Assistance can be found for borrowers who have claims against their lenders for violating the Truth in Lending Act and other laws governing loan transactions. Such violations are a possible defense against a home foreclosure. Should there be a violation, you may be able to invalidate the mortgage and apply all of your mortgage payments toward the principal. You could also be entitled to repayment of financial damages. Look for more factual foreclosure information at http://www.loan-modification-masters.com.
If you say yes to any of the questions that follow, you should arrange for a professional auditor to review your mortgage papers (include demand & collection letters, correspondence, and all account histories or monthly statements).
1. Has your loan been refinanced more than necessary? Was the most recent refinancing within the previous 3 years? A routine unethical practice is “flipping,” which is defined as repeatedly refinancing a mortgage without an advantage for the borrower, for the purpose of profiting from high origination charges, closing costs, points along with other costs, steadily eating away at the borrower’s equity in his or her home.
2. Did you have an increase rather than lowering of your interest rate upon refinancing?
3. Are you paying an interest rate over 9.5%?
4. Was the loan obtained to pay for a home improvement project that was not done right or even at all?
5. Have you had problems with the mortgage company regarding late posting of monthly payments? Unannounced raises in payments? Have they tacked on fees to the balance for insurance, “property preservation,” or other “advances”? Does your principal balance never seem to go down?
6. Were you charged unreasonable closing costs on the loan?
7. Did the mortgage company change the terms of your contract to your detriment just before the closing?
8. Did the lender pay money to your mortgage broker? (look on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement to see if there is a “premium” or POC (paid out of closing) “YSP” or “yield spread premium”)?
9. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, are the adjustments done wrong? Can you even tell if the adjustments were correct or not?
10. Is there a prepayment penalty as part of the loan?
11. Has correspondence with the mortgage company gone ignored? (Mortgage companies have a legal responsibility to respond to complaints and requests for explanations of accounts. Sometimes they do not. Every instance may entitle you up to $2,000. In a situation where your claim against the mortgage company out numbers the number of monthly payments you allegedly missed, the mortgage company will possibly not be capable of proving that you are in default.)
12. Have each of the collection letters sent to you by debt collectors follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? You may receive as much as $1,000 and more if they did not.
13. Did you receive a duplicate of the mortgage documents at the closing? That would be as opposed to them being mailed to you later, or did the closing representative provide you signed copies at all?
14. Where did the closing occur, at your residence, in a different city or by mail?
There is a frequent misconception that banks do not desire to foreclose and handle real estate. While not all lenders are scavengers by nature, there are a number that are. Actually there are a rising number of predators that purchase bad debts, which includes mortgage loans, for a fraction of their value and try to enforce them. Entities such as these profit by foreclosure.
The good news is that there are legal foreclosure programs that will help those who have been victimized by predatory lenders. You will find an excellent one at Loan-Modification-Masters.com. They offer a no cost evaluation to find out if you qualify for a loan modification and a 100 percent money back guarantee that they can get you a loan modification making your payments fit your budget better.
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