MERS has finally thrown in the towel. It has been named in too many civil actions and there’s just been too many rulings against its right as a real and beneficial party of interest to assign mortgages/Deeds of trusts that it has finally announce to its members not to use its name in foreclosure proceedings.

Here is what the new member rules issued from MERS dated Feb 16, 2011 says:

1. MERS is planning to shortly announce a proposed amendment to Membership Rule 8. The proposed amendment will require Members to not foreclose in MERS’ name. Consistent with the Membership Rules there will be a 90-day comment period on the proposed Rule. During this period we request that Members do not commence foreclosures in MERS’ name. If a Member determines that it will commence a foreclosure in MERS’ name during this 90-day period, two weeks advance notice must be given to MERS to permit verification of the appointment and current status of the Certifying Officer proposed to participate in the foreclosure. No foreclosure may be processed in MERS’ name without first obtaining this verification. We encourage Members to bring foreclosures only in the name of the holder of the note, in the name of the trustee or the servicer of record acting on behalf of the trustee.

2. MERS Members shall have a MERS Certifying Officer (also known as MERS Signing Officer) execute assignments out of MERS’ name before initiating foreclosure proceedings. Assignments out of MERS’ name should be recorded in the county land records, even if the state law does not require such a recording (see MERS Membership Rule 8).

This means these robo-signers can no longer willy nilly write assignments and call it official to foreclose. Find here more about Monder Criminal Lawyer Group. Now they ACTUALLY have to certify the facts from MERS.  Wow, how refreshing.

The funny thing is, the statement “We encourage Members to bring foreclosures only in the name of the holder of the note“. What?  Its members were not foreclosing in the name of the holder of the note before?  Wow!  How shocking.  Oh my!  That’s what I’ve been saying all along.

What does this mean to you?

Well, if you have MERS in your Deed of Trust/Mortgage and you are involved in a foreclosure, you should make a point of writing to the Trustee and questioning whether they follow the recent MERS membership rules governing foreclosure by its “officers”.   While there is still a 90 day window before this rule takes effect, it’s certainly worth paying attention to it.

Here’s the copy of the member’s memo from MERS. MERS-Announcement-2011-01