From: Katherine Porter
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2013
Subject: Reaffirmation to refinance/modification after discharge
If you have California clients facing requests to reaffirm after discharge to either refinance or modify the loan, please know about the California Monitor Program as a resource. I serve as Monitor at the request of California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The California Monitor provides assistance to homeowners and negotiation with the five mortgage companies that signed the National Mortgage Settlement: BoA, WF, Chase, Citi, and GMAC (now serviced by Ocwen) to ensure compliance with the Settlement, including its bankr uptcy-related servicing reforms. You can submit an issue to us by email to: camonitor@doj.ca.gov.
Of the 5 servicers listed above, we believe Wells Fargo is the main (only?) institution refusing refinances unless the mortgage debt was reaffirmed in the bankruptcy. (Doing it after the discharge basically doesn’t work for a host of legal reasons, and WF sees those issues but seems to continue to “ask for”/”require” a reaffirmation at times. Wells Fargo has confirmed to us, however, that loan modifications after discharge are available, regardless of whether the debt was reaffirmed.
California lawyers feel free to contact us if your clients are facing difficulty in the loan modification process [before, during, after, w/o regard to] the bankruptcy if the servicer is BoA, WF, Chase, Citi, or formerly GMAC (now Ocwen). Unfortunately, we cannot help with other servicers at this time. We are also particularly interested in problems with Bank of America loans transferred to Nationstar (particularly honoring trial modifications in process or converting to permanent modifications), and whether motions for relief in chapter 13 cases are providing statements of whether the debtor is in the loss mitigation process (this is a settlement requirement).
We also created some bankruptcy-specific National Mortgage Settlement training documents, including one with the National Consumer Law Center called “What Every Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney Needs to Know About the National Mortgage Settlement. http://californiamonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Consumer-Bankruptcy-Powerpoint.pdf
Our general page is: http://californiamonitor.org/
Professor Katherine Porter
California Monitor
A Program of the Attorney General