Homeowners often rejected under Obama's loan plan (and houses sold without notice to homeowner)

[Robbien]

<snip>

In the fine print of the form homeowners fill out to apply for Obama's program, which lowers monthly payments for three months while the lender decides whether to provide permanent relief, borrowers must waive important notification rights.

This clause allows banks to reject borrowers without any written notification and move straight to auctioning off their homes without any warning.

. . .

<snip--the article goes on to describe the circumstances of one particular homeowner caught in this situation>

. . .

The Aug. 25 cover letter from Central Mortgage Company, the servicer that collects Flores' mortgage payments, offered Flores a trial modification with this comforting language:

"If you do not qualify for a loan modification, we will work with you to explore other options available to help you keep your home or ease your transition into a new home."

CMC is owned by Arkansas regional Arvest Bank, itself controlled by Jim Walton, the youngest son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

A glance past CMC's hopeful promise finds a different story in the fine print of HAMP document, which contains standardized language drafted by the Obama Treasury Department and is used uniformly by lenders.

The document warns that foreclosure "may be immediately resumed from the point at which it was suspended if this plan terminates, and no new notice of default, notice of intent to accelerate, notice of acceleration, or similar notice will be necessary to continue the foreclosure action, all rights to such notices being hereby waived to the extent permitted by applicable law."

This means that even when a borrower makes all the trial payments, a lender can put the house up for auction if it decides that the homeowner doesn't qualify — assuming that foreclosure proceedings had been started before the trial period — without telling the homeowner.


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/80867.html

The article is a bit long but well worth a read. It highlights all the problems in the HAMP bill and shows that even in a bill whose main stated purpose is to help the average joe, all the breaks go to banksters and their partners in crime.

By the way, the homeowner in the article made all the negotiated payments but found out that her house was sold when the new owners came pounding on her door.

[dmallind]

1. Buried deep in these articles is the fact often missed,,,,

,,,that this can only happen if the house was already in foreclosure before the process started. It's not that the program makes foreclosure any easier to begin with.

[Robbien]

2. That point isn't buried, it is mentioned over and over again in the article

It is even briefly mentioned in the small excerpt posted here. HAMP is all about stopping foreclosures and saving homes. So what is your point?

What is hidden in all the promotional media on HAMP is that in order to even be a part of the program, a homeowner has to give up another one of his rights and banksters get more rights.

[dmallind]

3. My point is there is nothing illicit or harnful about the plan

If it is terminated you start off where you were, having already received the notice of foreclosure and being subject to eviction. Having made all the payments for a few months does not mean you are qualified to be a good risk for the life of the loan. You still have to be qualified through normal actuarial practice.

[Robbien]

4. One is worse off because they don't know where they stand

Yes, if one is in the middle of foreclosure and are rejected by HAMP they are still in the middle of foreclosure. The problem is, HAMP will not tell you that they rejected you. So you go along and make the payments HAMP tells you to make all the while believing you are in the process of fixing the problem. Then you only find out HAMP rejected you when the new owners of your house shows up with their moving van.

HAMP forces one to give up the right to know what is happening thus not giving one a chance to find other alternatives.