Doubts over foreclosures embolden some to move back in

Recklessness and potential fraud have thrown so many home-foreclosure documents into doubt that some people are taking matters into their own hands.

In some cases, lawyers are advising clients who lose their houses to move back in - even if the home already belongs to someone else.

"The foreclosure and evicting was illegal and void," said Michael Pines, a California lawyer who has told clients it's OK to break into homes and reclaim them. "Therefore the property owners have the right to retake possession."

Sound radical?

Matt Weidner, a St. Petersburg foreclosure defense attorney, said he can see the rationale: If a judge ruled based on faulty documents, reclaiming a home may be legal.

Still, Weidner cautions, it's the wrong thing to do.

Homeowners with grievances need to go back to court, he said, and prove their case. "Yes, there is a category of judgments out there that are so flawed that the homeowner is still legally entitled to the property, regardless of what the judgment says," Weidner said.

"While it may be technically legally true that they have a right to the home, we are a system of laws, and we're talking civil unrest."

Would law enforcement intervene to stop someone from reclaiming a home?

Not necessarily.

Pines began moving clients back into homes they lost this week. He's moved five families in so far and says he has no plans to stop.

The first time, police were called to the home in Simi Valley, California. But they said it was a civil matter and only watched as the family, including nine children, changed the locks and moved their furniture in.

Other move-ins were quiet. But the stunt didn't go over so calmly Wednesday when Pines and one of clients were arrested on charges of trespassing and breaking and entering.

He advises his clients to comply with law enforcement, then go back later and move in. And only to a vacant house.

"Eventually, whoever is calling the police may get sick of it."

Locally, if law enforcement officers receive a trespassing complaint from a lender, they would rely on whatever documents were available.

"If the family has nothing from the court to show that their case was overturned, they may be asked to leave," said Sgt. Tom Nestor, spokesman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. "We have to depend on documentation from the court."

Judges are worried about the implications of the faulty documents, said Thomas McGrady, chief judge of the 6th Judicial Circuit in Pinellas County.

"Some lenders and law firms have put us in a situation where we doubt many of the documents," McGrady said, "but judges have to act on the documents before them, and you can't just stop the system at this point."

Even in cases with improper paperwork, McGrady said, most lenders have a legal right to take back homes. If the process was flawed, and judgments are set aside, the lenders will just start over.

McGrady said attorney Pines is giving homeowners bad advice that could result in criminal charges.

"People have the right to address their grievances in our court system," McGrady said. "As frustrating as that is, and as disappointed as we are with our lenders, we just can't condone this kind of behavior."

Several major lenders nationwide recently halted foreclosure proceedings after learning employees were signing documents without reading them.

The Florida Attorney General's Office is investigating whether four law firms working with lenders have faked and forged documents.

The Attorney General's Office last week released a sworn statement by a former paralegal with one of the firms, Law Offices of David J. Stern, describing systematic forgery in the firm's Broward County office.

Jeffrey Tew, a lawyer representing Stern, said the fired employee was disgruntled and the allegations aren't true.

No matter how they go about it, if homeowners use the growing doubt over foreclosure documents in an effort to get their homes back, it will be chaotic, said Weidner, the St. Petersburg lawyer.

"I absolutely think some homeowners who bought foreclosed homes could be faced with the former owners trying to take them back," Weidner said. "It's could be a mess."