Bank of America lifts foreclosure freeze

LOS ANGELES – Bank of America lifted its national foreclosure freeze this week and began taking back some 16,000 properties, starting with homes that were either vacant or did not have owners living in them.

The bank, which is the largest financial institution in the U.S., declared a national freeze on foreclosure sales in October, after it acknowledged it had employed people who legally attested to the accuracy of foreclosure documents without reading them.

But just three weeks into the freeze, Bank of America began resubmitting the legal documents necessary for foreclosure in some 102,000 cases, in the 23 states that require a court order to take back a home – much faster than most analysts had expected in those states.

Until this week, however, it had kept its freeze on foreclosures in place in the 27 so-called non-judicial states – where a court order is not required – which include California.

The bank said in a statement Thursday that it had completed its review and is comfortable resuming its taking back of homes.

Bank of America said it was taking some steps to improve its foreclosure processes, including better training of its workers and its outside counsel, as well as ensuring that the affidavits the bank submitted to courts in the judicial foreclosure states were “reviewed, properly executed and notarized.”