Have you been able to accumulate money in your bank account because you stopped paying your mortgage to get your lender’s attention? Some people I’ve come across recently have been told to give that money to friends or relatives. I’m told that consumers are being informed that the money can then be left off of [...]
Posts under ‘Legal issues’
How Could HAMP be Better?
The Home Affordable Modification Program (a.k.a. HAMP) may be doing some good for a handful of people. But, if there is something that everyone agrees with, it is that the program needs some changes.
Alys Cohen and Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center released a list of recommendations on July 6th that recommends greater [...]
Mortgage Modification: What’s the Hold-Up?
Borrowers have reportedly been on the phone for a countless number of hours waiting to talk to someone about refinancing or modifying their home loans. So, what’s the hold-up?
Have the banks not staffed their modification programs with enough people? Are they simply using the Obama Administration’s plan as some kind of collection tactic to squeeze [...]
Incentives We Have: Motivation We NEED!
Yesterday the Obama Administration released the names of 6 mortgage companies participating in its Making Home Affordable. Today it was announced that the number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24%. While the Administration’s plan provides incentives to those involved in a refinance, modification, short sale or deed in lieu, it has to be clear to the American public that the plan is worth little absent a real motivating factor.
Modifying the Mortgage
The “Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2009” (the Act) will allow a Bankruptcy judge to modify the existing mortgage. Although the details of how this will work will need to be ironed out after the bill passes, the basic concepts are not alien to bankruptcy judges or lawyers.
For years the courts [...]
Who’s eligible to modify mortgage in 13 under new law
While we wait, watch, and write Congress about amendments to bankruptcy law to enable judicial modification of home mortgages, I take comfort that those with Chapter 13 cases pending when the change becomes effective will be covered by the new provisions.
Often, a change in the law applies only to cases filed after the law becomes [...]
Holder, holder, who’s the holder?
The current version of H.R. 200 requires that a borrower attempt to negotiate a modification with “the holder of the claim” before they are eligible to propose a modification through Chapter 13. Chip Parker points out that who holds the claim is a big unknown.
Presently in bankruptcy court, servicers who bring motions for relief [...]