Crushing Debt Podcast
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Episode 129:Foreclosure Mediations are a Waste of TimeUnsure what to say about this week's episode. I fired up the mic after a particularly troublesome "mediation" I had with Ocwen. I put "mediation" in quotes because the bank was clearly not mediating in good faith - and they rarely do.
In a typical mediation, one party starts with one perception of the case, and the other party starts with a competing perception of the case. The role of the mediator is to assist both parties in some middle-ground compromise unless, of course, we're talking about a loan modification mediation - in which case the bank pays lip service and asks the homeowner to provide multiple copies of the same documents. The bank representative then ignores those copies, asks the homeowner to send in yet another copy of the same documents, ignores those documents and then tells everyone at mediation that the bank is missing documents!
In all of my years assisting homeowners in foreclosure, I've walked away from the mediation with a signed loan modification ONCE and that was with a credit union. The purpose of that stat is not to discredit myself or my abilities, but more to point out that the banks never mediate in good faith to try for a resolution. In fact, at one mediation, I had a bank's attorney admit, "the only reason for mediation is to see if the homeowner provided all of the necessary documents."
Luckily, many less people are in danger of foreclosure now than when mortgage foreclosure mediations were created as a specific type of mediation. Hopefully, this is process that will end its uselessness soon, so we can proceed to have good faith discussions on how to resolve mortgage foreclosures.
If you're trying to modify your home mortgage, you could get more relief by hitting yourself over the head with a hammer. Before you do that please contact me at Shawn@YesnerLaw.com or www.YesnerLaw.com.
