Vancouver Condo Info

An anonymous reader posted this link in the weekends free-for-all post: Wells Fargo bank is suing itself in Florida court over a mortgage foreclosure case.

In this particular case, Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium, according to Sarasota, Fla., attorney Dan McKillop, who represents the condo owner.

As holder of the first, Wells Fargo is suing all other lien holders, including the holder of the second, which is itself.

“The primary reason is to clear title and ownership interest in a property to prepare it for sale,” Waetke said in an email exchange. “So it really is not Wells Fargo vs. Wells Fargo.”

Yet court documents clearly label “Wells Fargo Bank NA” as the plaintiff and “Wells Fargo Bank NA” as a defendant.

Wells Fargo hired Florida Default Law Group., P.L., of Tampa, Fla., to file the lawsuit against itself.

And then Wells Fargo hired another Tampa law firm — Kass, Shuler, Solomon, Spector, Foyle & Singer P.A. — to defend itself against its own lawsuit, according to court documents.

Wells Fargo’s defense lawyers even filed an answer to their client’s own complaint.

“Defendant admits that it is the owner and holder of a mortgage encumbering the subject real property,” the answer reads. “All other allegations of the complaint are denied.”

This is even dumber than the lending practices that led to this foreclosure mess, yet this is what the court record says. I learned about this from “The Consumer Warning Network” Web site, which posted an article by Angie Moreschi titled, “Have The Banks Gone Crazy?”

“We’ve apparently reached the perfect storm for complete and utter idiocy by some banks trying to foreclose on homes,” Moreschi wrote.

McKillop, the condo owner’s attorney, told me he thinks Wells Fargo doesn’t know what it’s doing, and that its lawyers figure it is all billable hours to them.

It’s time for our end of the week news round-up and open topic economic news discussion!  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-BC Housing starts leap up from record lows
-Vancouver 2nd quarter resale house prices up -barely
-RBC: Housing in BC becoming more affordable
-Homeless make camp after Granville shelter closure
-BC Post razor-thin surplus
-Budget officer predicts 100,000 job losses this summer
-CIBC Predicts return of bulls after summer
-RBC sues former Calgary employee for inflating RE values
-Canadian exporters still hurting
-Rambling thoughts on Canadian house prices
-US markets may return to normal in 2012
-Why not to expect second half recovery

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

Mish Shedlock has an interesting post comparing the alarming jump in Canadian credit delinquency to the situation in the US.  More than 500,000 Canadians are now at least 90 days behind on credit payments, hitting a delinquency rate of 1.52% (compared to a US rate of 1.32%).

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has Dynamic Maps of Bank Card and Mortgage Delinquencies in the United States that some may wish to consider.

In regards to mortgages, Canada has some “catching down” to do, and it will. All the bubble areas such as Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, etc are going to get hit hard.

Hat-tip to Adrian for the link.

Here’s a nightmare scenario: You bought a presales contract for a condo in Vancouver but delays in construction made you change your mind.  No problem! Just sell your contract for a profit, and then the buyer resells the contract for yet another profit! But wait – the third buyer defaults, the second buyer defaults, and the developer is suddenly coming after you for a contract you thought you got out of a long time ago.

Apparently it can happen.

Attention Presales Buyers: If you are unable to complete your transaction of sale, or have assigned your agreement to another party who has not completed the transaction, gather your contracts and documents and make an appointment to meet your lawyer.

Presales agreements are contractual obligations with a developer, where you, the buyer, are compelled to purchase the unit when it is complete, at the fixed conditions in the agreement.

This is not a sales agreement. It binds the rights and obligations of the potential buyer and the developer to the conditions of the contract.

If you have transferred your presales agreement to another party, you may very likely have an obligation to the developer if the assigned buyer defaults.

Full story at househunting, and a tip of the hat to Bubble Lad for the link.

It’s Friday!  Let’s do our end of the week news round up and open-topic discussion.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-Vancouver house market jumps in June
-Americans now saving more than Canadians
-First time buyers can handle rates up to 4%
-Canadians falling behind on credit payments
-Province headline still says Van prices up 16%
-Housing recovery expected to be tepid
-Recession about to hit BC businesses?
-US Jobless rate hits 26 year high
-Manhattan home prices plunge
-California runs out of money
-Air Canada union threatens olympic strike
-Canadian jobless benefits below average
-Wealth in stocks, not real estate, key to consumer spending

So what are you seeing out there?  Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

Remember all that talk about how Canadian Banks were the envy of the world?  Well it turns out to be maybe not so true, at least according to a ranking by The Banker magazine.  No Canadian bank made it into the top 30 banks in the world in terms of capitol strength.  Our friends at CIBC did however manage to make the list of banks with the worst losses, coming in at number 15.

The bank posted losses of C$1.46-billion and C$1.1-billion in the first two quarters of 2008 alone as CIBC took the brunt of the U.S. credit crunch.

The bank did come in 71st in the overall rankings, down two spots from last year.

Still, CIBC’s losses pale in comparison with the mammoth US$59.3-billion shortfall suffered by the Royal Bank of Scotland that landed it the dubious honour of top spot on the list.

Rounding out the top three is a pair of American banks, with Citigroup down US$53-billion and Wells Fargo & Co. close behind at US$47.8-billion.

Well, you know what they say: Flaherty will get you nowhere.