Lost Your Home In Foreclosure? You May Qualify for A Refund.
A Jan. 18
deadline looms for about 2 million homeowners who lost their homes to
foreclosure between the start of 2008 and the end of 2011. Five lenders could
give each of those borrowers as much as $2,000.
The National
Mortgage Settlement (NMS) administrator mailed Notice Letters and Claim Forms in late
September though early October 2012 to those borrowers who lost their home due
to foreclosure between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011. The problem is that many qualifying
homeowners never received those notices because they were mailed to the address
of the foreclosed home. Therefore, they
do not realize they qualify for a refund.
The deadline to
file a claim is January 18, 2013. So if
you lost your home between 2008 and 2011, keep reading to see if you qualify
for relief, how much you might receive and how to file a claim.
What is the National Mortgage Settlement?
The NMS was
reached last February between 49 states and the nation's five largest mortgage
lenders and loan-servicers — Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase
and Wells Fargo. (Oklahoma didn't agree to the settlement terms, so homeowners
in that State can't take part.)
The settlement
was reached after it was determined the five institutions may have illegally
foreclosed on millions of homeowners between January 1, 2008, and December 31,
2011. Common problems involved improper review of foreclosure documents,
failure to have key papers signed in front of a notary, and sometimes even
downright abuse of the mortgage and foreclosure processes.
Who Qualifies?
Only borrowers
who had loans that were issued or serviced by these five companies (Ally/GMAC,
Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo) are eligible to share in
proceeds from the settlement. It required the banks to set aside about $20
billion to help current homeowners refinance their loans, reduce the
outstanding balance of their mortgage, or get other types of relief that could
help save their homes.
How much money will I get back?
In an
interesting twist, though, it also earmarked $1.5 billion to reimburse an
estimated 2 million people whose homes were foreclosed upon by any of the five
banks between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2011. The payments are expected
to range anywhere from $800 to perhaps more than $2,000, based largely on how
many of those former homeowners file the simple claim form by the upcoming January
18th deadline.
How do I file a claim?
There is no fee
to file the application, and federal regulators are discouraging consumers from
paying for help from con men who offer to complete the easy paperwork for them.
The best place to get more information is from the following website: www.nationalmortgagesettlement.com. An alternative is to call the offices of the
National Mortgage Settlement Administrator toll-free, (866) 430-8358.
If you have any
questions or need assistance with the application, please call me at Kinzey
& Arndt, CPA 417-882-9000 or visit our website www.cpainthesky.com. I am happy to answer any questions free of charge for anyone that lost their home in this manner. Let's see if we can get you what you were entitled to.
