New York’s largest foreclosure firm, which once handled thousands of cases in the Lower Hudson Valley, will officially close Monday, but it has left a trail of questions and frustrated property owners caught in legal limbo.
The Steven J. Baum PC law firm, based in Amherst, N.Y., originally was retained for more than 600 foreclosure cases that remain active in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. In all, Baum’s firm has handled more than 4,000 cases in the three-county region since 1999, court records show.
But last year, the firm announced its official closing, scheduled for Feb. 20, after it came under scrutiny from state and federal agencies for “robo-signing,” or mass producing foreclosure
documents without verifying whether they were accurate.
“The problems Baum’s firm left this state with are just beginning,” said Susan Chana Lask, a Manhattan attorney. “The new firms taking over his files need to take time to figure out and correct what he did.”
That means homeowners face longer delays and could owe more money in accrued interest, penalties or fines while their cases drag through an already overburdened state and federal court system.
“This is a real problem,” said Derek Tarson, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Rockland. “I’ve really noticed it at the foreclosure settlement conferences where I have clients who show up but there’s no representative from the bank.”
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