As a law firm who has negotiated many home loan modifications, foreclosure mediations, and short sales, I can say that the Lenders are not evil… Not totally evil. Nothing they do is completely intentional, though they have their own in house procedures in place that seem designed to take homes away rather than work with homeowners to modify loans, it seems they are not intentionally attempting to take homes from people.
What the Lenders are guilty of is much worse, they are completely ambivalent to the cries of homeowners… These big financial institutions have different processing centers all over the United States with different divisions scattered throughout. This leads to what seems to me as chaotic disorganization where one division does not know what is happening with a file in another division.
In most cases it is an all day affair to try and get a representative on the phone, let alone the right representative who can help you. If one does help you in the modification process another division of the same company begins the foreclosure process and begins to send you even more paper work… All of which ends up very confusing.
Even as an attorney dealing in these matters, it seems that there are many times when we are having the same conversation with Lenders, or faxing the same documents faxed by our office before.
What recourse do we have for this rampant ambivalence on the part of the Lenders? As lawyers our job is to make sure the clients interest are looked after. Many times it is not in the clients best interest to begin filing a lawsuit and attacking the Lender when we are trying to save your home. Only when it seems clear that a Loan Modification is not an option do we look at every avenue for recourse available to us… Including potential lawsuit.
Luckily for Nevadans they have the option to participate in the state mandated Foreclosure Mediation process. This process is a meeting with representatives from the Lender along with a state licensed Mediator. Many times, what phone calls fail to do, an in person mediation can usually correct most miscommunications. The beauty of this process is if there is an agreement at mediation, then a certificate to foreclose on your home will not be given!
There is more to this process than discussed in this article, so please call an attorney for a consultation on your matter.