questions & answers

Question: I am contacting you on behalf of a close friend. She is disabled and had two children one of which are disabled. She has a USDA loan on her home.(Nov.21st 2010) She made all of her payments on the first of the month when her disability check was deposited. Then in October of 2014 she called to make her payment and they would not accept it. Instead they told her that her home was in foreclosure. She has since tried every month to make her payment but they will not take it. I would greatly appreciate any help or advise. Thank you.

Answer:

I am concerned that the home went into foreclosure in October of 2014. Federal law states that a bank may initiate foreclosure after 120 days of missed payments. Under Arizona law, the foreclosure process takes 90 days before the home is sold. Time is of the essence in your friend’s situation and I recommend that she seek the assistance of a legal aid attorney as soon as possible. She can apply for assistance here http://www.azlawhelp.org/accesstojustice/ or she can search for the closest Community Legal Services, Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Or DNA-People’s Legal Services office and apply either by phone or in person for free legal help.

If your friend has not yet received a notice of trustee sale, there is likely time to resolve this issue without the assistance of an attorney. My best guess is that the escrow (taxes and insurance) portion of her mortgage payment went up and she continued to pay the old amount. The bank does not have to accept partial payments. The best way to clarify why the bank stopped accepting payments is to submit a notice of error to the bank. This is a legal process for resolving disputes with the bank and they are required by law to respond to such a request or fix the error. Keep any questions simple, such as “I want to know why the bank stopped accepting my payments when I had never missed a payment.” The following website has a good explanation of this process along with a sample letter http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201401_cfpb_mortgage_request-error-resolution.pdf.”