by Admin: Paula Hodges on May 2, 2013
The stories abound:
In Clawson, Mich., Nancy Cox returned home to find her possessions in the front yard, smashed with a sledgehammer, and a chalk drawing of a clown face on her garage with the tagline, “another job well done.”
Mortgage servicers are very concerned about the status of your property when you fall behind in your monthly payments. They want to know if you still live in the home. In order to validate whether or not the home is occupied, servicers contract with a third party company to contact you for verification. Safeguard Properties, prominent in the industry, contracts with many lenders to provide these services. Bank of America is a recent Safeguard client.
For the last several years, Safeguard has been sending small green postcards requesting the homeowner to call a toll-free number (800-515-0922) to verify occupancy. If you receive one of these cards, you should call the number to verify you live in the home. (If you don’t want to reveal your home or cell phone, then find a way to call from another phone. Unbeknownst to most, you CANNOT block caller ID when you phone a toll-free number.) The Safeguard rep will ask you to verify your phone number and email address. Just say no. Verifying you live in the home is all that is required. Jot down on the card whom you spoke with, the date and time, then file the card away.
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23 Legal Defenses To Foreclosure: How To Beat The Bank
by Admin: Paula Hodges on April 29, 2013
In case you missed the news amongst all the hyperbole going on with the foreclosure nightmares, not long ago our Federal regulators concluded a $9.3 billion settlement with 13 of the largest mortgage banks for rampant robo-signing violations. Allegedly, the independent foreclosure review settlement was supposed to compensate homeowners for the following fraud and abuse by mortgage servicers:
- Deficient mortgage servicing and processing
- Improper fees
- Wrongful denial of modification, and
- Robo-signing – (the practice of assigning bank employees to rapidly approve numerous foreclosures with only cursory glances at the glut of paperwork to determine if all the documents are in order)
By the way, robo-signing is still alive and well. Rules and regulations and courts and judges can’t stop these mortgage monsters. THEY HAVE BEEN SET FREE & ARE IMMUNE. Read this Huff Post article. According to Richard Zombeck in this article, mortgage servicer behavior is “more blatant and brazen than ever.”
What was our Government thinking when they put this “review” deal together? Don’t believe for a moment that they WEREN’T thinking. Any time someone puts the foxes in charge of the hen house, they know exactly what they are doing. If the government thought you had committed major fraud, what do you think the odds are they would allow you to hire your own team to investigate yourself to see if you really did commit the fraud? ZERO CHANCE.
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23 Legal Defenses To Foreclosure: How To Beat The Bank
by Admin: Paula Hodges on April 21, 2013
Who here believes the Obama administration created HAMP with its primary objective being to save homeowners from foreclosure and help them get a more affordable mortgage payment? Not me. Same for many others. Call it conspiracy theory if you like, but facts are facts.
Before HAMP came into being, the country was expecting a barrage of foreclosures by lenders and servicers in every state. The widespread belief by Obama’s staff was that a monsoon of foreclosures would tank the economy for certain and that it would take eons for us to recover. Obama wanted to prevent that from happening. But take note. Their goal was not to stop foreclosures per se. Instead, their aim was to stop the SUDDEN MASS FILING of foreclosures. In other words, the government needed to SLOW DOWN the pace of foreclosures to benefit the banks and the overall economy.
Did HAMP meet that goal? Sure did.
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23 Legal Defenses To Foreclosure: How To Beat The Bank
by Admin: Paula Hodges on April 15, 2013
For those that have an FHA loan and have been let down by NJ Homekeeper, be aware that the criteria for qualification under HAMP for FHA has been heavily revised to permit many more homeowners to qualify for a loan mod.
It’s not simple at all trying to figure out if a homeowner qualifies so don’t trust your servicer to do the right thing. Servicers are famous for doing everything wrong – if they do anything at all. These changes will no doubt rub them the wrong way since it will delay what they so want to do – foreclose and kick you out. Expect more delays with New Jersey foreclosures and other states for those with FHA loans.
Here are three of the most critical changes:
- The prior back-end max debt ratio of 55% has been eliminated. There is no maximum back end.
- The 12 month max delinquency has been eliminated. You can be 36 months behind or more so long as you meet other criteria.
- FHA-HAMP can now combine a loan mod with a Partial Claim. (If you don’t know what a Partial Claim is, then see the links below or visit the HUD website.)
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23 Legal Defenses To Foreclosure: How To Beat The Bank
by Admin: Paula Hodges on March 19, 2013
Still, as of this very day, there are numerous complaints and posts online about homeowners experiencing unfathomable delays in getting a response to their Homekeeper (Hardest Hit Fund) applications from New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), the program administrator. After 2 years of managing Homekeeper, NJHMFA still can’t get the job done. There is no excuse for this. Little has changed since last year when NJHMFA was averaging 244 days to process Homekeeper applications.
Last week, I read a post on Facebook where a guy said he has been waiting 5 months for a response to his Homekeeper appeal. He said all they have done is make continuous calls asking for information, but no one there seems to understand what is going on. Sort of reminds of you the games lenders play with loan modifications.
Need we ask the question again as to why this is happening? Perhaps. However, the many answers remain the same: [Click here to read full post. Sorry, comments are closed…]
23 Legal Defenses To Foreclosure: How To Beat The Bank
by Admin: Paula Hodges on February 13, 2013
As mentioned in a prior post, somehow New Jersey Homekeeper will be accepting applications from distressed homeowners who are neither unemployed nor underemployed.
Commissioner Constable of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs said recently that:
“….they will be expanding the program even further, branching out beyond the unemployed and underemployed to include those in “fiscal distress.”
“Whether it’s relating to unemployment, or maybe you went through a divorce or medical bills have piled up and it’s impacting on your ability to pay a mortgage you’re eligible for the Homekeeper program.”
“So we want to make sure that we marry those folks that were Sandy displaced with the Homekeeper program so after the storm and the rebuilding they don’t have to worry about losing their home as well.” [Click here to read full post. Sorry, comments are closed…]
23 Legal Defenses To Foreclosure: How To Beat The Bank
