Facing foreclosure is a scary thing. Sometimes asking your lender for a loan modification may be a solution. An attorney can help you, as a borrower, understand your legal rights, negotiate with your lender, complete the required paperwork for a loan modification and even stop a foreclosure sale. A forestalled sale wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a successful loan modification, but could give you more time to catch up on the mortgage payments or complete a loan modification trial period.
One benefit of using lawyers is that they typically know the ins and outs of the confusion of government homeowner-assistance
programs. Those homeowners who decide to hire one should contact their local bar association to ensure they find an ethical law firm that does loan modifications.
If you decide to hire a lawyer to assist you with your home loan modification, they will typically ask you for your last two federal income tax returns, two most recent W-2 forms, six months’ worth of pay stubs, evidence of other income and a letter explaining your predicament. You will need to sign a form that authorizes your attorney to speak to your lender about your situation because the lender has a responsibility to protect your privacy from unauthorized inquiries. Your attorney puts those documents into a loan-modification application, which is intricate paperwork that varies by lender and servicer, and follows that up with repeated calls to the loan officer. It may take weeks or months before an applicant learns whether his or her mortgage rate will be lowered or the principal amount reduced.
When choosing a lawyer to assist you in your loan modification, you should ask for references. A reputable lawyer should be able to explain his or her experience in loan modifications, describe the results he or she has achieved for other clients and give you the names and telephone numbers of previous clients who can attest to the good quality of the lawyer’s services.
Last Updated on April 18, 2017 by The Orlando Law Group