Are You in Loan Modification Hell? Join the Club. - CBS MoneyWatch.com
Are you in loan modification hell?
Has your application for a loan modification been stonewalled? Do you find yourself waiting by the phone week after week, hoping to hear something from your lender? Are you continually asked to provide the same information over and over? Has your loan modification application been rejected because you failed to provide information you were never asked for?Bobbi Giguere was in loan modication hell, courtesy of her lender, Wells Fargo . In a story that’s becoming so commonplace it’s scary, she filed for banruptcy to deal with her financial trauma (job loss and impending divorce). Even after months and months of waiting, and after submitting her paperwork three times, she never heard from Wells Fargo about her loan modification application.
The bankruptcy judge, Randolph J. Haine , was fed up and ordered a Wells Fargo senior executive to appear in court so Ms. Giguere could question someone face-to-face about her loan modification. Turns out, she was rejected because Wells Fargo said she failed to submit a financial worksheet - a document that Wells Fargo never requested, Joseph Ohayon , senior vice president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Servicing, admitted under oath.
In the New York Times story, Judge Haine says that he and his fellow bankruptcy judges are seeing more people file for bankruptcy to avoid foreclosure. But that isn’t helping those who want to get their loans modified.
Martha (who asked that I not use her last name because she is continuing to try to negotiate a loan modification with her big box lender), has also been in loan modification hell for the past few months. She contacted me about a month ago, wondering if the “trial period” loan modification she had been offered was real. I told her that lenders only offer trial modifications - and after you’ve paid on time for three months, that trial modification is supposed to be made permanent.
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