Veronica Raphael, a foreclosure specialist in Westchester, N.Y., got so frustrated with the delays that she filed a complaint with the New York State Banking Department against Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, and Wells Fargo last month, citing unresponsiveness and lost paperwork. Since then, she said, they’ve gotten more responsive. Neither Wells Fargo nor Bank of America responded to requests for comment.
Roughly 230 of her agency’s clients have applied for a Making Home Affordable loan modification, she says. No one has gotten one yet. She notes, however, that some may not be eligible.
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Gary Fitz, a Wells Fargo customer from Mission Viejo, Calif., says he has endured lost paperwork and frustrating delays, too. But more troubling to him, he says, is that the company told him he wasn’t eligible for the Obama administration’s plan because he is still current on his payments.
Fitz isn’t the only one who has heard this. “I’ve had a couple people tell me, gee, I might as well become delinquent then, so I can qualify for this program,” says Catherine Amos, executive director of Grand Valley Housing Initiatives in Colorado. Housing counselors say they would never tell a homeowner to do this.
The administration’s plan is, in fact, available to borrowers who are current on their payments, and the government even offers extra incentive payments to servicers that modify before a borrower defaults.
Fitz says a Wells Fargo employee told him, “I don’t really know that much about it,” referring to the administration’s plan.
Sara Gilbert, executive director of the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northern Colorado and Southeast Wyoming, says untrained staffers are one of the biggest problems her organization faces. When her employees mention Making Home Affordable, many customer service representatives “don’t really know what’s available or who qualifies or that they’re even providing it,” she says.
According to Christina McGrath, a former Countrywide customer, Bank of America representatives told her as recently as mid-May that they weren’t offering the administration’s plan yet, even though the company signed a participation agreement (PDF) with the government on April 17.
