By Dorothy Meindok
The Post Newspaper Veterans Consultant
This, their most desperate hour; help them SecVA McDonough, you’re their only hope….
Last year a local, disabled veteran who served in the Korean DMZ came to me asking for some assistance in helping with her mortgage and the COVID remodification plan that was offered to her through her lender concerning her VA guaranteed mortgage. She had been trying to work with her lender and following all the steps and rules and sending in all the requested paperwork for months. Additionally, she was being told by that same lender that they would not accept any partial payments but for her not to worry because the lender would simply process the remodification and then attach the delinquent payments to the end of her mortgage term.
Veteran Duran worked diligently faxing and sending in the same and updated documents over and over again. Each time the lender received the documents they would either lose them or in taking their time the documents , once reviewed, were again outside of a 30 to 60 day window (depending on who answered the phone at the lender’s call center) and she would be required to update the financial disclosures complete with bank statements and resubmit them again. This process repeated itself without any forward progress for Duran and her stress level increased, helping to throw her diabetes and blood sugar out of whack so much that she had to postpone much needed surgeries. When she called me, we sat down and I assisted her in speaking with the lender but was told her paperwork was now “late”, the VA’s protection program for Covid remodifications had expired and that she would be given options in just a few weeks.
That wasn’t true. In fact, we contacted the VA mortgage team assigned to her loan and found out that the VA was stopping the program in a few weeks, but at the time of our call, it was “optional” for the lender to end honoring the protection program early. Duran’s lender had chosen to end the program early. Eventually, the lender offered the veteran a not so good deal and one that was not in line with the verbal promises and advice the lender’s agent’s had told her she would receive. She was advised to ask for a re-review. She did ask and again was put in waiting.
During the few weeks that went by we contacted local HUD experts to inquire what she could do and found that many were at a loss when it came to pandemic related relief programs. I advised her to report the situation to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau at ConsumerFinance.gov and she did.
Unfortunately, the news came back that nothing could be done for her, she was at the mercy of her lender without any protections.
This caused her to either have to pay a lump sum of the arrears which she did not have or accept the new remodification which increased her interest rate by 200% and doubled her monthly mortgage payment or face foreclosure. She had only days to decide and no other options. Under the VA’s protection plan this would not have occurred but remember, her applications for that program were suspiciously misplaced or not reviewed within the time window and miraculously, when they were finally reviewed the company had voluntarily removed itself from the VA’s protection plan for veterans early.
Veteran Duran felt bamboozled and taken advantage of and I would, as a witness to these happenings, have to agree with her conclusion that someone purposely delayed and misplaced her applications with the hopes of time running out in order to corner her into a higher interest rate. They realized their goals at the expense of this local, disabled veteran.
Since then, she has suffered financially, worked part time jobs, knitted and crocheted projects and juggled bills to meet the newer high demands she inherited when seeking relief. It’s shameful at the very least, if not outwardly unlawful.
Turns out that our local veteran was not the only one bamboozled and taken advantage of. She isn’t the only one that reported it and most recently members of our House Committee on Veterans Affairs along with other members of Congress reached out to VA’s Secretary Denis McDonough on the matters and he responded with hope for veterans such as Duran.
The VA has initiated a pause on all foreclosures affecting VA guaranteed loans through May of 2024. The VA anticipates a new program will then be in place to help vets avoid foreclosure, safeguarding low interest rate loans and re-establishing or continuing affordable payments in line with their income and service-connected compensation & pensions.
SecVA McDonough was recently asked at his monthly Press Conference on November 29, 2023 by the NPR investigation team of Chris Arnold & Quil Lawrence that brought the story to nationwide awareness if there would also be retro relief measures for veterans like our local veteran Duran. “There may be bigger policy fixes later, but we want them to be in touch with us now,” McDonough said. “We’re also concerned obviously to hear that some of our vets feel that they’ve been misled. So, we’re looking into that.”
Let us know what we can do to help you SecVA!
VA is encouraging all veterans who are struggling with their mortgage, whether they’re in a loan modification already or not, to contact the VA at 1-877-827-3702 or visit at va.gov/housing-assistance.
For more investigation coverage please visit: npr.org at https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216213793/veterans-fear-the-vas-new-foreclosure-rescue-plan-wont-help-them
To view Secretary Mc Donough’s November 29, 2023 Press Conference: https://www.youtube.com/live/-0CUsPUhovo?si=iM5Ya1Q4qeTKqFB6
Dorothy Meindok is The Post Newspaper’s Veterans Consultant. Ms. Meindok served her nation in the United States Navy and is currently a practicing lawyer advocating for our nation’s veterans. Her column appears on Sundays.
