Hawaii homeowners who faced or are at risk of foreclosure are in line for more than $60 million in direct relief under an unprecedented nationwide settlement with lenders.
Attorneys General from all states except Oklahoma announced Thursday the "Mortgage Servicing Settlement", an unprecedented 25 to 32 billion dollar deal with the top 5 private mortgage servicers over foreclosure abuse and fraud.
"We’re going to provide real relief, right now, for homeowners," said Hawaii Attorney General David Louie. "We’re not going to have to wait 5-10 years for litigation."
Under the agreement, Hawaii gets $71 million. Of that, people who lost their homes from 2008 through 2011 could get up to $2,000 each in cash payments — up to a total $3.2 million. $8 million goes into a state trust account to continue investigation and foreclosure prevention. $9 million will go toward loan modification and refinance for borrowers who are current but owe more than their home is worth, and $50 million in wiped out debt for borrowers with extreme loan to value and debt to income ratios.
"There were things that were happening systemically from some of the most powerful entities in our nation that they had a right to speak up and to bring their cases forward," said Rev. Bob Nakata of Faith Action Community Network.
The settlement does not grant immunity from criminal offenses and borrowers and investors can still pursue legal action. The states’ deal also has substantial non-monetary terms overhauling bad servicing practices.
"Everybody knows what kind of mess the banks created with their bad servicing, their fraud, their runaround and all of the oh gee I’m sorry we can’t help you kind of an attitude," said Louie.
Lenders & servicers in the settlement are Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally — formerly GMAC. It’s second only to the tobacco settlement in size of deals ever obtained by state attorneys general.
To see if you qualify for aid, visit http://hawaii.gov/ag/mortgagesettlement.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
