I work with attorney Richard Rubin to help my clients that have been experiencing finacial difficulties. He writes a great blog: KeepHomeYourOwn.com. His latest blog points out how important it is for families to work together to stop a foreclosure. For more information you can call Richard direct at 516 227 2662.

Mortgage Foreclosure: A Family Affair

In  the course of many client conversations, new phrases and areas of pointed discussion focus on the grim topics at hand for family life. Many face great struggles and contemplate their survival after the early dawn and late evening arrivals of strange faces delivering thick booklets with colored construction papers. These publications appear to be offering a seemingly transparent hint at a glimpse of “Help for the Homeowner,” only to be found concealing their true object and intention: to take away your house.

Their circumstances are much like those of many others. The mortgage has not been paid this month, nor the last month. More than likely, the mortgage has not been paid in months and months. Hundreds of agonizing days, thousands of hours spent worrying about finances, mounting credit card bills, job security (or more precisely, insecurity) and otherwise few bright spots in our economic forecasts. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published recent statistics papers  showing nearly 40% of the sub prime loans in our communities are in some form of default, with thousands more on the brink. Many more are yet to be included in these records as our property values receive mixed views of stability and equity during these challenged times.

The Treasury Department’s HAMP makinghomeaffordable.gov/  rescue plan has apparently failed, leaving millions of American families without a solution, and leaving us with the latest program, referred to as HAFA, the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program. Clutching at thick files of loan closing documents and more often, only scattered pieces that might have represented a mortgage application, clients and those in trouble call and visit in our offices asking “Where do we go from here? My spouse or partner doesn’t know about the summons; must we take our children out of their schools soon; how much time do we have left in our house and what can we do to keep our home our own?”

Many read last week that the semi-governmental agencies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, reported some of the worst mortgage losses in their histories of operation. Delinquencies in the sub-prime and conventional loan markets reach into the trillions of dollars with little hope that this gushing well of adversity is readily capable of a lid to cap the substantial woes we face.

Our clients, in their phone calls and files, are the heart and soul of these statistics. These folks are in foreclosure actions and have taken action to keep their homes. The focus and notions of initiating legal defense to the receipt of a court summons are much more than fascinating ideas in scholastic circles. They are real live people, in all works of life who have no room for academic debate. Our clients are bus drivers, office workers, lawyers, doctors, wall street financiers, all of whom have decided to engage the courtrooms, judges and personnel in New York State Supreme Courts, and request enforcement of their rights to keep their homes their own.

To many, the process has worked, and they will eventually have witnessed and signed settlement and modification documents. We have challenged “sewer service” and asked our Judges to support these families in their quest to remain homeowners. Time after time, our judiciary has taken the lead and adamantly refused to allow foreclosure sales. Foreclosure Settlement Parts now preclude the auctions and mandate and require good faith attempts to utilize the HAMP and HAFA programs.

Servicers and investors cannot maintain a veil of secrecy as we look to uncover the true identities and discover who, what and where their alleged right to take away your homes are based. The loss of a home is not a certainty. Friends, family members and partnerships, all working together are able to engage the seemingly conflicted paths with their lenders and develop real changes in the foreclosure activity. Confidence in the defense of a foreclosure action is a family affair. A daily shift can be seen in the phone calls received in our office for once you make the decision to take action and save your home. Things can only get better. It’s a family affair...