Lenders' Loan Modification Runarounds Physically, Emotionally Overwhelming For Many Homeowners

In Southern California, KPCC 89.3 FM (Southern California Public Radio) reports:

• Lydia Mojica of Pasadena has been trying to save her home for the past year. “It’s been a nightmare. I can’t talk about it without starting to cry,” she says. She's negotiated with National City Mortgage for her loan. “It’s just been like a hamster in a wheel for the last seven months.”

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• “I just felt like a toy. They were playing with me. The run around they kept giving us.” She says the lenders told her things like, “'We’ll have answers. Oh, we are going to delay this answer. Oh, we need one more document. Oh, now that’s April, we need your March documents.' It was being strung along to the very last minute.”

• The ceaseless financial stress began to physically and emotionally overwhelm her and her family. She wasn’t able to sleep or eat for days. Her mother suffered as well. “My mother’s blood pressure is completely out of control. She has had to be medicated recently.”

• Stories like this are nothing new to lawyer Pat Pinto of Orange Country Legal Aid. Her job is to help families negotiate with banks for mortgages they can afford. “They sit in my office and they cry, they vomit.” She says homeowners start to break down. “They’re so upset because they love their home. They want to stay in their neighborhood. They want their children to stay in their schools.”

• In fact, she says she moved her trash can from behind her desk to in front, “because people sit in my chair and they are so upset they vomit all over the floor.” She describes the process families go through dealing with the banks to get better terms on their mortgage. “This is an emotional upsetting experience for them. And I tell you because this loan modification process is taking so long, over a year, that we watch homeowners become mentally unstable. And as the process goes on, they sink deeper into depression.”

For more, see Bank runarounds take toll on homeowners' mental health.