Bank of America Apologizes for Wrongful Foreclosure Lockout

Bank of America recently apologized to a Fort Worth homeowner for a "coding error" that led them to twice attempt wrongful foreclosure lockouts on a home that it had previously sold at a foreclosure auction.

According to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Freda Snowden's 29 year old son bought a home in September 2009 at a foreclosure auction and moved in a month later. In November, he came home to find that the house was broken into and that someone tried to change the locks. Police reportedly told him that squatters might be trying to enter the house.

Not feeling safe in his own home, he moved out in December and put the house up for sale. Other victims of wrongful foreclosure lockouts have reported similar feelings. But, in February 2010, the house was again broken into and the locks were changed (this is known as a foreclosure lockout).

A few days later, Snowden discovered that it was a Bank of America agent who had re-keyed the locks because of a pending foreclosure on the house by Bank of America. After weeks of trying to clear the problems with Bank of America, officials at the bank acknowledged that they had mistakenly locked out Snowden because the bank's records wrongly showed that the original buyer still owned the property (see related news story here).

Victims of wrongful foreclosure lockouts and seizures have rights. Phillips & Garcia, P.C., a leading law firm in wrongful foreclosure and seizure cases, is now taking cases in any state where there has been a wrongful foreclosure, lockout or trash-out of a borrower's home. Although we are licensed in Massachusetts, we can associate with qualified attorneys in your state.