Is this a scam? "Independent Review Administrator" ????

[freeme0215]

I also received this letter

I am in a chapter 13, but this past July, I surrendered the home...there has been no action on Seterus's part, except they offered me a deferred principal reduction, making the mortgage a 40 year mortgage at 5%, the deferred amount is 65,000, the 5% is on the balance of 150,000, so it is not a true principal reduction...

I did not respond to this loan mod

I did send a hardship letter to Seterus, explaining the circumstances and that I could not afford their loan mod and asked for reconsideration and more favorble terms. They responded with a letter saying that they were withdrawing the mod as I had not signed the paperwork, nor paid the amount of the new mortgage.

I then received this letter, it has the loan number assigned by Seterus...

"You are receing this notice because the above property is or was in an active foreclosure process between January 1, 209 and December 31, 2010".

I did "surrender" the property in a modified Chapter 13, there has been no action as far as lis pendens, lift of automatic stay, etc.

Should I mail back this form?

Thanks
Marlene

[sofarsogood2]

i got one of those too, although house is not/was never legally (no lis pendis filed) in foreclosure. I think the banks may have had or have your account in their foreclosure dept. and that's where the "review" entity gets their info from.

[NJLawyer]

I recently read about this and had the opportunity to do some research on it. This was instituted on November 1, 2011 by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. It requires a review by an independent consultant to determine if any errors or misrepresentations were made in the foreclosure which may have caused financial harm to the Homeowners. The foreclosure must have occurred between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010 and serviced by one of the following: Ally's GMC Mortgage Co., Aurora Bank, BOA, Citi, Everbank, HSBC, Chase, MetLife, Onewest, PNC, Sovereign, Sun Trust, US Bank or Wells Fargo.

Notices have been or will be sent to potential participants by the end of the year. If you don't receive notice, you can go to the web site set forth in the initial post. The applications need to be completed and sent back by April 30, 2012.

It is likely that in the near future, scam artists will get involved, but this service is FREE. The question is will it actually work? It's too early to tell. I am always hesitant when the government gets involved in anything like this. Also, the reviews are not done by the government. The government only requires that these be done. Furthermore, the reviewers are "hired" by the bank, leading to potential of a conflict of interest. Finally, nobody knows, even if a person is injured, how the amount of damages will be determined.

This has the potential to work, but you must still be your own advocate. Certainly since there is no cost involved, it's at least worth filing the forms

This post is meant as an opinion only. It is not meant as legal advice. Each case is different and must be reviewed by an attorney of your choosing.

[KevFinnerty]

a) Apart from a couple of select areas, PA real estate market is a dump, and the banks know it....hence

b) If your bank is one of TBTF outfits, they might sit on that judgment three days short of forever, not wanting another house that they'd have to sell at a loss. If you're dealing with a small local bank, someone in charge has forgotten about you, which is pretty darn rare and you should count your blessings.

If it were me, I'd just lay down low under the radar unless I had significant equity in the house...

Thanks. Yeah, I have a lot of equity in the house, had been paying the mortgage for 19 years. When foreclosure started I "owed" less than $80,000 (which the bank is now adding interest onto), but the property was "worth" anywhere from $180-210k. Haven't been able to sell it, although have dropped the asking price to what I consider to be quite reasonable.

[KevFinnerty]

....Notices have been or will be sent to potential participants by the end of the year. If you don't receive notice, you can go to the web site set forth in the initial post. The applications need to be completed and sent back by April 30, 2012.

It is likely that in the near future, scam artists will get involved, but this service is FREE. The question is will it actually work? It's too early to tell. I am always hesitant when the government gets involved in anything like this. Also, the reviews are not done by the government. The government only requires that these be done. Furthermore, the reviewers are "hired" by the bank, leading to potential of a conflict of interest. Finally, nobody knows, even if a person is injured, how the amount of damages will be determined.

This has the potential to work, but you must still be your own advocate. Certainly since there is no cost involved, it's at least worth filing the forms

This post is meant as an opinion only. It is not meant as legal advice. Each case is different and must be reviewed by an attorney of your choosing.

Thanks for that post. I find it a concern that the "reviewer" will actually be someone hired by the bank. Nothing like asking another fox to police the fox in the henhouse. Sigh.

I have decided to wait to fill out the forms until the last possible moment (April 30th), unless the bank moves ahead with the sheriff sale in the meantime. As long as I can stay in the house I am not in a hurry to get onto the bank's radar.

[NJLawyer]

Kev,

I certainly see your point and it makes sense. Best of luck to you.

I just find it so scary that after all the things that the banks have pulled, the government still lets them police themselves. History does tend to repeat itself. Hopefully, the government will see the inherent problems and make some changes.



This post is meant as an opinion only. It is not meant as legal advice. Each case is different and must be reviewed by an attorney of your choosing.




fo