Should Original Mortgage Documents Be Destroyed?

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Bankruptcy judges in Wilmington, Delaware are faced with this question and they will make the decision today. Two mortgage lenders that were bankrupt would like permission to destroy over 22,000 boxes of mortgage documents.

American Home Mortgage and Mortgage Lenders Network USA are no longer in business, but their trustees in bankruptcy are sitting on thousands of vital documents. American Home Mortgage has 4,100 boxes and Mortgage Lenders network USA has about 18,000 boxes.

In the case of Mortgage Lenders Network USA, it is a question of money. The storage cost for the 18,000 boxes runs $16,000 a month. American Home Mortgage has an issue with the fire marshal. The boxes pose a fire hazard.

I believe that there are other options to destroying these documents. The documents are too important to be shredded or burned. Considering the mortgage mess we are facing everyday, many lawyers for homeowners need these documents to stay intact. The documents can hold the key to winning a case for a homeowner who was fraudulently foreclosed upon. Without the original mortgage documents how do we get to the bottom of illegal evictions and rampant robosigning?

I say keep the documents. Find a couple vacant foreclosed houses and store them there. What would it cost? Three or four thousand dollars a month is cheap when you weigh this against the prospects of thousands of America homeowners losing their homes.

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