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On January 26th, the Obama Administration and the Treasury Department announced changes to the Home Affordable Modification Program and the Home Affordable Refinance Program to encourage more troubled homeowners to apply.   The Obama Administration first introduced HAMP and HARP as its signature attempts to stem the rising tide of nationwide foreclosures. The programs encourages mortgag

Lerner, Sampson, and Rothfuss’ staff signs mortgage assignments on behalf of defunct companies to support its client’s ability to foreclose in court.   Columbus, Ohio – One of the largest foreclosure law firms in Ohio, Lerner, Sampson, and Rothfuss (“LSR”), is contributing to the mortgage crisis plaguing homeowners by facilitating its clients’ use of

Attorney Troy Doucet is offering a free seminar to help homeowners navigate the foreclosure process in court. This seminar will feature an overview of the foreclosure process in Ohio, and show homeowners how to employ the most widely used foreclosure defenses without an attorney. It will feature tools that foreclosure defense attorneys commonly employ, like having the lender “produce the n

TILA rescission is the best foreclosure defense because it enables homeowners to unwind their entire mortgage transaction and get a refund of nearly all money paid to the lender, including monthly interest and closing costs.  A subset of TILA, called HOEPA, offers even greater benefits that can generate substantial damages for the homeowner.   To qualify, the loan must have been us

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched its new website at  http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ and can now receive suggestions and consumer complaints. 

If you are in financial trouble, beware agreeing to a short sale with your lender if that means you will be contractually obligated on any deficiency between the loan and the sale price.  That is, if the property sells for $80,000 and you owe $100,000, be cautious about agreeing to the sale if it means you will still need to pay the bank $20,000 (versus having it forgiven).  Why? &nb

If a spouse is on the deed but not on the mortgage, your lender has serious problems!  Seek a real estate lawyer immediately!!   The deed is the document that transfers interest in a property from one party to another (different from a deed of trust).  A deed usually provides that each person who owns the property has an undivided interest in it (two people each own half the p

Here are ten easy steps to securing a loan modification from your bank servicer, based on my work with homeowners seeking loan modifications:   Call the servicer and obtain a copy of its loan modification application. Fill it out. Obtain all the documentation sought and attach it to the application. Go to your local copy store and make 10 copies of the entire application.

"We study the effects of securitization on post-default renegotiation of residential mortgages over the current financial crisis. Unlike prior studies, we employ unique data that directly observes lender renegotiation actions and covers more than 60% of US mortgage market. Exploiting within-servicer variation in this data, we find that bank-held loans are 26% to 36% more likely to be renego

When someone files bankruptcy, all the causes of action and counterclaims that they have as of the date of filing are included in the bankruptcy estate (usually as unliquidated damages), irrespective of whether those claims are specifically mentioned in the schedules.   That means that a homeowner generally cannot bring those causes of action later against the lender, if they end up fac