Home»Top Stories Daily Email»Nevada News»Nevada attorney criticizes lender efforts in foreclosure mediation
Nevada attorney criticizes lender efforts in foreclosure mediation
Page Last Updated: Tuesday December 1, 2009 2:16pm PST
But there is some concern about just how effective Nevada's mediation program really is.
The Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program is designed to bring homeowners and lenders together to discuss alternatives to foreclosure.
The program has only been up and running for about five months, and 3,400 homeowners have already asked for help.
News 4 spoke with a homeowner and his attorney who say the lenders aren't cooperating or willing to negotiate with homeowners.
The attorney, Terry Thomas, says in two of his cases so far, the mediators have found the lenders are in bad faith because they did not send someone with the authority to make a decision, and because the lender was unwilling to negotiate.
"It's a collection scam," Thomas said. "Send us money and then we will decide if at the time we want to do any modification. That's an empty promise, like I said."
The program coordinator says it is not fair to give a blanket statement about the lenders because many of them are cooperating and following the rules.
To get the banks side of the story, News 4 spoke with Bill Uffelman from the Nevada Bankers Association. He says the banks are willing to participate in the program and are working hard to comply with the laws.
COMMENTS
I'd like to know how to contact Terry Thomas about information on The Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program.
Thank you.
This help came out after we short sold our homes. First short sale was denied, bank wanted more, house sat, bank would not modify, finally bank settled for way less than the first offer. Other older home sat for 2 years while bank messed around with modification, even sent in money as "good faith", still no outcome, finally had to short sale 2 years later as bank lied, even got the executive resolutions and legal dept. involved, finally we said enough is enough, got lucky, were able to short sale. Many consumers don't know how to fight, throw arms up in frustration & walk away. Banks should be doing what they can to help people stay in homes, instead they drag it on for months, even years as in our case. Document just incase. We called weekly, documented but in our case this law was not in place otherwise we might have saved at least one of our homes opposed to short selling both, having bad credit, and renting. Home owners just be aware, be informed, make it a business decision
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Home»Top Stories Daily Email»Nevada News»Nevada attorney criticizes lender efforts in foreclosure mediation
TOM T.
December 1, 2009 7:53am PST
Mark as Offensive
I have been fighting this battle for more than a year now. I was inclined to contact your "expert," Terry Thomas, but he is not listed in the phone book and his NV Bar contact information includes a non-working email. Where do you find your informed sources?