Consumer Law

HAMP Update

By Alan White

ProPublica has posted a lengthy and detailed report on the Home Affordable Modification Program.  They also provide homeowner complaint statistics obtained from Treasury, which confirm the poor performance of the banks servicing most mortgages.  Through last November, there were almost 100,000 complaints logged among the 1.7 million calls to the HOPE hotline.  The most common?  Servicer lost my paperwork:  11,109.  Servicer incorrectly denied HAMP application or conversion to permanent modification:  31,321.  Servicer doesn't respond at all:  21,467.  Servicer says homeowner must be delinquent to get help (this has never been true):  8,871. On the other hand, 407 out of 97,400 borrowers reported having a good experience with their servicer.

Indications from the Attorneys General and federal agency negotiations with the banks suggest that those regulators may do what Treasury has not done, i.e. put some muscle into enforcing the banks' obligations to service mortgages and administer the HAMP program.  It would be none too soon. 

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).