You've been served with foreclosure documents and now you're wondering: What's my next move to fight this action? Once you are served with foreclosure papers there are two options. You can be reinstated or you can request a loan modification.
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.
Beginning in 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) established new rules to protect homeowners facing foreclosure from unnecessary expenses and surprises. Among the rules are restrictions on the mortgage servicer's ability to pursue foreclosure while reviewing your application for a loan modification, a practice known as dual-tracking.
