Addressing wrongful foreclosures in Ohio

By State Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown – If you’re one of the thou­sands of Ohio fam­i­lies who has expe­ri­enced the pain of los­ing your home to a wrong­ful fore­clo­sure, help could finally be on the way. But you must act quickly.

Before the reports of wide­spread fore­clo­sure fraud two years ago, Ohio had 14 con­sec­u­tive years of increased foreclosures.

Then, we dis­cov­ered that many of the biggest banks in the coun­try sim­ply didn’t fol­low the law and give peo­ple the chance they deserved to keep their homes. We found that ser­vicers used poorly main­tained, lost, or even forged doc­u­men­ta­tion to evict homeowners.

Big banks tell us that these mis­takes are iso­lated and harm­less. But these prob­lems are not new.

Too many Ohioans were unjus­ti­fi­ably fore­closed on in recent years. That’s why it is impor­tant that the more than 140,000 Ohioans whose homes were fore­closed on in 2009 and 2010 know about the free Inde­pen­dent Fore­clo­sure Review (IFR) process.

The IFR process – enforced by the Office of the Comp­trol­ler of the Cur­rency and the Fed­eral Reserve – awards finan­cial assis­tance to bor­row­ers who were fore­closed on because of inac­cu­ra­cies and oversights.

Accord­ing to the Inde­pen­dent Fore­clo­sure Review web­site, bor­row­ers are eli­gi­ble for inde­pen­dent fore­clo­sure review if: (1) the prop­erty secur­ing the loan was the borrower’s pri­mary res­i­dence; (2) the mort­gage was in the fore­clo­sure process at any time between Jan­u­ary 1, 2009 and Decem­ber 31, 2010; and (3) the mort­gage was ser­viced by one of 27 IFR approved ser­vicers. These ser­vicers include: America’s Ser­vic­ing Co.; Aurora Loan Ser­vices; BAC Home Loans Ser­vic­ing; Bank of Amer­ica; Ben­e­fi­cial; Chase; Citibank; Citi­Fi­nan­cial; Citi­Mort­gage; Coun­try­wide; EMC; EverBank/EverHome Mort­gage Com­pany; Finan­cial Free­dom; GMAC Mort­gage; HFC; HSBC; Indy­Mac Mort­gage Ser­vices; MetLife Bank; National City Mort­gage; PNC Mort­gage; Sov­er­eign Bank; Sun­Trust Mort­gage; U.S. Bank; Wachovia Mort­gage; Wash­ing­ton Mutual (WaMu); Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.; and Wilshire Credit Corporation.

And while it’s esti­mated that 147,000 Ohioans are eli­gi­ble, as of now, only 6,000 have requested IFR reviews.

The good news is that it’s not too late. With the appli­ca­tion dead­line extended to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2012, it is impor­tant to spread to word to Ohio home­own­ers that they may be eli­gi­ble to receive com­pen­sa­tion or other support.

For the fam­i­lies who were fore­closed on – even when they were abid­ing by the terms of their mort­gage or their mod­i­fi­ca­tion agree­ment, even after they requested assis­tance and sub­mit­ted all the required doc­u­men­ta­tion on time, or even though they were pro­tected by bank­ruptcy – IFR can help.

The Inde­pen­dent Fore­clo­sure Review process may pro­vide com­pen­sa­tion in the form of a lump sum pay­ment, a loan mod­i­fi­ca­tion, a sus­pended fore­clo­sure, or even a cor­rected credit report.

While IFR is a good option for many home­own­ers, it’s not a per­fect process and I’m work­ing to fix some seri­ous flaws in it. That’s why I sent a let­ter to the Office of the Comp­trol­ler of the Cur­rency request­ing that home­own­ers have access to an appeal process that ensures Ohioans can receive the assis­tance they deserve.

And though not every­one will receive com­pen­sa­tion, going through the IFR process is free of charge and won’t pre­vent Ohioans from pur­su­ing other options related to fore­clo­sure assistance.

If home­own­ers don’t take advan­tage of this oppor­tu­nity and par­tic­i­pate in this pro­gram, then the banks will avoid mak­ing pay­ments for their wrong­do­ing. Our econ­omy will never fully recover until we sta­bi­lize the hous­ing mar­ket – and that means restor­ing trust for both for home­own­ers and investors.

But it’s up to all of us to take action. By rais­ing aware­ness of the ser­vices the Inde­pen­dent Fore­clo­sure Review process pro­vides, we can help Ohio home­own­ers receive the com­pen­sa­tion they deserve.

To find out more about the Inde­pen­dent Fore­clo­sure Review process, Ohioans can call 1–888-9105 or visit the web­site https://independentforeclosurere view.com/.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Aug 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.