Reboot Your Life: Tampa Student Loan and Bankruptcy Attorney Blog
We are still doing loan mods for our clients – three alone this week – one in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and two outside of bankruptcy. One has the docs to sign, another was presented with options including a principal reduction, and the other should be finished with underwriting and accepted in less than 30 days.
The June 2015 MHA Handbook Ver.4.5, revised on January 6, 2015 to Ver. 5.0, covers some of the procedures to be followed for borrowers who have filed bankruptcy and are seeking a loan mod to keep their home:
8.5 Borrower in Bankruptcy Borrowers who are currently in a TPP and subsequently file for bankruptcy may not be denied a permanent modification on the basis of the bankruptcy filing. The servicer and its counsel must work with the borrower or borrower’s counsel to obtain any court and/or trustee approvals required in accordance with local court rules and procedures. Servicers should extend the TPP as necessary to accommodate delays in obtaining court approvals or receiving a full remittance of the borrower’s trial period payments when they are made to a trustee, but they are not required to extend the trial period beyond two months, resulting in a total five-month trial period. In the event of a trial period extension, the borrower shall make a trial period payment for each month of the trial period including any extension month.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s position is that they will not agree to a principal reduction in a mortgage modification. So our Florida foreclosure defense and bankruptcy clients are out of luck when their home is worth a lot less than the balance owed. This is their position even after a homeowner has filed bankrutpcy and is no longer personally liable for the underlying debt.
Another tool to help Florida homeowners keep their home and avoid foreclosure will be available this summer.
We are still seeing significant principal reductions for some of our very lucky clients, mostly from Bank of America and Ocwen. 
There are several exciting things happening in mortgage modifications lately. The modification puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place, albeit four years after the foreclosure crisis began. We hope to take full advantage of this and get as many of our clients through a mediation this fall as possible.
Here’s an example in Tampa, Florida this month for one of our foreclosure clients who wanted to keep her house and avoid the possibility of a deficiency judgment:
The recent AG settlement among the states’ Attorneys General and the five largest mortgage servicers is expected to be filed any day now. Hopefully then more light will be shed on what exactly the terms are and how they will help Florida homeowners.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that recently approved of HAMP principal reduction for Freddie and Fannie loans has rejected a proposal by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA). The Principal Paydown Plan is designed to amend the bankruptcy code to allow for payments during a Chapter 13 to go towards principal to substantially reduce the balance owed on an underwater home.