Remember the robosigning scandal that rocked the mortgage industry last year?
Well, if you got caught up in the foreclosure mess, financial compensation may be coming your way.
As part of a consent order with federal regulators, 14 mortgage servicers and their affiliates have been instructed to identify homeowners who may have suffered financial injury as a result of errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies during the foreclosure process.
Of course, there are a number of eligibility requirements, which are listed below for your convenience.
Eligible Borrowers
• Your mortgage loan was serviced by one of the participating mortgage servicers listed below.
• Your mortgage loan was active in the foreclosure process between January 1st, 2009 and December 31st, 2010.
• The property was your primary residence.
The list of participating servicers includes:
• America’s Servicing Co.
• Aurora Loan Services
• Bank of America
• Beneficial
• Chase
• Citibank
• CitiFinancial
• CitiMortgage
• Countrywide
• EMC
• EverBank/EverHome Mortgage Company
• 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 (WaMu)
• Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
If your loan doesn’t meet the requirements above, you can still reach out to your loan servicer for possible inclusion in this settlement.
Those who meet initial requirements will be mailed a notification with a “Request for Review Form” before the end of the year.
If you feel you’ve been financially injured, you must submit the form no later than April 30th, 2012.
The review process will then take up to several months, at which point you’ll find out if financial injury occurred, and if you’re expected to receive compensation or another remedy.
Examples of Financial Injury
• The mortgage balance amount at the time of the foreclosure action was more than you actually owed.
• You were doing everything the loan modification agreement required, but the foreclosure sale still happened.
• The foreclosure action occurred while you were protected by bankruptcy.
• You requested assistance/modification, submitted complete documents on time, and were waiting for a decision when the foreclosure sale occurred.
• Fees charged or mortgage payments were inaccurately calculated, processed, or applied.
• The foreclosure action occurred on a mortgage that was obtained before active duty military service began and while on active duty, or within 9 months after the active duty ended and the servicemember did not waive his/her rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
Little Too Late?
While this may seem like a positive for homeowners, any damage done will probably be difficult to reverse.
After all, we’re talking about foreclosures here, and more notably, the loss of a primary residence.
If the borrower already lost their home, it’s unclear what a few bucks will do. At the same time, most of the foreclosures were probably warranted.
And many of the borrowers were likely in over their heads, behind on mortgage payments, or in negative equity positions that made homeownership very unattractive.
Even if servicers did get sloppy and rush their processes, foreclosure was probably unavoidable for many.
However, loan servicers should carry out foreclosure proceedings with more care and hopefully this review will improve their practices going forward.
I have been tring for the past three years to get a loan modification from PNC. They send me the workout package then at the end tell me they do not do modification. Give me a workout wanting me to pay $4800.00per month when my initial mortgage was $2500.00.They give me a no income verification loan when I hadn”t a job,now i have a job and can”t get a modification.