Adding to Bank of America’s public relations problems --- and rather embarrassing for management --- is word that the banking giant had the tables turned on it when Florida homeowners dispatched sheriff’s deputies to foreclose on a B of A office to collect fees due, notes Grumpy Editor.
While the unusual switch received some play in the southeast, most national media overlooked the action.
When the bank attempted to foreclose on Warren and Maureen Nyerges’s cash-purchased single-story, 2,700-square-foot home in 2009, the couple spent weeks on the phone and in court before the case was dismissed.
The bank had wrongfully filed foreclosure papers on the Naples home.
A judge ordered the bank to pay $2,500 in attorney fees for the couple’s troubles. After five months and additional phone calls, neither the bank nor its local counsel had paid.
So, with media in tow last Friday morning, the homeowners' attorney, Todd Allen, arrived outside a local B of A branch with deputies, a moving company's truck and the court’s permission to seize branch assets.
“I’m either leaving the building with a whole bunch of furniture, or a check or cash or something,” declared Allen.
The action came amid mounting pressure on big U.S. banks to examine sloppy foreclosure-documentation problems.
Collier County sheriff’s deputies entered the bank and presented the manager with a court writ and the choice of paying the money owed or see removal of computers, desks, copiers, file cabinets and other equipment.
In about an hour, the bank manager handed Allen a check for the legal fees.
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