There is no doubt that homeowners across the country have struggled in recent years to stay in their homes and prevent home foreclosure. We see it all too often in Florida, and homeowners in other states are also falling victim to the recklessness and poor communication going on within the mortgage lending industry.
An out-of-state case has upset people throughout the country. A woman pursued a wise option when she was struggling to keep up with her mortgage payments. She communicated with the bank to try to set up a loan modification. The bank supposedly was working with her on that process but somehow, the woman had the carpet pulled out from under her.
After the woman had begun the loan modification process in order to adjust her payments so she could afford her home, she got some bad news. Her son, a soldier, had been injured while on duty. She went to visit him in Germany and let her bank know of her travel plans. The bank sent a letter to her stating that no action would be taken on her home and that the loan modification would be handled once she returned from her travels.
While the specific bank that the woman was working with said it would wait to take any action on the house, another party didn’t get that memo. Fannie Mae foreclosed on the home before the owner returned from Germany. She arrived to what she thought was her home and saw a for sale sign in her former yard. Also, all belongings from inside the home were gone. They had been thrown away. Even her son’s Purple Heart was gone.
As a homeowner, the woman was supposed to get 90 days of notice before losing her home to foreclosure. Despite being evicted from the home, she has managed to stay in the house due to her legal persistence and through paying rent to Fannie Mae.
Sure, the mortgage industry is saturated with people who need help staying in their homes. But the lack of communication between parties in the industry doesn’t justify wrongfully ousting people from their homes, especially if they have been clearly promised hope.
Source: My Fox Phoenix, “Bank forecloses, locks out woman in middle of loan modification,” Andrew Hasbun, May 30, 2012