Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog (22)

Is Unclean Hands An Effective Defense Against Foreclosure?

Our firm recently received a question from a homeowner in Pennsylvania who wanted to know if he could use an unclean hands defense to avoid foreclosure, and if he could he sue his bank?

Unclean Hands

First, what is an unclean hands defense?

An unclean hands defense is when one party in a lawsuit didn't wash their hands before coming into court and gets dirt all over the legal documents and the judge throws the case out. Precedent for the unclean hands defense was established in 1975 with the landmark Pigpen v. Wells Fargo case, which went all the way to the supreme court.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, March 20, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, foreclosure defense attorney, foreclosure fraud, unclean hands

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Bank of America, PNC Bank, and SPS:

SPS

10 months past due on mortgage payments to SPS, our client now has a final in-house loan modification with $60.63 cheaper payment!

Loan Modification Saves NJ Homeowner From M&T Bank Foreclosure

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here is one of their stories.

In January of 2016, a homeowner I'll call Pablo Iglesias (to protect his privacy) retained Amerihope Alliance Legal Services for foreclosure defense and loan modification assistance in order to keep his Bergen County, NJ home.

His servicer and lender are Hudson City Savings Bank, and M&T Bank is the investor in his loan. Iglesias was 15 months and $79,642 past due on his $5,137 a month mortgage payment. He had an unpaid principal balance of $664,000, and an interest rate of 6.625%.

Successful Loan Modification Week Of 3/10/17

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

Rushmore

$48,388.66 in principal forgiveness approved with final loan modification for Rushmore client who was 10 months and $22,532.80 past due!

How Do You Help a Family Member in Foreclosure?

You've only got one family, and supporting them when times are tough is the right thing to do. After all, they'd do the same for you.

But what if a member of your family has a problem that's too big for you to solve, like difficulty with their mortgage?

Over the past decade millions of people have been in just that situation. Since the Great Recession began, seven million homes have been in foreclosure! That's a lot of affected families.

And the foreclosure crisis isn't over. There are still thousands and thousands of homeowners either in foreclosure or on their way to it.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Thursday, March 9, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, foreclosure

Some homeowners do everything right, but mistakes by their bank cause them serious problems with their home. That's the case for a recent client of our firm who was approved for a trial loan modification, but her home was still sold at a foreclosure auction by Wells Fargo!

In August of 2016 a homeowner in Miami-Dade County, that I'll call Mrs. Thompson to protect her privacy, was approved for a HAMP trial loan modification by her lender, Wells Fargo. She had previously fallen behind on her payments, and being approved for a trial loan modification was exactly what she needed in order to avoid foreclosure and keep her home.

Normally being approved for a trial modification is the hard part about avoiding foreclosure because loan modification applications take a lot of work to complete and are frequently denied. But Mrs. Thompson was approved for a trial modification, so all she had to do was make her trial payments on time and move on with life, right? Not so fast.

Homeowners Eligible for Share of $2.895 Million Caliber Settlement

Some of our clients were recently sent legal notices from a claims administrator notifying them that they may be entitled to benefits under a class action settlement with Caliber Home Loans.

As their attorney of record, these notices were sent directly to us. The notice consists of two postcards. One provides details on the settlement, and the other contains a settlement claim form that can be filled out and dropped in the mail.

The notice is sent from:
Caliber Home Loans Settlement Claims Administrator
P.O Box 43458
Providence, RI 02940

The information from the front of the notice is on the right.

It tells you that someone named Ashack sued Caliber for themselves and on behalf of all the people who received calls on their cell phones from Caliber from an automatic dialing system which violated the TCPA, or Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and Caliber agreed to pay money to settle. Now the money from the settlement will be approved by the court and then distributed.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Saturday, March 4, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] caliber loan modification, class action lawsuit

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

SLS

Nearly 7 years, and $322,530 past due on mortgage, our SLS client now has a final HAMP loan modification with $803 cheaper payment, $5,000 principal forgiveness, $220,617 deferred, and low 3% fixed interest rate!

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week Of 2/24/17

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are a few of their stories.

US Bank

$40,831.62 past due with US Bank, our client is approved for a trial loan modification with $514.06 lower monthly payment! Their payment was reduced from $2,215.72 to $1,701.66!

Distressed Home Sales In 2016 At A Nine-Year Low

Distressed home sales made up 16.2% of all homes sold in 2016, which is a drop of more than two and a half points from 2015, and a smaller percentage of home sales than in any year since 2007, according to ATTOM Data Solutions Year-End 2016 U.S. Home Sales Report.

A distressed sale is a bank-owned sale, short sale, or foreclosure auction sold to a third party buyer. Basically anything other than a regular sale of a home in which the seller has equity is considered a distressed sale. It's a good thing the number of distressed sales are down.

The distressed sales numbers breakdown as follows. REO (Real Estate Owned) sales, also called bank-owned sales, were 8% of all sales in 2016, which is down two points from 2015 and the lowest level in 10 years.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Tuesday, February 21, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] short sale, housing market, deed in lieu of foreclosure

Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Is Unclean Hands An Effective Defense Against Foreclosure?

Unclean Hands

Successful Loan Modification Roundup 🍀 Week Of 3/17/17

SPS

Loan Modification Saves NJ Homeowner From M&T Bank Foreclosure

Successful Loan Modification Week Of 3/10/17

Rushmore

How Do You Help a Family Member in Foreclosure?

Wells Fargo's Negligence Leads to Wrongful Foreclosure Auction

Homeowners Eligible for Share of $2.895 Million Caliber Settlement

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week Of 3/3/17

SLS

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week Of 2/24/17

US Bank

Distressed Home Sales In 2016 At A Nine-Year Low

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