The Quiet Title option to eminent domain mortgage seizure and bank foreclosure
Quiet Title is a critical term with which every homeowner should become familiar. A quiet title action, brought by an individual homeowner, is possibly the one sensible and legal alternative approach to the City of Richmond’s proposed plan to seize underwater mortgages under eminent domain. Quiet Title is also a potential legal remedy to growing bank foreclosures of underwater mortgages in Richmond, Contra Costa County, California, and the US.
What is Quiet Title?
Facing government seizure on the one hand, and potential foreclosure from predatory financial institutions on the other, individual homeowners are faced with a King Kong v Godzilla no-win situation. Individual homeowners are completely marginalized by powerful corporate interests including cities (Richmond), banks, Wall Street finance, and large national loan servicing agents, who will easily spend tens of millions of dollars to defend their respective claims in court.
A Quiet Title Action is a lawsuit to determine who owns a piece of real estate, and so “quiet” any disputes over the title. Only a homeowner can bring Quiet Title Action against unlawful claims, including from banks, on the lien of a property. An action to Quiet Title gives property owners an opportunity to inexpensively defend themselves, to restore order to their chains of titles caused by the mortgage meltdown, and to render their properties marketable once again, free of third-, fourth-, or fifth-party claims.