Oakland Debt Reduction Attorney Helping People Keep Their Homes
Alternatives
Because we can no longer collect fees up front, as described in detail below, we are no longer able to provide home loan modification services. However, many people who have come to our office to prevent home foreclosure have left with a better, more effective solution, such as Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
To learn more about how we can help you, please contact our Oakland office today to schedule a free consultation with our knowledgeable attorney Jeffrey D. Hoffman.
Bad Law
SB 94, a California law in effect since October 11, 2009, prevents attorneys from collecting fees up front for loan modifications. Because of this new law, we are no longer able to provide home loan modification services. Providing these services has become financially infeasible due to the high expenses incurred while having to wait many months to collect fees.
Overreaction by State Legislature
SB 94 was enacted in response to dishonest attorneys taking money up front for home loan modification services but failing to do any meaningful work for those clients. However, there were already laws that could have been used to punish those attorneys, such as disbarment and even prison in appropriate cases, such as criminal fraud. Instead of protecting the public from dishonest attorneys, what the Legislature has done is to prevent most, if not all, honest attorneys from providing loan modification services for people in need. Instead, homeowners and other property owners in danger of foreclosure who cannot afford their mortgage payments will now have to fend for themselves against large, powerful institutions like banks.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who try loan modifications on their own are not successful. They either fail to get loan modifications or get bad ones that do not lower their mortgage payments significantly. In contrast, below is a partial list of the successes that our team was able to provide in the past.
|
Old Payment |
New Payment |
Monthly Savings |
Principal Reduction |
Lender | |
|
8/3/2009 |
2,985 |
1,552 |
$1,433 |
Saxon | |
|
9/25/2009 |
5,119 |
3,133 |
$1,986 |
HomeEq | |
|
10/1/2009 |
2,849 |
2,117 |
$732 |
Countrywide | |
|
10/16/2009 |
1,889 |
697 |
$1,192 |
$38,881 |
Wachovia |
|
11/4/2009 |
2,899 |
2,141 |
$758 |
Ocwen | |
|
11/5/2009 |
5,944 |
2,670 |
$3,184 |
$463,000 |
CitiMortgage |
|
11/12/2009 |
2,482 |
2,242 |
$240 |
CitiMortgage | |
|
11/21/2009 |
2,850 |
2,349 |
$501 |
WaMu | |
|
11/25/2009 |
8,500 |
4,377 |
$4,123 |
EMC | |
|
12/20/2009 |
2,382 |
1,272 |
$1,110 |
Wilshire | |
|
12/30/2009 |
6,471 |
2,600 |
$3,871 |
American Home Mtg. | |
|
1/5/2010 |
3,459 |
1,584 |
$1,875 |
$214,095 |
U.S. Bank |
|
2/10/2010 |
2,945 |
1,409 |
$1,536 |
BofA | |
|
2/15/2010 |
3,312 |
1,370 |
$1,942 |
Wells Fargo | |
|
2/27/2010 |
3,325 |
1,655 |
$1,670 |
Chase | |
|
3/5/2010 |
1,675 |
1,139 |
$536 |
IndyMac | |
|
3/15/2010 |
3,295 |
1,687 |
$1,608 |
$131,500 |
GMAC |
|
3/16/2010 |
3,230 |
1,932 |
$1,298 |
$111,318 |
Aurora |
|
3/16/2010 |
3,620 |
1,932 |
$1,688 |
$247,976 |
IndyMac |
|
3/26/2010 |
4,275 |
2,162 |
$2,113 |
E-Trade | |
|
3/26/2010 |
4,333 |
3,113 |
$1,220 |
Carrington Mtg. Serv. |
What You Can Do
If you would like to be able to use an attorney to get the best reduction possible in your mortgage payments, write and call your state senators and assembly persons and tell them to repeal SB 94. Tell them that you wanted legal help getting a loan modification, but that you are finding it very difficult or impossible to find an attorney who provides this service. If they tell you that the law was enacted to protect you, tell them that there are already sufficient laws in place that provide that protection but that SB 94 has prevented you from getting the help that you need. You can find the contact information for your legislators by going to this website: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
