The biggest single problem with President Obama’s plan to turn the tide of foreclosures is that, like King Canute himself, he’s sitting on the beach waiting for the tide to quietly agree to turn ahead of time.
I’ve just been reading the disturbing tale of three distressed households in Queens District, New York. Each of these three had met all the pre-approval criteria for mortgage reduction, all three had verified their incomes and paid their three month’s trial modification installments in full – and met all other contractual obligations they had with JPMorgan Chase.
Chase’s response was a quick as it was brutal. All three permanent modifications were denied, all three were reported as delinquents to credit rating agencies, and all three had their homes foreclosed under them.
How can this be possible, after all the efforts during the past year of HAMP? All three affected family wage earners were working full time too, and up to six days a week. Has JPMorgan Chase forgotten how to feel, or had a double lobotomy? This time through, the big and sometimes ugly face of banking has had more than a custard pie shoved up its nose – all three abused clients are suing the delinquent bank in the Federal Court of Boston with the support of the Urban Justice Centre (a New York non-profit legal services provider).
“We [just] want Chase to live up to the contracts they entered into and give permanent modifications to these homeowners,” said Ted De Barbieri, an attorney at the Urban Justice Center. “If you’re going to sign onto HAMP, you have to follow the rules. These homeowners followed the rules, and now it’s time for Chase to do [that as well].”
An unusually meek JPMorgan Chase spokesman is on record as saying that Chase would be happy to talk with the customers, review their situations and see if they could help.
Isn’t it peculiar how big financial institutions change their tone under the media spotlight? According to Urban Justice Center’s Du Barbieri, they had hardly got a decent acknowledgment from the bank prior to filing.
To ram the point home, here’s the short history of the three gallant musketeers:
JPMorgan Chase Customer One lost her job as manager in a retail business and fell behind on payments. She has subsequently taken up two jobs that between them keep her busy seven days a week. In the interim, her taxi-driver spouse has been making trial modification payments for the past eight months.
JPMorgan Chase Customer Two fell behind on her mortgage payments when she lost her job in November 2008, but has been able to make three trial modification payments this winter. She is working part time and also attending school to improve her qualifications.
JPMorgan Chase Customer Three alleges that the bank told him to skip payments in order to qualify for permanent modification – the first time he ever missed a payment in the lifetime of his loan.
Will JPMorgan Chase see the folly of its ways and make peace with these three musketeers?
Notice: In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that RealEstateProArticles.com has financial relationships with some companies and may be compensated if consumers choose to buy, subscribe or take any action to a product or service via the links on our website. Occasionally, we receive free access to review a product or service. We do not accept compensation in exchange for a positive review. These reviews are strictly the opinions of the author.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.realestateproarticles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites