California Homeowners wrongfully denied HAMP loan modification by Loan Servicers

Loan Modification Attorney Damian Nassiri and his client appear above on KCAL Channel 9 news.

Our Orange County, California foreclosure lawyers are coming into contact with clients on a daily basis who have been on a HAMP trial loan modification plan with lenders such as Chase for up to 12 months or more without being extended the permanent modification.  Alternatively, we see the client denied after making several months payments on the trial plan.  One client made 12 trial plan payments on time and was still denied despite the fact that the client’s financial situation is the same or very similar to what it was when the client was approved for the trial plan.

So in this sense, the lenders are representing to the State that are following HAMP guidelines when in fact they are  just paying lip service with respect to many of the borrowers we see. 

Here are some of the reasons we are hearing for the wrongful loan modification denial.  If this is happening to you, call our loan modification lawyers today at 949-375-4734.  Please, DO NOT call the 800 number at the end of the video – that is an old number.  Please, CALL 949-375-4734 to speak with attorney Damian Nassiri about your loan.   

LOAN MODIFICATION EXCUSE #1: The “Net Present Value” excuse– The trend now is for lenders to approve a borrower for a trial loan mod plan, and then deny the client a permanent modification because they “failed the Net Present Value test”.  However, since nothing has changed with many of the client’s financial situations, we cannot believe the bank would not offer a permanent loan modification when they qualified them for a trial plan.  When we requested the values being used for the NPV test we found that the lender was using incorrect data that did not reflect our client’s true financial profile.  In my estimation, the NPV test should always come back in favor of not foreclosing because a loan modification will almost always result in more money to the lender because the borrower still owes much more than the fair market value, even under a good HAMP modification.

 

Q: Can you get me a loan modification ?

The “homeowner missed a payment” excuse – In addition to the Net Present Value problem, the lenders will often say that the client is being denied for a permanent modification because our client had missed a trial plan payment.  This also is not true and we showed the bank proof by faxing bank statements showing the payments were timely made and checks were cashed by bank.  Then the lender told us that the borrower wouldn’t get a permanent loan modification because the client did not submit all the requested paperwork.  This also is a fabrication because we have faxed them everything they requested and we did this more than once.  We often find the banks lose the faxes we send and they don’t get uploaded into the bank’s system.  For all of these reasons, this client will be filing a lawsuit against Chase for unfair and deceptive business practices.  Our loan modification lawsuits often force the lender to deal with our clients and take a closer look at offering a permanent loan modification.  

 

The “declined for excessive forbearance” excuse – In addition to the above, we also find that banks are improperly denying homeowners for a permanent modification because they fail to defer up to 30% of the unpaid principal balance.  Under HAMP, the servicers are directed to take certain steps that result in a modification payment that is 31% of the borrowers gross monthly income.  One of the steps they are to take is to defer up to 30% of the unpaid principal balance, which results in a lower monthly payment.  Under HAMP, one of our clients needed to defer $50,000 which was only one third of the 30% deferment.  Instead of deferring $30,000, the bank told us the borrower didn’t qualify.  The lender could have deferred up to $150,000 but instead told our borrowers they didn’t qualify.  This client will also be filing a lawsuit for unfair and deceptive business practices. 

If you believe you have been wronfully denied a trial or permanent HAMP loan modification, call our foreclosure lawyers today at 1-949-375-4734 to see if we can help you stop foreclosure and get a loan modification.

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What to Do When Your Servicer Asks You to Re-Verify Income Documentation


Today Lenders are denying loan modifications for all sorts of bogus reasons.   Many loan servicers are denying people loan modifications because the borrowers allegedly have failed to provide income documentation for the lenders to verify the homeowner’s income, which is one of the steps lenders take when evaluating a borrower for a loan modification.

Our Orange County loan modification lawyers have found that many times we must fax our client’s income documentation to the lenders up to 3 or 4 times becasue the lenders lose the documentation and/or claim they they never receive it. 

Another recent trend is for lenders to ask the homeowners to re-verify the income documentation submitted, then to deny the homeowner a permanent loan modification because the income documents could not be verified. 

If you home loan service has asked you to re-verify your income documentation, here are a few steps you can take to make sure your lender is complying with existing laws and guidelines.

1. Ask why they need it.

HAMP only requires that documentation be within 90 days at the time of the servicer receives it. Sup. Dir. 09­07, p.. 2, Sup. Dir. 10-01, p. 2.

• HAMP does not require verified income to be resubmitted before the permanent modification. Sup. Dir. 09-07, p.2. • Property valuation similarly does not need to be updated once obtained. Sup. Dir. 09-07, p. 6

• Servicers are supposed to have procedures in place to “to ensure that borrowers are not required to submit multiple copies of documents.” Sup. Dir. 10-02, p. 4.

• HAMP probably allows for servicers to re-verify income more often if required by the investor. Sup. Dir. 10-01, p.

  1. If the servicer says the investor requires more frequent re-verification, ask them to give you a copy of the PSA or other contract that requires more frequent verification.
  2. Remind the servicer of the timelines established by Sup. Directives 09-07 and 10-01.

• Notification of receipt within 10 business lays of re­ceipt. Sup. Dir. 09-07, p. 7, Sup. Dir. 10-01, p. 2. • Notification of decision or of incomplete submission within 30 calendar days. Sup. Dir. 09-07, p. 7, Sup. Dir. 10-01, p. 3. Any request for information beyond this 30 days is untimely.

  1. If the servicer isn’t complying with those timelines, escalate!

• E-mail escalations@hmpadtnin.com.

• Ask for Ken Hannold if escalations isn’t satisfactory.

If none of these steps work, consider hiring a loan modification lawyer to help you with your loan modification.  Many times our loan modification lawyers are able to sue our client’s lenders in an effort to force the lender to follow existing law and especially HAMP guidelines.  You can also call us at 949-375-4734.

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Example Hardship Letter for Homeowners Seeking a Loan Modification

Many of you have requested an example of one on our loan modification law firm’s hardship letters so you can use it to submit your own loan modification package to your lender.

I am happy to report that I have recently posted the 4 page sample hardship letter on our lawfirm’s website. This is the same form our lawyers use when negotiating for a loan modification on behalf of one of our clients.  You can get to the example hardship letter link by clicking here.  There is pdf version that you can download and fill out.  You can see some of our loan modification results here.

In addition, we have a do it yourself loan modification package available for $1,500.  Feel free to call us at 949-375-4734 to discuss either the sample hardship letter or the do it yourself loan modification package.

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California Joins Multi-State Coalition To Protect Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

California Attorney General Brown released a press release yesterday announcing that California will be joining the coalition of 50 attorneys general from around the nation to demand that lenders fix the foreclosure mess.  This comes on the heels of the news last week that lenders were not verifying foreclosure documents nationally, using “robo-signers” to vouch for the completeness of foreclosure document in many of the nations judicial foreclosure states. 

California is a non-judicial foreclosure state, so many of the affidavits that are required in a judicial foreclosure state are not required here.  However, lenders are required to contact borrowers in California to discuss alternatives to foreclosure prior to issuing a Notice of Default or NOD.  If a lender fails to contact a borrower to discuss foreclosure alternatives, then this could be a violation of the states unfair business practices law. 

We are still seeing many borrowers who have not been meaningfully contacted to discuss alternatives to foreclosure.  Our Orange County loan modification lawyers are also seeing borrowers being put on trial loan modification plans for up to 12 months or more, when these borrowers should be given permanent modifications after completing 3 trial plan payments under the Home Affordable Modification Program or “HAMP”.   If you are a homeowner facing any of these obstacles, consider hiring an attorney to sue your lender because lenders may only foreclosure on homeowners after confirming all requirements have been met and only after they have obeyed all state laws, which they are not doing in all cases.

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Lenders Still Failing To Comply With California Foreclosure Prevention Act…..CALL US TODAY: (949) 375-4734

Our Orange County loan modification lawyers continue to find that lenders in California are not complying with The California Foreclosure Prevention Act, also known as Senate Bill 1137, codified as California Civil Code § 2923.5.  Under this law, lenders are required to contact the borrower to discuss alternatives to foreclosure before the lender issues the Notice of Default, or NOD.  The law went into effect in August 2008 and lenders were slow to respond.  Some are still failing to comply with these laws. 

 

In our experience, we are talking with homeowners on a daily basis regarding their mortgage loan default and their failed attempts to apply for a loan modification.  Our loan modification attorneys are still finding that many homeowners are still not being contacted at all prior the NOD being issued, in clear violation of California Civil Code 2923.5.  For those borrowers who are being contacted by their lenders, much of the contacting that does go on is calls from the collection department of the banks who are just calling to get the money owed on the loan and not to see if the borrower qualifies for a loan modification program.  In other words, it is just the collection department that is calling, not the loss mitigation department.  The lenders are just calling to hound our clients for the back owed payments; they are not calling to meaningfully discuss alternatives to foreclosure. 

 

The California Foreclosure Prevention Act specifically states that borrowers are to be contacted to “discuss alternatives to foreclosure” –  not contact them to collect the money.  Also we are finding that in the instances where lenders do call to discuss loan modification, borrowers are still being hung out to dry, often waiting months only to be told that documents have not been received, when they have been faxed several times to the lender.  In addition, if the lender determines that the borrower does not qualify for a loan modification, the lender is just leaving it at that – they are not discussing other alternatives to foreclosure, such as short sale, deed in lieu or cash for keys.  So if there is contact, many times it is not meaningful because the lenders do not earnestly discuss all alternatives to foreclosure. 

 

If this is happening to you or someone you know, consider hiring a loan modification lawyer to help you.  Many times a borrower will have a legal claim to pursue by suing their lender in Court.  In Orange County, the Superior Court has set up a mandatory mediation program for these types of lawsuits, and our loan modification lawyers are obtaining loan modifications for our clients as a result of these lawsuits and mediations.

 

If you need help with your loan, call us today at 949-375-4734

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