Co Senator Writes Us Treasury Dept. Asking Hamp Do More

By Author: Timothy McFarlin
Total Articles: 13
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Yesterday, April 8th, 2010, Colorado Senator, Michael Bennet, wrote a letter to the United States Treasury Department, asking for greater assistance and suggested changes to The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Yesterday, April 8th, 2010, Colorado Senator, Michael Bennet, wrote a letter to the United States Treasury Department, asking for greater assistance and suggested changes to The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Bennet writes, families throughout Colorado have repeatedly expressed their frustration about the modification process and the lack of information and cooperation from loan servicers. Servicers routinely misplace documents and homeowners must repeatedly provide the same documents. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

HAMP helps save families, on the brink of foreclosure, stay in their homes. Bennet, in his letter to Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, Herbert Allison, asks the Treasury Department for more transparency for homeowners seeking HAMP modification. The Treasury Department, writes the Senator, should work to create an independent appeals process ...
... for familiesturned down for a modification and denied an opportunity to convert their temporary modification into a permanent one. The appeal should occur expeditiously to provide certainty and clarity for struggling families facing the prospect of losing their home. The current process lacks an ample avenue for recourse.

More often than not, financially struggling homeowners' requests are slowly ignored or rejected for a modification. When they are rejected, the opportunity for an appeal has been nearly non-existent. These are the kinds of changes Senator Bennet is seeking in his letter. He's proposing when homeowners are denied modification, they receive, in writing, an explanation from the loan servicer—this way, the owner can decide if the rejection was appropriate and what can be done in the future.

The Colorado Senator is also asking the Treasury Department to grant homeowners, who have been denied modification and conversion from temporary modification to permanent, a faster appeals process. Presently, there is no fast track or any track for that matter, to appeal.

Bennent was successful back in February, when he asked the Treasury Department to stop mortgage providers from carrying out the foreclosure process without first determining whether the homeowners were eligible for mortgage loans. Since he was able to get this action/change set into HAMP's guidelines, many homeowners are hoping he has similar success in improving the program again this time.

The author is an authority in bankruptcy and loan modifications.