Foreclosure Help:

Loan Aid Leaves Some Worse Off

One in Four in Government's Mortgage Program Is Dropped; Tales of Exhausted Savings

By JAMES R. HAGERTY

The government's mortgage modification program has left some struggling homeowners worse off than they were before.

The Treasury reported Monday that nearly one in four homeowners who were offered lower payments under the Obama administration's 15-month-old effort have been weeded out of the program. Many people were removed from the trials because they failed to make payments, didn't provide all the financial documents needed to qualify or were found to be ineligible.

Foreclosure Help:

A Surprise Tax Hit on Foreclosures 

By JEFF D. OPDYKE

Maxine McDaniel has a message for Americans considering walking away from an unaffordable mortgage: Beware of taxes.

Though not every homeowner who's underwater on a mortgage need worry, many are finding that a foreclosure or other form of housing loss can lead to a big tax obligation.

Foreclosure Help:

Homes can be lost by mistake when banks miscommunicate

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica

Last November, Michael Hill of Lexington, S.C., finally got the call he'd been waiting for. Congratulations, a rep from JPMorgan Chase told him, your trial mortgage modification is approved. Hill's monthly payment, around $900, would be nearly halved.

Except there was a problem. Chase had foreclosed on Hill's home a month earlier, and his family was just days away from eviction.

Foreclosure Help:

Round Two: Suffolk County Supreme Court’s Judge Spinner Takes on Wells Fargo

Written on March 9, 2010 by Kathleen A. Scanlon

Having recently issued a  decision canceling an Indymac mortgage lien in another foreclosure action, Judge Spinner turns his attention to the outrageous actions of Wells Fargo and holds the mortgage behemoth liable for trespass, resulting in $155,092.00 judgment, in Wells Fargo v. Tyson. At the outset, the court pointed out that the Plaintiff sent a per diem attorney to the first  settlement conference who had no knowledge of the case so that any potential progress was thwarted. 

It is a common problem and a recurring complaint that usually Plaintiff’s representative, at these settlement conferences, has no authority to negotiate, thus preventing any meaningful settlement and violating the spirit of the law. Having aroused the ire of numerous judges, you would think that these foreclosure mill law firms would figure out that they had better send counsel with authority to enter into some sort of settlement or at least have the ability to get someone on the phone who has it.