If you are a District homeowner facing foreclosure, there may be some good news. Last month, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed into law emergency legislation intended to help struggling homeowners.
Under the new law, effective Nov. 17, before a lender can foreclose on a residential property, the borrower must be given the opportunity to enter into mediation with the lender in an attempt to prevent the loss of the family home.
The question now is straightforward: Will mediation work?
Experience elsewhere may offer some insight. Currently, 23 states - including Maryland but not Virginia - have enacted some form of mediation legislation.
The Maryland program is under the auspices of the Office of Administrative Hearings. Chief Judge Thomas Dewberry said, "Our research with other mediation states indicated that only 12 percent of pending foreclosures would be resolved through mediation. Our law just started this year on July 1. We had 96 homeowners request mediation, and 43 cases successfully avoided mediation. We are pleased with that number."
The old way
Before the new law was enacted, to initiate foreclosure in the District, a lender had only to send the borrower, by certified mail, a formal notice of foreclosure sale. A copy of that notice had to be sent to the District government. The lender could not foreclose until 30 days elapsed from the date the notice was delivered to the District.
No comments:
Post a Comment