Posted on | December 29, 2012 |
This is it, the last call.
Borrowers who believe they suffered financial harm because of errors over foreclosure action taken against them in 2009 and 2010 by any one of 27 banks or mortgage servicers have until Monday, Dec. 31, to submit a form to request a free, independent review of what happened.
If the Independent Foreclosure Review shows missteps, compensation or remediation may be awarded to the borrower in the form of a lump-sum payment, suspension or rescission of a foreclosure, a loan modification or loss mitigation help, correction of credit reports and deficiency records.
Payments can range from $500 to $125,000, plus equity, for the most egregious cases.
Since April 2011 when enforcement actions were taken by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the deadline for eligible borrowers to apply for this review was extended from April 30 to Dec. 31 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve imposed the extensions to encourage as much participation as possible.
More than 4.4 million people had a foreclosure filing over those two years by one of the 27 firms ? 14 banks and 13 of their subsidiaries ? over the two years. Letters were mailed to alert consumers of potential errors due to such tactics as ?robo-signing.?
Yet, only 5 percent of the potential beneficiaries sought a review before the extension was announced.
Critics claimed the letters were too obscure or too technical for consumers to understand; others accused the federal agencies of flying the Independent Foreclosure Review program under the radar to protect banks.
Even now, the number for filers is slim.
As of Dec. 19, a Federal Reserve spokeswoman said there were 405,262 homeowners or former homeowners across the United States who filed for a review.
As of Sept. 27, only 234,323 requests had been made for a review. Of 769,593 California borrowers who could be affected ? 78,222 in Riverside County and 62,643 in San Bernardino County ? only 42,402 requests had been made.
In the two-county region, only 4,343 requests had been made by Riverside County based borrowers and only 3,661 had been made by San Bernardino County based borrowers as of Sept. 27, according to the OCC.
Rose Mayes, executive director of Riverside Fair Housing Council, said she thinks the low response was due to a lack of awareness on the part of homeowners about the review process and a strong view by homeowners who?d lost their homes to move on.
?A lot of people either didn?t know they might be eligible for those funds, or, went on there way and tried to put that behind them.?
Others say they were afraid their request for a review would preclude them from taking other actions related to their foreclosures.
That?s not so: A servicer is not permitted to require a borrower to sign a waiver of the borrower?s ability to pursue claims against the servicer in order to receive compensation under the Independent Foreclosure Review.
So what?s the take-out from this?
There?s still time to apply for this no-cost review: More information, including how to apply online, is available at http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com
The official Independent Foreclosure Review website has produced a bilingual video detailing the program.
Here are some more particulars on the process, and a link offering answers to frequently asked questions:
Borrowers are eligible for an independent foreclosure review if they meet this criteria:
1. The property securing the loan was the borrower?s primary residence.
2. The mortgage was in the foreclosure process ? initiated, pending or completed ? between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2010.
3. The mortgage was serviced by any one of the following: America?s Servicing Co., Aurora Loan Services, BAC Home Loans Servicing, Bank of America, Beneficial, Chase, Citibank, CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, Countrywide, EMC Mortgage Corp., EverBank/EverHome Mortgage, Financial Freedom, GMAC Mortgage, HFC, HSBC, IndyMac Mortgage Services, MetLife Bank, National City Mortgage, PNC Mortgage, Sovereign Bank, SunTrust Mortgage, U.S. Bank, Wachovia Mortgage, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo Bank, Wilshire Credit Corp.
If you previously filed a complaint with these servicers about foreclosures pending during the review period, you may still seek an independent review of your foreclosure. There are no costs associated with being included in the review; the review is a free program. Beware of anyone who wants payment to assist you in connection with the independent foreclosure review or any other foreclosure assistance program.
Letters were mailed out to potentially eligible borrowers in November and December 2011. If you believe you meet the criteria, but did not get a letter, call 888-952-9105 on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) and Monday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (ET)
For more information, and the online link to apply for the review, www.IndependentForeclosureReview.com.
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Source: http://blog.pe.com/real-estate/2012/12/29/real-estate-foreclosure-review-filing-deadline-is-dec-31/
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