuse it an several related companies of promoting a
$23 million Ponzi scheme.)
Two years later, when the Balcoms went to refinance the house,
they were shocked to learn that their mortgage had been sold to two different
lending institutions. The title company said it would not refinance the house
until both mortgage companies were paid and the title cleared.
According to Oppenheim, a bank employee used counterfeit
papers to fraudulently sell the mortgage and note to at least two banks. At least
12 other homeowners around the country also were victimized.
Oppenheim, whose Weston law firm handles 500 to 600 mortgages
a year, said he'd never seen anything like this. "This couple really got
the shaft." he said.
To complicate matters further, the Balcoms began to receive letters
from several banks, each asserting that their mortgage was the authentic one.
Ultimately, their credit report showed they owed $330,000 to as
many of four mortgage companies. "It seemed like every bank in the country
was after us." Balcom said.
[Click for Page 2]
# # #
Oppenheim is a partner in the firm, along with his wife Ellen Pilelsky. Oppenheim
& Pilelsky, the oldest law firm in Weston, is a general practice concentrating
in real estate, litigation and business related matters. The law firm of Oppenheim
& Pilelsky is located at: 1290 Weston Road, Suite 300, Weston, FL 33326 (954)
384-6114.
/Contact: Julie Silver or Christine Manna at Boardroom Communications, 954-370-8999,
for Oppenheim & Pilelsky.
/Contact:
Julie Silver or Christine Manna at Boardroom Communications, 954-370-8999,
for Oppenheim Pilelsky.
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