Obtaining A Principal Balance Reduction And Monetary Damages Through Predatory Lending Litigation Are you upside down in your mortgage and cannot refinance your home, sell your home, or are you thinking of walking away from your home or investment property? Has your home been wrongfully foreclosed? Are you looking for a solution to avoid foreclosure and regain the lost equity in your home. Whether you are current or not, you may be able to regain what most every home owner lost during the housing bust. If this sounds like the answer you have been waiting for, please visit www.foreclosureavoidancegroup.com/litigation.html — for more in depth articles, videos, and latest news. There are a variety of solutions not only for homeowners in distress but also for those who are upside down in "bad" loans due to lender liability. Homeowners can retain a la firm in one of our Mass Tort cases, an individual lawsuit against a lender, or a lawsuit within a bankruptcy filing. Mass Tort litigation involves joining other homeowners who have been wronged by their lender. Although it is a single action, each homeowner can get individual relief. It is different from a class action because it is financed by the litigants and not by the attorneys. In class action, the attorneys take their fees from the court and this normally leaves the class members paltry awards (e.g. $12.00 or free service for a month). In Mass Tort litigation, most of what is awarded goes to the homeowners. You may also file an individual case for those people who do not qualify for Mass Tort actions. Although more costly, individual cases against lenders, like Mass Tort actions, can potentially result in monetary damages, principal reductions, interest rate reductions/conversions, and other forms of relief Many Lawsuits are seeking the following on behalf of the homeowners: Principal reduction at/or below current market value Up to 80% reduction in payment dependent upon current market value and interest rate Interest rate reduction Conversion of adjustable payment to fixed payment Monetary (Cash) Damages Clean credit report of mortgage late payments Foreclosure / Eviction Delay Defense Lawsuits can be filed on behalf of plaintiff homeowner(s) in State or Federal Court. Actions on an individual or a group basis. Causes of action can include: Securitization of the mortgage note Fraud Negligent and/or Predatory Lending Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) violations Truth In Lending Act (TILA) violations Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) violations Cancellation of Void Contracts Violations of the Business and Professions Code(s) Fraudulent Concealment Breach of Contract Bad Faith in Dealing Wrongful / Illegal Foreclosure A thorough review of your loan documents and/or factual inquiry is usually necessary to determine if a case exists. Question: Am I a good candidate for the litigation process? Answer: If your mortgage situation fits any of the following then you may be a good potential litigant: Interest only product High interest rate Option ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) loan Pick a payment or negative amortization Has penalty for prepayment Has balloon payments An 80/20 loan Loan based on stated income Subprime qualified loan Income or the value of the property was inflated to obtain the loan Denial of loan modification or termination from the existing trial program You had an aggressive broker who charged excessive fees Wrongful foreclosure Other lender malfeasance (Predatory Lending) Mortgage Litigation is a great option available to assist with saving your home from foreclosure and eliminate your negative equity. How? A law firm files a lawsuit against your lender and upon successful settlement reduces your loan balance, reduces your interest rate, and lowers your mortgage payment to a long-term, sustainable payment. Some History Before 2000, buying a home was a fairly simple, straight-forward arrangement. A potential borrower would ?nd a home they wished to buy and a lender willing to loan them money. The lender would appraise the property, assess the borrower’s credit worthiness and lend the money, secured by the property. The borrower would pay the loan and get clear title or the secured property would be foreclosed upon if payment could not be made. A simple, straight-forward arrangement. Beginning in the early 2000’s, the arrangement became more complicated with the introduction of Mortgage Backed Securities. Lenders found a way to significantly increase profits, but did so in a way that was unstable, unsafe and ultimately destructive. Their actions are widely seen as the cause of the downturn in the economy, creating the need for a taxpayer bailout, and fueling a foreclosure crises that shows no signs of slowing down. A federally chartered bank would extend a loan on a residential home evidenced by a note and secured by a trust deed or mortgage. The bank would then immediately turn to Wall Street investors, organized by investment banks as Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers or Morgan Stanley, to purchase the income stream from the loan. The bond evidencing this income stream was typically called a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO). The CDO investors, in turn, would typically transfer the risk of homeowners defaulting on their mortgages to other investors via a credit derivative, typically called a Credit Default Swap, which acted like insurance on the CDO. Meanwhile the investor hired a loan servicing company to interface with the homeowner/borrower. That loan servicing company is paid based on services they provide: a little for collecting and passing on payments, a little more for harassing homeowners who have missed a payment, BUT a lot for conducting a foreclosure. They are paid little for doing a loan modification, and often don’t have authority to modify the loan terms even if they wanted to do so. Loan servicers are economically incentivized to foreclose. The principle party in economic interest, the contract party on the Credit Default Swap, is powerless to push the loan servicer to modify the loan or work out an arrangement by which a family can stay in their home. This is why Filing a Lawsuit Against Your Lender Might Make a Whole Lot More Sense Than Waiting For Your Bank To Help!
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