Mortgage Foreclosure HELP!

The mortgage industry is in chaos. While the standard advice on TV shows, in the papers etc is that your lender wants to work with you, that is not at all accurate. The lenders and servicers are overwhelmed with the volume and not that interested in doing anything. For the most part, the people you speak to are not the owners of the loan, they are just hired servicers. Their processes and "loss mitigation" options are completely inequipped to deal with what is going on in this country today. They are dysfunctional, and as a result, many homes are lost to foreclosure that should not be, even though it harms the lenders and servicers as well. Don't expect help from them - they have nothing worthwhile to offer. The "modifications" that they do offer are not affordable, desperate people agree to them in the hope that somehow things will work out even though they are obviously not going to work. Then, when they don;'t work, the servicers get to claim that they tried their best. It is a sad mess. DIO NOT BELIEVE THE MEDIA - the lenders and servicers are doing little or nothing about this crisis. The answer is to either file Chapter 13 if you qualify or look for help defending the foreclosure when it comes. There are many ways to do that, I do it all the time.

You might benefit from a Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding. This is a repayment plan, which, if approved and confirmed by the Bankruptcy court, is binding on your lender, and so long as you pay it, the lender cannot foreclose. Additionally, there has been some serious talk that the new Congress is going to try to make debtor-favorable changes to the bankruptcy law. So, go see a bankruptcy attorney in you area, but don't file yet. Since you have not yet been served with foreclosure, you may be able to stretch a bit, and if so, may be able to hold out to see if the law is changed in time for you to benefit. But, be ready to go, and if foreclosure is started, you can then file Chapter 13 if your situation would benefit from the process. A good bankruptcy attorney can analyze it all for you taking your particular facts and details into account. It might get you meaningful relief if on your other debts also. In order to do a Chapter 13, your household has to have regular income, so if your spouse works, that might get the job done.

If Chapter 13 is not viable for some reason, and if foreclosure is filed before the new Congress has a chance to improve on it, get to someone really qualified to defend foreclosure. There have been some very favorable court rulings in Ohio denying lenders foreclosure due to their manifest inability to prove their case. This happens more often than you would believe.

The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is a non-profit consumer advocacy organization. NACA maintains a web site at www.naca.net where it lists geographically consumer law attorneys all over the US. If you don't already have an attorney, please look there for someone in your area who specializes in bankruptcy and/or foreclosure defense to review the details with you and advise you.