Wall Street Reform Bill: Free credit report for rejected renters
The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill which passed through Congress and is headed for President Obama’s desk, contains a provision which will require that rejected renters be provided with a free copy of their credit report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that there is a provision in the bill that “would give prospective renters access to a free copy of the credit score that a landlord or broker used to evaluate their application.”
The article quotes a source as saying “that by forcing landlords to give out these credit scores, they would be deterred from using discriminatory factors like race or age in their decisions of whether or not to rent to particular applicants.”
Click here to read the entire article.
Visit our Landlord-Tenant category to learn more about Landlord-Tenant issues.
As always, The Long Island Landlord-Tenant Law Firm of VAUGHN & WEBER, PLLC is here to assist you. We are conveniently located in the heart of Nassau County, Long Island, at 217 Willis Avenue in Mineola, NY 11501. Contact us at (516) 858-2620 to arrange a consultation with a Landlord-Tenant attorney.
Wall Street Reform Bill: $1 billion fund to help unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure
The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill which passed through Congress and is headed for President Obama’s desk, contains a provision that is likely to help some unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure.
The Washington Independent reports that there is a provision in the bill to set up “the Emergency Homeowners’ Relief Fund…a $1 billion fund to help unemployed workers stay in their homes.” According to the article the fund should be in place by October 1, 2010 and “will offer qualified unemployed homeowners low-interest loans up to $50,000 to help them keep up with their mortgage payments and remain in their homes.”
The article also reminds us that “On July 1, the Treasury Department started up the Home Affordable Unemployment Program. Through the program, banks and lenders will let unemployed homeowners stop paying their mortgages for set periods of time while they look for work, or will reduce payments to less than 31 percent of the homeowner’s gross monthly income for a set amount of time. (That means that if the homeowner’s income is zero, the payment will be zero. If he or she is taking severance or receiving unemployment insurance, it will be about a third of that.)”
Also visit our Foreclosure category to learn more about foreclosure.
As always, The Foreclosure Defense Law Firm of VAUGHN & WEBER, PLLC is here to assist you. We are conveniently located in the heart of Nassau County, Long Island, at 217 Willis Avenue in Mineola, NY. Contact us at (516) 858-2620 to arrange a consultation with a foreclosure defense attorney.
Forensic Loan Audits
Forensic Loan Audits
A Forensic Loan Auditor, purportedly, reviews your mortgage loan documents to determine whether your mortgage lender violated any state or federal mortgage lending laws when they funded your loan.
We always wondered if these outfits were really helping homeowners. We couldn’t quite figure out how just finding problems with the loan documents, and not actually using that information to defend the foreclosure, was helping homeowners.
Well, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a released a consumer alert, Forensic Mortgage Loan Audit Scams: A New Twist on Foreclosure Rescue Fraud, which states that these mortgage audits are “the latest foreclosure rescue scam to exploit financially strapped homeowners…” The alert goes on to state the following:
In exchange for an upfront fee of several hundred dollars, so-called forensic loan auditors, mortgage loan auditors, or foreclosure prevention auditors backed by forensic attorneys offer to review your mortgage loan documents to determine whether your lender complied with state and federal mortgage lending laws. The “auditors” say you can use the audit report to avoid foreclosure, accelerate the loan modification process, reduce your loan principal, or even cancel your loan.
Nothing could be further from the truth. According to the FTC and its law enforcement partners:
- there is no evidence that forensic loan audits will help you get a loan modification or any other foreclosure relief, even if they’re conducted by a licensed, legitimate and trained auditor, mortgage professional or lawyer.
- some federal laws allow you to sue your lender based on errors in your loan documents. But even if you sue and win, your lender is not required to modify your loan simply to make your payments more affordable.
- if you cancel your loan, you will lose your home and you will have to return the money you borrowed to your lender.
It is our standard practice, as foreclosure defense attorneys, to review ALL documents relating to the purchase and possible foreclosure of your home for potential defenses. We often find ourselves, due to no fault of our own, reviewing and drafting hundreds of pages in a short period of time. This is very labor intensive work, but we take pride in stopping unnecessary foreclosures and providing our clients with an opportunity to remain in their home.
As always, The Foreclosure Defense Law Firm of Vaughn, Weber & Prakope, PLLC is here to assist you. We are conveniently located in the heart of Nassau County, Long Island, NY. Contact us at (516) 858-2620 to arrange a consultation with a foreclosure defense attorney.
Please visit our Foreclosure category to learn more about foreclosure issues.
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