Just in time for Halloween…Three Tips to Determine if Your Mortgage Company Is Acting Scary

This week you may have seen many ghouls and goblins trolling around your neighborhoods, asking for tricks or treats. But, the scariest thing currently happening in your community is an array of potentially unlawful home repossessions from mortgage companies expediting the foreclosure process or refusing mortgage modifications in bad faith. In turn, a whole host of homeowner lawsuits have erupted on the scene, with the vast majority of them revolving around the idea that mortgage companies are deliberately misleading and manipulating homeowners just like you for their own financial benefit.

How can you know if your bank or mortgage lender is acting scary? Here are a few tips to look out for when you think you’re being tricked or treated unfairly:

(1) Lost Mortgage Modification Paperwork
Have you applied for a mortgage modification under HAMP or other programs or premises? Has your mortgage company conveniently lost your mortgage modification application paperwork even as you sit on the precipice of foreclosure? According to recent homeowner lawsuits, this tactic of intentionally dispensing with modification documents is becoming more and more common as banks attempt to swindle average Americans out of house and home.

(2) Approval for “Temporary” Modifications Only
Has your mortgage lender approved your request for a mortgage modification, but only in a temporary or trial capacity? Have they then denied you a permanent modification, only to tell you your foreclosure is nonetheless forthcoming? Apparently, these types of “approvals” are common for homeowners on the brink of foreclosure, with many lenders working with no intention of providing permanent relief to beleaguered borrowers.

(3) Inflated Mortgage Balances
In the past several months has your mortgage balance grown larger? Are your payments being misapplied on your mortgage statements? In some cases, homeowner-litigants are claiming in their lawsuits that mortgage lenders were using these very tactics to inflate customer balances and then charge exorbitant penalties even as these same homeowners faced foreclosures.

All of these mortgage company scams and swindles have pushed many Americans into the jaws of foreclosure, without the time or energy to save their “home sweet homes” through the benefits of bankruptcy. So why are so many banks and mortgage lenders refusing modifications on homes they will eventually foreclose upon with an anticipated loss? What incentive is there not to negotiate with homeowners? In the many lawsuits waged against these companies, homeowners are claiming that these deceptive, bad faith practices of bluffing on permanent modifications are merely an attempt to keep money flowing in from mortgage payments—where an when they are available—even when foreclosure is inevitable. If true, this despicable behavior is just one more reason that homeowners should be proactive and consider other options when attempting to save their biggest asset.

Until the mortgage lender landscape turns around, don’t sit around and wait for the “mortgage boogie men” of the housing bubble to come after you. Join the millions of American homeowners who have found immediate help to flee (or keep) their hard-hit homes through bankruptcy. If you have been harmed financially by the lingering housing crisis, knowing a qualified bankruptcy attorney can help you to conquer your creditors and face your economic fears, yielding the right kinds of support, information and insights—at a low cost— for a viable and secure future beyond our own “Great Recession.” The bankruptcy experts at the Law Offices of John T. Orcutt offer a totally FREE debt consultation and now, more than ever, it’s time to take them up on their offer. Just call toll free to +1-833-627-0115, or make your own appointment online right now at www.billsbills.com. Simply click on the yellow “FREE Consultation Now” button.