Tag Archives: Foreclosure Mediation

Together with GMAC Mortgage and the state of Maryland, HLP created the Portal as a way to ease the process by which homeowners can opt in for Maryland's foreclosure mediation program. Before now, homeowners have had to submit paper copies of documents to the state's Office of Administrative Hearings. With the added option of electronic submission through the Portal, it is hoped that more homeowners will take the step to opt in for mediation.

If fraudulent documents are found in a foreclosure case, should banks be able to voluntarily dismiss the foreclosure then re-file the case after fixing the error? The answer to this question is currently being decided by the Florida Supreme Court, which heard arguments May 10 for a case titled Roman Pino v. Bank of New York Mellon. If the court does rule in favor of Pino, this would mean servicers would no longer be able to fix documents and refile foreclosures, which would stall or lead to the dismissal of foreclosure cases and make it even more difficult for the judicial state to proceed with foreclosures. While a decision has not been made, Moody's Analytics said the ruling is not likely to fall in favor of the defendant Pino, who is the homeowner the bank tried to foreclose on using a fraudulent assignment of mortgage.

While the housing market is starting to show signs that it is strengthening, for some states, recovery still seems to be in the very distant future. According to a report from Capital Economics, one factor that will determine the speed of recovery for individual states is the type of foreclosure procedure. Paul Diggle, author of the report, said that many of the judicial states, which are struggling to clear their backlog of foreclosures, will lag behind during recovery. However, Rob Pitingolo, research assistant with the Urban Institute, noted that it's not the judicial process itself that is the problem, but a lack of resources.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking to propose mortgage servicing rules to keep borrowers from costly surprises and prevent servicers from giving customers the runaround. Lack of transparency and lack of accountability are the two issues motivating the new rules, and to create more transparency, the CFPB is proposing clear monthly mortgage statements, a warning before interest rates adjust, options to avoid force-placed insurance, and early information to keep customers out of foreclosure.

First time claims for unemployment insurance rose 8,000 in the week ended March 2, the Labor Department reported today, the third straight weekly increase after revisions to earlier data. Continuing claims, reported on a one-week lag, increase 10,000 to 3,416,000, the second straight weekly increase.

HOPE NOW announced plans to reach out to military homeowners facing foreclosure. Stakeholders representing the mortgage servicing industry, non-profit counselors, investors, regulators, and military members met in Washington, D.C. to strategize on ways to assist those in the military who are at risk of losing their home due to a permanent change in station and other issues.

The U.S. Department of Justice released a 69-page report Tuesday on a foreclosure intervention method that is becoming increasingly popular across the country - mediation. The paper draws from an earlier workshop which was attended by dozens of mediation program stakeholders and researchers. A key finding that emerged, according to DOJ officials, is that the federal government should take an active role, both in helping to develop program and evaluation guidelines and in providing resources for mediation programs and research.

Florida's mandatory foreclosure mediation program has come to an end. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady issued an order this week stating that no new cases may be referred to mediators as part of the court-run initiative and citing the program's lack of success in resolving foreclosure disputes between lenders and borrowers. Data released earlier this year showed that only 4 percent of eligible mediation cases ended in a settlement.

The state of Hawaii has now gone live with its Mortgage Foreclosure Dispute Resolution (MFDR) program. MFDR is a key component of Act 48 signed into law by Gov. Neil Abercrombie this spring and is intended to ""reform the foreclosure process"" in the state, according to government officials. The program is designed to offer owner-occupants of residential property in non-judicial foreclosure the opportunity to meet directly with their lenders to modify their loans or work out an alternative to foreclosure.

As delinquencies and impending foreclosures rose, New England states responded with foreclosure prevention programs, generally falling into one of two categories: foreclosure mediation and financial assistance. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston examined these efforts to determine ways other states can learn from them. Five of the six New England states have their own mediation programs, and Massachusetts created a program allowing negotiation without a mediator.