Foreclosure issues

April 2, 2008

Foreclosure Practices in North Georgia Come Under Scrutiny
The New York Times published an investigative report on March 30, 2007 entitled Foreclosure Machine Thrives on Woes. The article addresses what has become a growing problem in bankruptcy cases:

out of control fees and costs added to mortgage loan balances failure of mortgage companies to properly account for payments refusal or failure of mortgage companies and their counsel to resolve disputes amicably

The Times tells the story of a Georgia couple - the Atchleys - who filed Chapter 13 and paid their mortgage but found themselves on the receiving end of multiple motions for relief asserting that mortgage payments had been made. In addition to the stress and cost of dealing with these inaccurate motions (which would be withdrawn at the last minute), the Atchley's discovered that their payoff balance was being adjusted higher and higher with questionably fees and costs. The Atchleys eventually sold their house but now the United States Trustee has sued Countrywide claiming that its pattern of conduct was an abuse of the bankruptcy system. (…)

March 29, 2008

CNN and Fortune Magazine Explain The Many Repurcussions of the Sub-Prime Meltdown
A lot has been written about the housing and mortgage finance crisis in the United States. You may be wondering how and why you would be affected by the failure of a mortgage company that issued high interest loans to borrowers who were not credit worthy. Although it may not be obvious, a rising delinquency rate among sub-prime borrowers can and has impacted:

housing prices (the value of homes in most places in the country has gone down) interest rates inflation the stock market our trade imbalance with other countries the decline of the dollar oil prices the stability of the stock market and commodities markets employment foreclosures

CNN and Fortune Magazine have produced a television program called "Busted - Mortgage Meltdown" that explores all of the implications of our mortgage crisis. I suspect that the show will end up on-line but for now, you can visit the multi-media online companion to the show.

Thanks to Paula Wethington from the blog Monroe on a Budget for writing about the CNN/Fortune program on her blog. (…)

March 13, 2008

Georgia Legislature Considers Home Foreclosure Relief Bills
Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Georgia state Senate has approved two bills designed to help stuggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. Senate Bill 519 would increase the pre-foreclosure notice to homeowners from the current 15 days to as much as 60 days. (…)

February 15, 2008

Can Project Lifeline Help You?
Earlier this month, President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, together with representatives from Bank of America Mortgage, JP Chase, Citigroup, Countrywide, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo announced the creation of "Project Lifeline" designed to help financially strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure. You can read more about Project Lifeline here. (…)

January 30, 2008

Do You Want to Be Interviewed by French Television?
I received a call this morning from a colleague who tells me that she was contacted by a French television producer who is working on a news story about the real estate market in Atlanta. They are looking to interview someone who is facing a foreclosure. If you have any interest in being interviewed for a program that will air in France, you can contact the producer, J.B. (…)

January 12, 2008

Protect Yourself from Mortgage Fraud
My colleague, New York bankruptcy lawyer Jay Fleischman, posted the following video produced by FreddieMac on the Mortgage Law Network blog. This very compelling video demonstrates how mortgage scammers use the foreclosure process to rip off homeowners. It is definitely worth a watch.

December 11, 2007

Metro Atlanta Foreclosures Up 29% in 2007
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that foreclosures in the 13 county metro Atlanta area are up 29% in 2007 as compared to 2006. In 2007, there were 58,076 foreclosures, which is equal to around 4,900 foreclosures per month. Note that these numbers only refer to the metro Atlanta area, not Georgia as a whole. (…)

November 12, 2007

Should Bankruptcy Judges Be Given the Power to Rewrite Mortgages
The United States Congress is currently considering legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite some of the terms of a mortgage to reflect the value of a homeowner's property and the current mortgage investment climate. My colleague Wendell Sherk of the Bankruptcy Law Network notes the following about the legislation currently before Congress:

The legislation now pending in Congress would allow homeowners in Chapter 13 to rewrite their mortgages to reflect current market value with market interest rates for the long haul. (…)

February 23, 2007

Non-Bankruptcy Foreclosure Workouts - Does It Make Sense for You?
News reports on the Internet and in traditional media suggest that foreclosure rates are rising nationally, especially among sub-prime borrowers. At the same time, bankruptcy filings remain suppressed. The slide in bankruptcy filings has been attributed to widespread misinformation about the availability of bankruptcy under the BAPCPA law, or perhaps tighter restrictions on filing under BAPCPA . (…)

December 6, 2006

Georgia Foreclosures Up 99%
This morning's Atlanta Journal/Constitution published an article entitled "Georgia Foreclosures Jump 99%; rate is nation's 3rd highest." According to this article, one out of every 449 houses will go into foreclosure. Why the increase? Interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages are going up. In addition, underwriting standards by major lenders were relaxed over the past few years. (…)

November 1, 2006

Looking for Homeowners Who Have Had Bad Experiences with Mortgages
I received an inquiry from the producer of a Canadian radio program looking for individuals who have had bad experiences with unusual mortgages - such as interest only mortgage loans, sub-prime mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages, etc. If you would be willing to talk about your experience with a radio host, please let me know and I will forward your interest along to the producer. (…)

July 27, 2006

Hybrid ARM Mortgages - Have You Been Misled?
I recently took notice of a post on Kevin Chern's Bankruptcy Lawyer's Blog in which he wrote about the "ARM boom" of the early 2000's and how almost $1 trillion of ARM loans would adjust (upwards) in 2006 and 2007. (…)

June 5, 2006

Behind on Mortgage and Vehicles - is Chapter 13 an Option?
My mortgage is about to go into foreclosure–as we are two months behind right now and we also owe for June…The mortgage company will not accept a partial payment…and will initiate foreclosure proceedings very soon..we are also in trouble with our car notes and timeshare payments… should we consider bankruptcy if we cannot work out something with our lender???–Mark

Jonathan Ginsberg responds: Mark, if your mortgage company will not work with you, then your only real option is Chapter 13. I think you are smart to consider this option early - which is preferable to waiting until a few days before foreclosure to look into the process. At a minimum, you should do the following now:

1) request copies of all 3 credit reports (both you and your wife) - credit reports are free in Georgia but will take a few days to arrive in the mail (by contrast if you need them immediately, I can get them for $45 per person). This is another advantage of starting early

2) get your credit counseling certificate. Credit counseling is now mandatory and if you wait until the last minute, you may not be able to get an appointment. I have a section about credit counseling on my Atlanta Bankruptcy web site. Consumer Credit Counseling of Atlanta and Hummingbird Credit Counseling are two organizations that my clients have used. (…)

June 4, 2006

Trends in Mortgage Foreclosures
One component of the new bankruptcy law that gets little popular attention has to do with the limitations the new law places on re-filed Chapter 13 cases. The Bankruptcy Code now provides that in a second case filed within one year of a first filing, the automatic stay terminates in 30 days unless the debtor files a Motion to Extend Stay. For a third filing within a year, the automatic stay does not go into existence at all. (…)