Audits Can Find the Facts Needed To Halt Your Foreclosure
A Mortgage Loan Audit is a thorough legal analysis of your loan documents designed to identify non-disclosure violations, accounting “errors,” predatory lending practices and outright fraud - matters that can stop a foreclosure in its tracks.
Until recently, lenders have successfully kept these practices out of the public eye and have ridden roughshod over homeowners’ rights. However, all lenders are required to operate under specific legal rules, regulations and procedures when making and processing loans.
Before you walk away from your home, or sign-off on a loan modification, you should know that over 80 percent of audited home loans contain violations, errors or omissions.
Remember, evidence of a single violation may be enough to stop your foreclosure. With the proof from an audit in our hands, we can aggressively fight your foreclosure in court.
Ruhl Law Group will perform an audit of your loan, looking for violations of state and federal fair lending laws, including:
- Truth In Lending Act (TILA)
- Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM)
- Home Ownership & Equity Protection Act (HOEPA)
- Homeowner Protection Act (HPA)
- Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
- Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
- Gramm, Leach, Billey Act (GLB)
How would you know if your original loan was made in compliance with Federal and State Lending laws? If there are errors or violations in your loan documents, the audit team at Ruhl Law Group will find them.
To get an audit of your mortgage loan, call us today at 888-808-9618 or email us at rick@ruhllawgroup.com.
What About Predatory Lending Practices?
Predatory Lending is unfortunately quite common, as are Truth in Lending Act violations. In fact, according to the National Fair Housing Alliance, over 50% of borrowers who received high-cost subprime loans could have qualified for lower cost prime loans.
Study after study of the mortgage industry has reached the same conclusion: abusive loan terms lead to foreclosure. It is readily apparent that predatory loan terms are directly harmful to subprime home borrowers. Predatory lending is characterized by a number of specific practices, including:
- making a loan for more than the borrower can repay,
- repeatedly refinancing a loan without benefit to the borrower,
- charging excessive prepayment penalties, and
- financing single premium credit insurance.
What If You Want a Loan Modification?
Loan modifications are designed for homeowners who can’t afford repayment plans. In a modification, the lender actually halts the foreclosure process and adjusts the terms of the loan to make it affordable. It may lengthen the amortization schedule or lower the interest rate to cut the monthly payments, or roll the past due amount into the loan and re-amortize the new balance so the borrower can pay the additional debt back over time.
However, home owners attempting loan modifications also face difficulties. Fewer than half of loan modifications made at the end of last year actually reduced borrowers’ payments by more than 10 percent. Still, nearly one in four loan modifications in the fourth quarter actually resulted in increased monthly payments. So it seems even when the banks say they will do a modification, they still wind up taking advantage of homeowners.
If you are looking for an experienced law firm to aggressively defend you in your fight against foreclosure, or to negotiate a more favorable loan modification, look no further than Ruhl Law Group. For a free consultation about your foreclosure case, contact us by filling out the form below or by calling 888-808-9618.