I've recently tweeted links to some news articles which discuss a new "foreclosure review" program recently made available by federal regulators. This new program, brought forward by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, may impact as many as 4.5 million Americans. As such, it is worth considering what this program may accomplish, and how the process works.
According to Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the OCC, the program is meant to be a step in the process of fixing what is broken in the mortgage servicing and foreclosure process. While I am extremely skeptical of any effort taken by a federal agency to "fix" what is broken in the foreclosure machine, I am cautiously hopeful that this review process may provide some level of relief for those who have been negatively impacted by fraudulent, unfair, and unjust practices in the foreclosure process.
Homeowners whose primary residence went into foreclosure in 2009 or 2010, and who are or were customers of the following servicers, will qualify for participation in the program: America's Servicing Co., Aurora Loan Services, Bank of America, Beneficial, Chase, Citibank, CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, Countrywide, EMC, EverBank/Everhome Mortgage, First Horizon, GMAC Mortgage, HFC, HSBC, IndyMac, MetLife, National City, PNC, Sovereign Bank, SunTrust Mortgage, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo. These servicers will allegedly be sending letters to those who qualify for a review, but given my experience in dealing with the incompetence of these banks, who knows what will actually happen.
If you qualify and don't want to wait for your servicer to send you a letter, you may apply yourself. Information on the program, including how to get the process started, can be found online, at http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com/. As of now, the process begins with a phone call.
According to the OCC, these reviews will be carried out by independent entity, and will be free of cost to the homeowner. I can guarantee you that devious minds are already developing ways to make money on this, so beware of anyone who wants to charge you a fee to complete the paperwork for you. Obviously, if you are represented by legal counsel, you should discuss this directly with your attorney.
The program promises to provide relief to the aggrieved homeowner. The relief will come in the form of compensation of some sort. What kind of compensation comes from this program remains to be seen, but homeowners should not expect a windfall. As with any "program" designed to deal with the foreclosure mess, I suspect that the relief offered will be illusory, more than substantive. It is too early to judge this program, though, and I would encourage anyone who qualifies to pursue whatever relief may be available through this program.