HAMP-PRA Program Explained

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Editor’s Note: The PRA (Principal reduction Alternative) portion of HAMP has not been utilized with efficiency by homeowners. First of all  it is a good idea to have several copies —digital and on paper — when you submit your modification proposal. The pattern that is clear. They claim to have not received it, they destroy the file because one thing was missing, etc. So be prepared to submit multiple times and get in writing that the foreclosure will not go forward while this process is underway. A demand letter from an attorney referencing the Dodd-Frank Act and its prohibition against dual tracking, will probably produce some results, especially if it is sent to every known party at every known address including the tiny letters in a font so light you can barely see it on the bank of the end of month statement.

Remember you are in all probability communicating with people who never owned nor funded the loan nor the purchase of the loan and that in order to clear the title on your client’s home you will need a “Guarantee of Title” from the title company and I think it is a good idea to get a judge’s order (a) approving the settlement and (b) declaring that these are the only stakeholders. That Order probably will require notice by publication for a period of weeks, but it is the only sure way of ending the corruption of your title. If you are not in court yet, then see if you can work into the agreement that you can file a quiet title action and that the party approving the modification will not contest it.

As you know, if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, I do not consider the lowering of the principal due as a reduction or a forgiveness. This raises tax issues but also raises your chances of getting a very good settlement.

Don’t limit yourself to the documents requested by the bank. The package you submit should contain a spreadsheet of calculations and the formulas used by an expert to determine a reasonable value for the property and a reasonable rate of interest and term. In your submission letter, you should demand that the party receiving it (which I think should include the subservicer, Master Servicer, Investment Banker and “trustee” of the investment pool) must respond in kind unless they accept the modification as proposed.

Realize also that modification is a sham PR stunt, but it can have teeth if you use it properly. The current pattern is the “servicer” or “pretender lender” tells you that in order to get relief you must stop paying on your mortgage. Their excuse is that if you are paying, there is nothing wrong. My position is that if you are paying, you are undoubtedly paying the wrong amount of interest and principal because of the receipts and disbursements that occurred off balance sheet and off the income statements of the intermediaries who claimed the insurance and bailout money as their own.

Thus your expert should provide a formula and estimate of the amount of money that should have been paid to investors but which is sitting in  custodial or operating accounts in the name of the investment banker or its affiliate. If that doesn’t bring down the principal then move on to the hardship stuff mentioned in the article below. But remember that if the expert is able to estimate the amount of principal that was mitigated by the subservicer (continuing to make payments after the loan was declared in default) and When the receipts occurred, this would reduce not only the principal demanded by demonstrate the extra interest paid on a principal balance that was misstated in the EOM statements and the notice of default and notice of sale (or service of process in the  judicial states). In such cases, which is by far the majority of all loans out there including those paid off and refinanced, the overpayment of interest and perhaps even an overpayment of principal.

This is tricky stuff. You need an expert who understands this article and has some ideas of his/her own. AND you need a lawyer who wants more than to simply justify his/her fee. You want a lawyer, obsessed with winning, and who won’t let go until the other side gives in. Remember these cases rarely if ever go to trial. Once the pretender lender takes you as a credible threat they cannot afford to posture any longer lest they end up in trial where it comes out they never owned or purchased the loan, the investor’s agents were prepaid by insurance, CDS and federal bailouts. Millions of foreclosures preceded you in which title was corrupted by the submission of a credit bid by a stranger (non-creditor to the transaction. The tide is turning — be part of the solution!

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was established a few years ago by the Departments of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development to help homeowners who are underwater avoid foreclosure.

Since 2010, one of HAMP’s programs has been the Principal Reduction Alternative (HAMP-PRA). Borrowers who qualify for the program have their mortgage principal reduced by a predetermined amount (called the PRA forbearance amount).

A borrower qualifies for the HAMP-PRA program only if:

• the mortgage is not owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
• the borrower owes more than the home is worth
• the house is the borrower’s primary residence
• the borrower obtained the mortgage before January 1, 2009
• the borrower’s mortgage payment is more than 31 percent of gross (pre-tax) monthly income.
• up to $729,750 is owed on the 1st mortgage.
• the borrower has a financial hardship and is either delinquent or in danger of falling behind
• the borrower has sufficient, documented income to support the modified payment, and
• the borrower has not been convicted of a real estate related fraud or felony in the last ten years.

The end goal of the HAMP-PRA program is to reduce the borrower’s mortgage loan until the borrower’s monthly payment is reduced to a monthly payment amount determined under the HAMP guidelines.

Tags: HAMP-PRA, Inman News, investment banker, Master Servicer, modification, overpayment of interest, overpayment of principal, principal correction, principal reduction, Stephen Fishman, subservicer, Trustee of investment pool
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