Well, thanks to one of my loyal and eternally vigilant readers, Mandelman Matters has learned that California’s 90-day moratorium on foreclosures, which had the potential to be almost meaningless… well, as it turns out is actually much less than meaningless… it’s a sham.

Apparently, almost all of the lenders and servicers who were ostensibly not to be allowed to foreclose on homes during the 90-day period made possible by the moratorium on foreclosures passed by the legislature about a week ago, were able to get exemptions to the moratorium and did so BEFORE the foreclosure moratorium bill even passed the legislature!  The exempted lenders and servicers don’t have to modify or prove they tried to modify a single mortgage before foreclosing on properties in California.  In other words, nothing changed… essentially nothing… nada… not a thing.

Of course, what bothers me about this isn’t that the foreclosure moratorium won’t be effective, or that it won’t accomplish what it was supposed to accomplish… it never had a chance to accomplish much of anything anyway, which is why I chose to make fun of it in my article about how it’s purpose was to allow surfers to spend more time surfing summer breaks.

The point that offends me deeply is that our state government… and by state government I mean you, Arnold, flat out lied to us.  And although I’ve come to expect that from many politicians, I don’t expect it from the Viennese weightlifter who is running things in Sacramento.

So, just so we’re all on the same page here…

Our state government announced that the legislature had passed a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures, saying that it would give people time to obtain loan modifications and the like.  But, they also knew that something like 90% of all lenders and servicers in California had already applied for and received exemptions to the rule, effectively rendering the moratorium moot.

Are you kidding me?  Did you guys really do this?  Unbelievable.  How dare you… Do you have no sense of what people are contending with out here in reality land.  No, it’s all too obvious that you do not.  You should be ashamed.

Here’s the link to the firms that are exempt from the California Foreclosure Moratorium: http://www.corp.ca.gov/FSD/CFP/pdf/ExemptList.pdf