Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a member of the National Mortgage Settlement Monitoring Committee, said the group overseeing the $25 billion national mortgage settlement stepped in after receiving a large number of complaints from borrowers, legal aid groups, and housing counselors about the loan mod process.
In response, servicers: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Ally Bank, agreed to give homeowners 30 more days to respond to requests for additional documentation before referring a home to foreclosure or sale. The five servicers also agreed to expand their oversight of representatives working with borrowers.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo went a step further, saying they would provide more customer support to address missing information, escalate the process for borrowers dealing with multiple document requests and establish a direct contact for housing agencies that work with homeowners.
Two of the megabanks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, plan to use an electronic online portal to submit documents back and forth, a move that will streamline communications and increase transparency for services, advocates, and homeowners.
Kevin Kanouff, president and CEO of specialty servicer Statebridge Co. stated he does not believe that this will be a difficult task for the servicers saying: “This is not difficult for servicers to implement, but this will primarily increase foreclosure timelines in this jurisdiction leading to reduced home values.”
Illinois Attorney General Madigan has been aggressively watching mortgage servicers. Her office suggested back in May that 60% of loan modification files reviewed by her team showed servicers failing to comply with at least one requirement outlined in the national settlement. Forty-five percent of the files experienced multiple document requests.
Published by the foreclosure lawyers at Fine Law Offices of Long Island, NY.
