• 14
  • February
    2012

After a few posts about foreclosure that were not exactly what you would call happy, we now have some foreclosure news that might actually make Omaha readers smile.

Four of the biggest mortgage lenders in the country have agreed to identify military members who lost their homes as a result of unfair foreclosure practices and to take steps towards making them whole again.

The banks agreed to this because it seems their mortgage practices broke laws designed to protect deployed service members from abuses by credit card companies and big banks. The deal is part of the more comprehensive foreclosure settlement plan announced earlier this month.

JP Morgan Chase will give wrongfully foreclosed-upon service members their home free of any debt or will reimburse them for the full value of the home at the time of its sale. Service members who were subject to mistreatment at the hands of Ally Bank (formerly GMAC), Wells Fargo and Citigroup will be required to give any service member who has wrongly foreclosed upon a minimum of $116,785.

What's also nice is that service members do not have to file to seek this relief; it's up to the banks to seek them out and give it to them.

The men and women of our armed forces contribute a lot to our country, so it is good to see that we are able to give them something back. (Naturally, it would have been better if mortgage providers would have played by the rules in the first place).

Source: The New York Times, "Mortgage Relief for Service Members," John H. Cushman Jr., Feb. 12, 2012