Consumer Protection Division orders more than $15,000 in refunds and penalties
(Maryland Attorney General) BALTIMORE, MD -— Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has announced  that the Consumer Protection Division has issued a final order requiring Bay Area Design & Build, Inc. and its principals to refund $10,000 collected from consumers to construct a home in Anne Arundel County and pay a penalty of $3,000.  The Division found the builder and its principals, Gregory Louis Haigis and Robert Scott Huff, violated Maryland’s Custom Home Protection Act by failing to place or maintain money in an escrow account, failing to have a surety bond to protect those deposits and payments and failing to construct the home.

Houston lawyer led investor charge in $8.5 billion Bank of America deal
A Houston lawyer with a small firm won an $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America tied to the 2008 mortgage mess, a deal that could establish a road map for other banks in resolving the nation's stubborn housing crisis. "I think this is one of those rare opportunities for doing good for your client and doing good for the public," said Kathy Patrick, lead attorney for 22 big investors hit by losses from Bank of America and its Countrywide subsidiary. The settlement, announced Wednesday, not only would require Bank of America and/ or Countrywide to pay $8.5 billion to cover investor losses caused by problem mortgages, but it also would force a series of improvements in the way borrowers receive service when they need to reset terms or otherwise work out problems with individual loans — alleviating a source of friction and frustration.

BofA agrees to pay $8.5 billion in mortgage claims
The settlement will contribute to a second-quarter loss of $8.6 billion to $9.1 billion, or 88 cents to 93 cents a share, the bank said in a statement. Bank of America also said it's adding $5.5 billion to a liability reserve for future loan-repurchase demands and will record $6.4 billion in other charges including legal costs and a write-down of mortgage-unit goodwill... Investors, which also include Pacific Investment Management Co. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, demanded in October that Bank of America repurchase home loans that had been packaged into bonds by Countrywide Financial Corp., which it acquired in 2008. The settlement covers 530 mortgage trusts with an original loan balance of $424 billion, the bank said.

Bank Of America 'Significantly Hindered' Federal Investigation, U.S. Official Says
Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank by assets, "significantly hindered" a federal investigation into the firm's faulty foreclosure practices on potentially billions of dollars worth of taxpayer-backed loans, a federal auditor told an Arizona court. The bank withheld key documents and data, prevented investigators from interviewing bank employees... Federal investigators found one bank employee who signed more than 75,000 foreclosure documents over the two-year period. If the employee worked every day during those two years, that amounts to about 103 documents signed per day, or one every five minutes. Another Bank of America employee was found to have signed nearly 47,000 foreclosure documents over the examined period, which amounts to about 64 documents signed per day, or one every seven minutes.

KB Home Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know
Shares of homebuilder KB Homes fell 16% today when it found out its homes and shares were built on quicksand.

Documentary Gives Hot Issue Caffeinated Jolt
“Everybody knows — or thinks they know — the McDonald’s case,” said Susan Saladoff, who put her legal practice aside to direct and produce the film. “But they really don’t know it at all. I didn’t do this to become a filmmaker. I made this movie because I had something to say that needed to be said, and nobody else was saying it, at least to regular folks, to the public.” That message may be getting across. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post, reviewing the film at the Sundance Festival, wrote that it provided “the kind of narrative that sends audiences out of the theater thinking in a brand-new way about something they thought they understood.” ... One of several strands in the film, Ms. Liebeck’s story shows how tort reformers deftly spun her case and others to nudge public opinion and argue for the need to shut down what industry advocates called “jackpot justice.” The film also lays out facts of the case that are rarely heard.  89 related articles

HBO Documentary Films: Summer Series - Hot Coffee (HBO)
HOT COFFEE examines the dangers of so-called “tort reform” and its threat to our civil justice system. Using the now-infamous legal battle over a spilled cup of McDonald’s coffee as a springboard, the film follows four families, including McDonald’s plaintiff Stella Liebeck and KBR/Halliburton plaintiff Jaime Leigh Jones, whose lives have been profoundly affected by their inability to access the courts, and examines the role of corporations and a complicit media in promoting “tort reform.” 89 related articles

New wall for Rivermist
This month, builder and developer Centex completed a new rock-clad retaining wall between the Rivermist and Hills of Rivermist neighborhoods, and the city has started the process of inspecting and issuing certificates of occupancy for most of the 27 homes that have been evacuated and empty since Jan. 24, 2010.

Southborough couple have a $1 million money pit
Ever since they moved into the house at 22A Lovers Lane in 2005, Kathryn and Christian Culley say their long-awaited "dream home" has been nothing but a nightmare. The garage was too small to fit their car. Weeks later, water began flooding the basement. Over time, doors couldn't be shut, and floors started creaking. The Culleys didn't know it, but their house was shifting... During the course of the legal proceedings, builder Gary Cato lost his license, as did two engineers, John Greendale and Carlos Ferreira, who both admitted to stamping plans improperly. After a monthlong trial, a jury awarded the Culleys $1.1 million in damages, an amount that was to be tripled automatically because of the fraud and building code violations... A year later, though, the Culleys haven't seen a cent. They are still looking for resolution.  That's because Middlesex Superior Court Judge Thomas Murtagh threw out the jury's verdict, saying it went "against the weight of the evidence and was likely due to misapprehension, confusion or passion."

Texas HOA demands green grass in a drough
...this HOA, he said, that suggested it, after they found patches of dirt amongst the withered blades in his front yard...SAWS officials say they have yet to see any homeowner deed restrictions that demand homeowners keep their lawns green. And as a public water utility, SAWS has no jurisdiction over HOAs. But the utility is asking all associations to think of brown grass as the new green, at least for now in stage-2 restrictions.

'Hot Coffee:' Facts, Fiction, and Corporate Greed
...did you know that the coffee served to Stella Liebeck was 50 to 60 degrees hotter than what you brew in your coffeemaker at home? That Ms. Liebeck received third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body: the worst burns her treating physician had even seen? That over a ten-year period before Ms. Liebeck was horribly burned more than 700 people reported burns from McDonald's coffee? That McDonald's representatives admitted at trial that its coffee was so hot it was "not fit for consumption" when sold? That the judge who presided over the trial described McDonald's conduct as "callous" and "willful, wanton, and reckless"? Probably not.

Home Builders to Settle Las Vegas Land Dispute
In Securities and Exchange Commission filings Thursday, KB Home reported it would pay from $216 million to $240 million, including fees, to a group of lenders led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Beazer said it would pay from $15.7 million to $17 million, and Toll said it planned to enter into a "cash settlement" of an undisclosed amount.  The settlement plan indicates a conclusion is nearing for a long legal fight in federal courts in Las Vegas over an ambitious land deal that was brought down by the housing crisis. A person familiar with details of the plan said that the total settlement is worth from $330 million to $340 million and that Toll will pay from $30 million to $40 million.

Ousted HOA president demands millions
Former Ventura HOA president Lisa Pfeiffer is at it again. She's filed a multi-million dollar claim against the homeowners association after being ousted from office last year after a News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters investigation. Pfeiffer was forced to resign last November after I reported she had closed all board meetings, spent more than $100,000 to sue several homeowners and then rigged her own re-election.

Mirasol: A chance to rebuild
The Mirasol houses were completed in 2001, and many of the structures were quick to develop major problems... A year after the family bought the house, that vision began to fade, replaced by the appearance of cracks in the walls, a steep slope in the living room floor and doors that wouldn't properly open or close... Today, the three-bedroom house and the Mirasol Homes neighborhood it once advertised stand as a sad paradox. Built in 2001 with $20 million in federal housing funds intended to vault the working poor into homeownership, the West Side development turned into the kind of blighted neighborhood it was supposed to replace.

Bank of America Gets Pad Locked After Homeowner Forecloses On It
Instead of Bank of America foreclosing on some Florida homeowner, the homeowners had sheriff's deputies foreclose on the bank. It started five months ago when Bank of America filed foreclosure papers on the home of a couple, who didn't owe a dime on their home. The couple said they paid cash for the house. The case went to court and the homeowners were able to prove they didn't owe Bank of America anything on the house. The case went to court and the homeowners were able to prove they didn't owe Bank of America anything on the house. In fact, it was proven that the couple never even had a mortgage bill to pay.