Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Government Takes a Stronger Hold On HAMP
Since the Making Home Affordable plan has been implemented, about 300,000 homeowners have enjoyed an average reduction of $500 a month. Unfortunately, however, this has done very little to improve the housing market.
Borrowers have complained that there are no consequences for the lenders who fail to follow the foreclosure prevention program's guidelines. Until recently, there was no recourse for a homeowner who was wrongfully denied access to the plan, whose mortgage information was incorrectly calculated, or whose documents were lost.
On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, the Senate approved an amendment creating the Office of Homeowner Advocate under the Treasury Department. This new office will be responsible for investigating homeowner's complaints of improper exclusions and conduct by lenders and correcting mistakes that have denied them eligibility. The cost of the program is expected to be around $1 million a year which will be funded by the Troubled Assets Relief Program. The program will be modeled after the Office of Taxpayer Advocate at the Internal Revenue Service that has been reported as a success.
The Office of the Homeowner Advocate hopes to allow more homeowners access to the HAMP program and enable HAMP to reach its goal of benefitting three to four million homeowners as originally expected.