The Treasury Department has just announced a set of new rules for the twenty largest servicers participating in any type of mortgage modification program including HAMP , the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, and even the private modification programs. Mortgage servicers must now offer a single point of contact for new mortgage modification candidates and for those already in the program. This means no more calling your bank and speaking with a new person each time. Now mortgage modification participants will speak with the same person so that their case has fewer opportunities for errors.
Mortgage Modification Rules
Below are some of the other rules mortgage servicers must abide by:
- The main point of contact for the mortgage modification participant (the case manager) will be required to give the homeowner regular status updates. That means no more guessing what happened to your mortgage modification application, the bank will now be required to contact you and let you know how the case is progressing.
- The case manager assigned to the mortgage modification participant must be an employee of the bank and cannot be a contractor. This will lower the chances of getting untrained and inexperienced people working on your mortgage modification.
- The case manager for the mortgage modification participant will be allowed to delegate some tasks to others. But they won’t be able to delegate being the contact person for the homeowners applying for or participating in the mortgage modification program. Even if the homeowner’s financial status changes, they will still have the same contact person.
- The biggest concern with these new rules is that the case manager will not have a limit placed on their case loads. This could result in long waits to speak with a person or even increased instances of errors because the case manager is overwhelmed.
(source: Housingwire.com )