A flood of foreclosures has many engulfed hundreds of thousands of people since the Great Recession hit in 2007. This includes hundreds of people in the San Antonio and many more throughout Texas.
Federal efforts to stem the tide have been largely ineffective. And mortgage lenders and services have done little to work constructively with homeowners on mortgage modification, short sales, and other possible ways for someone to save a home from foreclosure.
Fortunately, however, a bankruptcy filing remains a viable option for many people who have missed too many mortgage payments. The automatic stay, in particular, provides an important immediate protection against foreclosure.
New Mortgage Regulations
At the federal level, there is now a renewed effort to regulate the mortgage industry to provide more safeguards for homeowners. The newly consumer watchdog agency created by Congress, called the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is taking the lead.
The agency has proposed new rules designed to give homeowners more options for staying out of foreclosure.
One set of rules would impose some very basic requirements on loan services. These would include:
•· Giving more notice of interest rate changes
•· Crediting payments promptly
•· Correcting errors on account statements
“Millions of homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages, often through no fault of their own,” the director of the CFPB, Richard Cordaray said in an e-mail to a news organization. “These proposed rules would offer consumers basic protections and put the ‘service’ back into mortgage servicing.”
That service never should have left. Its absence led to many foreclosures that could have been prevented.
Source: “New rules for mortgage-service industry in the works,” San Antonio Business Journal,” Mike W. Thomas, 8-10-12
Our firm handles situations similar to those discussed in this post. To learn more about our practice, please visit our San Antonio home foreclosure page.