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If you fall behind on your mortgage, and your home is in a judicial foreclosure state, you lender must sue you in a civil foreclosure lawsuit to take your home. While being sued may sound scary, it's actually better for your in nonjudicial foreclosure states because you have more opportunities to contest foreclosure. And you want as many opportunities as possible.
But opportunities must be seized! Whether you want to keep your home by getting a loan modification, or you just want to avoid foreclosure for as long as possible so you can save money before giving up your home, you should seize the opportunities available to you by contesting the foreclosure lawsuit against you.
Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some 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, Ocwen, Caliber, Lakeview Loan Servicing, and M&T Bank:
Bank of America
Our Bank of America client was 14 months and $21,765+ fees past due on his mortgage with foreclosure started, but we helped him get a three month FHA-HAMP trial loan modification plan with $179.59 cheaper monthly payment!
Wells Fargo recently revealed that they wrongly denied or failed to offer 625 homeowners mortgage loan modifications due to an error with their underwriting software. The company says that about 400 of those customers lost their homes to foreclosure.
The error affected homeowners who were in foreclosure between April 2010 and October 2015. Now, nearly three years after correcting it, the country's fourth-largest bank has disclosed the error.
“We’re very sorry that this error occurred and are providing remediation to the approximately 625 customers who may have been impacted,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
Wells Fargo says that it has set aside $8 million for customers affected by the issue. That's just $12,800 for each customer affected. Pitiful.
Homeowners who fall seriously behind on their mortgage often notice something strange when they are served a foreclosure complaint: under defendants, alongside their name, there are other “unknown” defendants listed. Who the heck are these “Unknown Parties”, and why are they on your complaint?
Before I answer that, let's look at an example of a foreclosure complaint from a recent client of our firm in Collier county, Florida (my bold):
“VERIFIED MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE COMPLAINT
Plaintiff, U.S. Bank National Association, sues Defendants (Names Redacted); Any and All Unknown Parties Claiming By, Through, Under, and Against the Herein Named Individual Defendant(s) Who Are Not Known to be Dead or Alive, Whether Said Unknown Parties May Claim an Interest as Spouses, Heirs, Devisees, Grantees, or Other Claimants; Unknown Party #1, Unknown Party #2, Unknown Party #3 and Unknown Party #4, the names being fictitious to account for parties in possession, and alleges...”
You can see from that excerpt that US Bank is suing homeowners in a foreclosure lawsuit. After the owners names, they also list as defendants “Any and All Unknown Parties (who)...May Claim an Interest” in the property. They use language that covers any possible way that a person could have an interest in the subject property, such as “Spouses, Heirs, Devisees, Grantees”.
Recently our firm was hired by a homeowner in Chicago, Illinois who needed help saving her home from foreclosure. To protect her privacy, I'll call this client “Ms. Campbell”.
Ms. Campbell's home was scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction in March, 2018. She hired us in January. Retaining an experienced law firm like ours that has a record of helping people in her situation was the smart thing to do, but it's better to do so before a sale date is scheduled.
With so little time until the scheduled foreclosure sale, would we be able to save her home?
Unlike most people facing foreclosure, Ms. Campbell wasn't past due on her mortgage payments. She doesn't even have mortgage payments. She was facing foreclosure on her reverse mortgage, which takes advantage of the equity she had in her home.
Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some 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 SPS and US Bank:
US Bank
After falling 12 months and $13,554 past due on his mortgage payments, we helped our US Bank client get a fresh start through a final FHA partial claim loan modification with $22,121.65 partial claim due at maturity in 30 years!
Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some 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 Penny Mac, Chase, AMC, Wells Fargo, and Fay Servicing:
Penny Mac
Our Penny Mac client was $6,259.79 past due on his mortgage, but we helped him get a final loan modification with $488.17 cheaper monthly payment and lower interest rate!
If you are trying to obtain a loan modification or other loan workout plan, then your bank’s guidelines are going to require that you write a hardship letter.
Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some 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 SLS, Ocwen, Mr. Cooper, and Carrington:
SLS
Our SLS clients were 5 months and $10,309.20 past due on their mortgage payments, but we helped them get a final loan modification with $610.70 cheaper monthly payment and $48,838.95 non-interest bearing deferment!
