Earth First Living: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Two Sides of the Same Coin

The foundation upon which Earth First Construction was founded is a statement which reads: “We will not change current reality by applying bandaid solutions or by fighting the existing system. In order for things to change, we must build a new system that makes the old one obsolete.”

The Earth First Construction webbook lays out the plan and a possible execution to achieve just this. There is the description of a new world which would work for all life and also the instructions for how to get there. In my own life I follow those instructions faithfully. I take impeccable care of my own body and now, for the past year and a half my focus has been on turning my property, "Earth First Farm", into an urban organic self-sustainable farm. We are at the point of finalizing the first step of our vision, which is to become independent in terms of water, energy and food. We intend to have the ground ready to begin planting this spring, having upgraded our greywater system. We have located water for a well, are at the point of installing the solar and building the blackwater system. Our vision is to do this as a community project, to be a showcase of sustainability to inspire and assist others to become more resourceful as well.

The webbook ends with another quote: “Expending energy trying to fix the existing system is like seeking to help the caterpillar while the butterfly is trying to be born.” What I now realize is that the butterfly is well on its way to birth. The current caterpillar system is totally dysfunctional. What is required is to assist that caterpillar into its obsolescence. This is what we are intending to do by standing up to the big six banks.

My intention is to chronicle the work we are doing on a weekly basis to assist the butterfly (build Earth First Farm) while simultaneously documenting the steps we are taking to enable the caterpillar (existing financial and political system) to meet its demise.

I am continuing with my work of creating Earth First Farm, even as this foreclosure action looms over my head. This property is my business and my life.

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Background History Leading Up to the Foreclosure Action

I met my husband in 1978 in the Canadian Arctic, where he had started a small charter airline a decade earlier. During the next 14 years we grew that business into the largest regional passenger and charter airline in the Arctic, and together had three chidren. We became very wealthy and acquired several homes and related material possessions. The children and I headquartered out of Santa Barbara where they went to school.

In 1992 I was served with divorce papers, quite unexpectedly. In August 2005 the Santa Barbara court (Judge Anderle) decreed, no reasons given, that I was to have no spousal support. In January 2006 the court in the Canadian Arctic declined to effect a division of our property and left all issues at the status quo. This had the effect of disenfranchising me of access to any property I had brought into the marriage as well as my just share of our acquired assets. I was left with the home I now live in, which I designed and built myself outside of our marriage (financed by a series of mortgages), starting in 1992, after my children and I were evicted from our then Santa Barbara home.

In 2006 this property was subject to a $1,200,000 mortgage. I had (and still have) no income. In June of that year I had a nervous breakdown, brought on by the sheer angst of not knowing how to extricate myself from the financial mess in which I found myself. In July I met a mortgage broker named Robert Waldman, who convinced me to obtain a $2,500,000 mortgage from Washington Mutual. The mortgage documents were signed by me one week after the sudden death of my Mother, at my home, alone with a notary. After the signing, he took all the documents with him, telling me the bank or the title company would forward the finalized documents to me. This mortgage paid off the existing mortgage and gave me the funds to start rebuilding my life. I have slowly but surely been pulling myself up by the bootstraps ever since.

In January of this year, knowing of the acquisition of Washington Mutual by Chase bank and assuming that Chase had taken over the mortgage, I contacted Chase with a proposed loan modification. Chase accepted and cashed each monthly payment I have made under this new agreement. I have a file of monthly letters I wrote accompanying each check and making clear the terms under which each check was written. After Chase had cashed these for six months, I then opened a bank account at Chase bank, informed them I was doing this and granted them permission to withdraw the monthly payment from there. I never missed a payment, nor was I late with a payment. I have no other debt.

In order to reassure myself that opening the bank account was a correct way to go, I went to consult the head broker in Santa Barbara for Chase Home Finance. To prepare myself for that visit, I had searched my own mortgage file and found the only thing it contained was a copy of the closing statement with the title company, Alliance Title. I realized I had never received the promised copies of the mortgage documents I signed almost three years before. I remembered having asked the broker, Mr Waldman about this a few times. He assured me I would receive the documents and not to worry. Eventually I forgot about it. The man from Chase Home Finance and I together called the number on the closing statement for Alliance Title, only to learn that it had gone out of business. Together we called the successor company to Alliance who told us they did not have any knowledge of this mortgage, much less any related documents.

In early October, a man who identified himself as a real estate agent, showed up at my front door. He informed me that a notice of default had been filed on the deed of trust of this property. I asked him to leave and immediately thereafter began researching this with the help of friends. I have discovered that he was correct. The Notice was filed on September 2, 2009.

In mid October, Robert Waldman and I called the phone number listed on the NOD and eventually spoke to someone at Chase bank. We requested of her the loan application, note of mortgage and deed of trust. We were assured that the documents would be mailed out to me the following Friday, October 23, 2009. I have the name of this party, an identifying number and Mr Waldman as witness.

Chase bank did indeed send something to me on that date. I received it the following Thursday. What was enclosed in the envelope, along with a note indicating the documents I requested were enclosed, was an appraisal of my property, done on behalf of COUNTRYWIDE bank, and never used because the mortgage offer I eventually decided to use was with WAMU.

How did Chase bank get ahold of a document done on behalf of another bank with which it supposedly has no relation? Why were some of the checks I wrote Chase endorsed by Bank of America? Why did Chase not send me the documents I requested? I have subsequently learned that possibly the mortgage is not owned by Chase but rather by Bank of America. When I went in mid November to the County Recorder’s Office to obtain all the relevant documents on title, I discovered an Assignment of Deed of Trust, filed at the same time as the NOD, indicating an interest by “Bank of America National Association”.

In mid November I also went to see a real estate lawyer, David Grokenberger. His office tried over several weeks to obtain the same mortgage documents I requested of Chase in October. Chase has still not produced the original promissory note. His office also sent out a letter to the Trustee requesting a voluntary six week stay under the NOD in order for us to review some questionable issues concerning the bank. There has never been a response.

So finally we decided the best way to buy time was for me to pay to reinstate the loan. After trying for three days I finally received a quote to reinstate the mortgage. The second time I called the bank to request the payoff amount, I spoke to “PJ” who, in the course of the telephone conversation, told me in an annoyed voice, that I was not going to repay the money so why was she even giving me the quote. I replied that I intended to pay it that day. Without me asking, she then informed me that a date of December 23 had been set to sell off my property…

I was at that time under the impression that I had by law been given three months from the date of filing of the NOD to reinstate. I now understand that a new law in California, the Foreclosure Prevention Act, gives a further three months, during which time the lender is supposed to negotiate with the borrower. This has, of course, not happened.

On Monday November 30 I went to the local Chase bank branch where I set up the mortgage account and met with the bank manager, Kevin Johnson. He sent the payment via Fedex to the appropriate bank department. However, on December 3, 2009, I discovered pieces of paper taped to my front door; a notice of trustee's sale slated for Dec 23 at 1pm. I felt angry and resentful at this trespass of my property and my life. On December 10 I called the bank manager and requested that he check to see when Chase would order the removal of the NOD from the title. He called me back to say that Chase had indeed received the money, that it had been processed on December 8 and that it would take a few more days before the bank would request to vacate the title. On December 15, I called California Reconveyance, having first noted that the NOD was still on title. “Darlene” informed me that the sale date had been set over until January 26, 2010, in order to allow Chase more time to “locate the money”.

On Saturday morning, December 19, I received a phone call from a woman with a heavy accent who said she was calling from Chase Bank. She proceeded to ask me if I was still residing at the targeted property. I asked her why she needed to know. She then asked for my email address. I declined to give it. She then became quite rude and informed me that I owed the bank $57,000, that I would never pay it and that the bank was going to take my home away from me. I told her I owed the bank nothing and then hung up the phone.

This, on top of discovering the night before that a trustee sale of my home had been published in the local paper, really upset me. How do people who lack my resources survive attacks like these? I was becoming angrier by the day.

On Wednesday December 23 I awoke with the left side of my head completed blocked. I could hear nothing out of that ear. My balance was also affected. That was the day slated for the auction of my home. I decided not to go to the courthouse. Douglas and Jack, armed with legal papers, went in my stead. They were informed by the auctioneer that the sale had been “cancelled”. However the NOD and the notice of trustee sale were still listed on title that afternoon.

At 9:25 Christmas Eve morning the phone rang and a heavily accented man identified himself as calling from Chase bank as a debt collector. I hung up the phone. I told myself I could handle this intrusion but I found myself becoming more and more upset.

The good news is that I received a phone call back from Joe Holland, the County Assessor and Recorder. Unfortunately my loss of hearing prevented me from returning his call. I am excited to speak with him about all this and hopefully enlisting the County’s support in Douglas’ and my action against Chase bank. It is possible that the Recorder has not been doing due dilligence before recording certain documents on title. This is one way we as a community could protect our own citizens. I am also thinking that it is time to amend that California law making this a non judicial state in terms of foreclosures. Sales could still be registered by trustees, but foreclosures should have to be done through the judicial system, especially given that the “trustees” are not acting in a fiduciary capacity but rather as employees of the bank.

On December 24 a Recission of Declaration of Default was filed with the Recorder. I have not received an accounting for the $52,000+ I paid to Chase without prejudice.

I have started receiving increasing harrasssing phone calls from Chase, for example, twice each on December 30 and 31, 2009 and January 2, 2010 and on every day since then including Sundays.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Two Sides of the Same Coin

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Background History Leading Up to the Foreclosure Action