What Happens During Foreclosure Fairness Mediation?
If you are facing a home foreclosure, a foreclosure defense lawyer in Washington State can help. Under the Washington State Foreclosure Fairness Act an attorney or housing counselor can request mediation on your behalf if the home in question is your primary residence and your lender is not exempt from mediation. For more on how to request mediation click here. This process is called foreclosure fairness mediation.
Once you have submitted all the required documents to your foreclosure defense lawyer and the mediation date is set, you will be required to appear with your attorney at a dispute resolution center in which you will meet with a mediator, an attorney from the bank, and somebody of authority on the phone from your bank who has the power to modify your loan if they see fit.
The mediation session will start out by the mediator laying out the ground rules and expectations followed by you or your attorney giving a short opening statement describing your hardship and why you weren’t able to stay current on your loan. The bank’s attorney will then make a short statement giving the banks stance on modifying your loan. Usually the banks position will be based on the documentation you provided earlier and whether there are any other factors which may affect whether you can qualify for a loan modification. Remember, all members of your household can contribute to the household income. So if you are somebody who has lost a job, contributions from others can really help push you into a loan modification as it shows that you can now afford to make your payments. At the end of the day, the bank needs to make a business decision on whether to foreclose or not.
Sometimes the banks can be unreasonable, even if a person can show they are able to make payments. In these cases a borrower can make up the difference that they are behind or look at short sale or deed in lieu which will avoid a foreclosure. At the end of the mediation the borrowers will either be given a list of documents that they need to gather up for further review, be told that they can have a modification or be told that a modification is not possible and that they should consider other options. Sometimes an additional mediation session will be schedules if it is necessary to get together on more time to further discuss additional information provided by the borrower.
If you have additional questions please call Symmes Law Group at 206-682-7975
