In 2012, 309,000 Americans received mortgage relief from their financial institution. As part of the landmark settlement over foreclosure abuses, $6.3 million was cut from homeowners’ mortgages in 2012. Each homeowner, who received mortgage relief, received approximately $85,000 in reductions in the amount they showed. Homeowners in New York State received approximately $625 million dollars in funds for mortgage relief. Over 7,000 New York homeowners benefited from these mortgage reduction packages.
The mortgage relief packages were part of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the United States government and the Attorneys General in 49 states. The total settlement package was over $25 billion. The banks involved in the settlement were Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Company, Citibank and Wells Fargo & Company. The lawsuits, brought by the Federal government and the state Attorneys General, dealt with problems caused by many financial institutions bringing foreclosure proceedings without properly investigating as to whether they had the appropriate documents to verify they were owed the money from the homeowners.
Unfortunately, there are an additional 11 million Americans who owe money to the financial institutions in amounts more than their homes are worth. All of these Americans have homes that are under water. There are 11 million homeowners also in need of help with their mortgages!
About The Author
Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq. is an attorney with more than 45 years of experience. He is a former president of the Commercial Lawyers Conference of New York, a regional bar association. He has been representing individuals regarding foreclosure defense, mortgage modifications and fraudulent mortgages for more than two decades.
