WASHINGTON — Ten months after the White House began pressing lenders to do more to prevent foreclosures, many struggling homeowners are holding up their end of the bargain but still find themselves rejected, and some are even having their homes sold out from under them.
These borrowers completed trial modifications of their mortgages only to learn they won’t get help after all.
How many is hard to tell. Lenders participating in the Home Affordable Modification Program don’t provide information on who’s rejected and why.
To date, more than 759,000 trial loan modifications have been started but just 31,382 have been converted to permanent new loans. That 4 percent is far below the 75 percent President Barack Obama has sought.
In the fine print of the application for Obama’s program, which lowers payments for three months while the lender decides on permanent relief, borrowers waive important notification rights. This allows banks to reject them without notification and move straight to auctioning their homes. Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers
