A major frustration for homeowner’s facing foreclosure is attempting to contact their mortgage servicer. After hearing numerous recordings requiring them to input endless personal information, often the employee they end up speaking to is not knowledgeable about the homeowner’s situation and does not even have up-to-date information.
The new CFPB rules have made some attempt to address this problem. The new requirements require that servicer employees assigned to help delinquent homeowners must:
- Give accurate information about loss mitigation options
- Explain correctly what a borrower must do to apply for workout options
- Tell the borrower the status of a loan mitigation application
- Be able to quickly locate the written information the borrower has submitted.
It remains to be seen what impact the rules will have on the servicer’s level of customer service. But knowledge of these new rules might empower homeowners to demand more helpful employees, and homeowners should not hesitate to remind servicers of these new standards (or the CFPB complaint process that accompanies them).
Featured Image: The Red Phone by Eric Kilby | CC-BY SA 2.0
Michael McAuliffe is CHN’s former Foreclosure Intake Specialist.
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