The elderly, the unsophisticated, and non English speakers are a significant part of my clients who need access to mortgage modification in bankruptcy. The Wall Street Journal reported on a number of victims of unscrupulous mortgage brokers, sold loans by means of false representations. The facts all rang true to me.
My two lawyer firm has seen in the past year at least three cases of elderly Hispanic couples with limited or no English and fixed incomes being solicited for interest only, adjustable rate loans. The loan documents signed by the homeowners were all in English, which they couldn’t read if they’d tried. Absent either a lawsuit or a legislative solution, these folks will lose their homes.
It is clear that these cases are not unique; they are part of a pattern of exploitation that went on at the height of the easy money, housing bubble. These are not people who “bought more home than they could afford.” They are victims of crimes that no one seems to care about prosecuting.
So, what do we do as a society about the foreclosure situation? Given the scope of the problem, we need a low cost, broadly available, routinized approach to modifying home loans that will stabilize the housing market, encourage home buying by halting waves of foreclosure, and spreading the pain of the solution between borrowers and lenders.
Thus far, all of the approaches to the mortgage mess have thrown money at the banks, the very folks who made this crisis possible. Evidence is that the tax dollars are not trickling down in any way that keeps families in their homes.
When will the Senate grasp that some new thinking is necessary and allow use of Chapter 13 to address mortgage modification?
I agree with you. As a mortgage loan officer, I can report, that most of my industry does not agree with this. But, the current Obama plan is only assisting mortgages owned by Fannie or Freddie – which leaves a large segment of the population without viable help.
Because the mortgages are sold over and over, and are part of large pools – many times it cannot be determined who owns the mortgage in order to achieve any type of reasonable modification. There is still more that needs to be done before the financial crisis can stabilize.
Thanks, and will encourage everyone to contact their legislatures. Kristen
[...] My colleague Doug Jacobs, whose practice is in California’s Central Valley, has written about his clients who need a mortgage modification. The other pattern I see in the Bay Area is loans fraudulently sold to the elderly and the non English speaking. [...]
What the bankers don’t understand is that these same faces of perfectly functional families that have never been in this situation before are the same faces they made the loans to in the 1st place These are now the faces of america in shock as the bankers say no and the money has dried up. These people are or were productive americans (mainstreet) and now are being ridiculed for wanting to save themselves ( using Bankruptcy to save their homes) because of the bankers own misguided attempt at ruining a banking instituion and our country’s future. Now they want to spend the TARP money to Lobby against SR61 or 1106 to protect themselves instead of using the money for what it was intended for to help Americans or to Stimulate the economy. Shame on Chase BofA Citi Wells fargo the list goes on>>> BEn in Murrieta, CA