Loan Modification Doesn't Stop Foreclosure

Q: I worked out a modification with my loan servicing company and a third-party loan counselor was involved as well. I signed the paperwork, made the down payment on time and then made the first payment according to the agreement.

But this week I received a letter from a law firm that said I had 90 days to be out of my house! Please tell me, can they do this?

A: This sounds like a classic “right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing”. If you have signed a loan modification your servicer, the company should live up to the terms of the agreement.

Many loan servicers are swamped with loan modifications. One side of the bank is working with these borrowers to give them loan modifications while the other side of the bank is working on foreclosing on the borrowers who have stopped paying their loans.

You should immediately call your loan servicer to follow up and see what’s happening. But just calling the toll-free number on your monthly statement once may not be enough to straighten things out. In some cases, calling the loan servicer just makes the situation even more confusing. You just have to plow through and keep calling.

Your loan servicer may tell you to ignore the calls from the “other” side of the bank, but you should probably work both sides to make sure you get your loan modification approved and stop the other side of the bank from kicking you out of your house.

You might also consider contacting the FDIC as well as well as the Treasury Dept. My understanding is that there are a lot of mistakes happening with loan modifications primarily because of the volume and uneven training of customer service representatives. But you shouldn’t be the one to suffer as a result of the banks inability to process the loan modifications properly.

In general, it seems as though the squeaky wheels are getting the oil. Make sure you call and keep an accurate paper trail of who you speak to and when. Be sure to get the employee’s identification number and the office in which he or she works. Let me know what happens.