Even in hard hit Tampa Bay, too few knew about the Independent Foreclosure Review process to make it successful
ST. PETERSBURG — After months of getting nowhere with complaints over the foreclosure of her home, Denise Lennon, 64, turned to what the government had touted as a check for bank abuses: the Independent Foreclosure Review.
But after volleys of paperwork and weeks more of waiting, Lennon’s hopes of a review just took a fatal hit. The $8.5 billion settlement announced by regulators Monday will absolve banks of foreclosure-abuse allegations and end the review.
Local attorneys, housing counselors and distressed homeowners said the abrupt end meant their attempts to secure a second opinion in foreclosure cases, many of which led to evictions, could bring them little relief.
Homeowners stand to receive a cut of the settlement money, ranging from hundreds of dollars up to $125,000, whether they filed for a review or not, the Federal Reserve said. But the size of individual payouts and whether they will adequately pay back people who lost their homes in error remain a mystery.
“Consumers put their time, their interest into this, and they just scrap it and walk away,” St. Petersburg foreclosure attorney Matt Weidner said. “It’s a slap in the face to consumers who filled out this paperwork to document wrongdoing, and they’re told it doesn’t matter.”
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That is what i was thinking. there are so many foreclsoures in florida, people have moved on and away how do they hear abou t and even if they did like my sister they are so scared they think it is a ploy to find them and sue for deficiency judgement
i wrote the napled rep passimmo she wrote me back. i suggested theta foreclosures should become more like trauma surgery. You get what ever trauma surgeon is on call doing your sugery right? so why cant they treat foreclosures the same way. everyone in america has a different capacity for learning. not everyone knows the fraudclosure fraud. and leave their homes. when the bank forecloses and the homeowner is served why cant there be county lawyer on call list. each lawyer takes their turn to call the homeowner and EDUCATE the homeowner about he fraud. but thats right there are no free houses, becuase the we are dunb and the bank wants the default to collect on the credit default swaps. to bad they want to speed up foreclosures