Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Home Mortgage Documents Interpreted as Nonrecourse Debt (with Poetic Comments Lifted from Carl Sandburg)

55 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2010

See all articles by John Mixon

John Mixon

University of Houston Law Center

Date Written: November 17, 2010

Abstract

Virtually no home mortgage borrower who has not had (1) extensive professional training, or (2) prior experience as a foreclosed borrower, understands that home mortgages include the potential of a hovering judgment lien for deficiency after foreclosure. This lack of understanding makes any pretense of consent to liability for deficiency after foreclosure pure rationalization. Law acts in complicity with lenders to commit virtual fraud when it imposes this consequence on home buyers without full disclosure and real, intelligent consent.

The language problem is not lack of formalistic disclosure of the terms of the home loan itself. Virtually all home mortgage transactions provide borrowers with disclosure statements that spell out the full terms of their loans. But the consequence of lingering liability after foreclosure, which can be far worse than a misstated interest rate, is not disclosed (and perhaps cannot be disclosed meaningfully) to lay borrowers. Even the standard FNMA/GNMA documents are ambiguous and subject to interpretation as non-recourse obligation. These documents dominate the field, and their uniform covenants apply throughout the United States' mortgage market. This article proposes that they be re-read and interpreted as not imposing recourse liability, thereby eliminating deficiencies after foreclosure for most homeowners.

Keywords: Home mortgages, FNMA mortgage documents, Deficiencies after foreclosure, Nonrecourse interpretation, Mortgage insurers, Subprime loan deficiencies, Negotiable mortgage notes, Mortgagor defenses to deficiency

Suggested Citation

Mixon, John, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Home Mortgage Documents Interpreted as Nonrecourse Debt (with Poetic Comments Lifted from Carl Sandburg) (November 17, 2010). California Western Law Review, Vol. 45, p. 35, 2008, U of Houston Law Center No. 2010-A-38, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1710829

John Mixon (Contact Author)

University of Houston Law Center ( email )

4604 Calhoun Road
4604 Calhoun Road
Houston, TX 77204-6060
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
174
Abstract Views
2,015
Rank
311,080
PlumX Metrics