Action 9

Action 9: Hurricane mortgage relief hurting many homeowners

Action 9 is working to expose hurricane relief that some local families now call a cruel trap forcing them out of their homes.
Lenders offered mortgage forbearance after Hurricane Irma so owners could skip payments to cover repairs.
But Action 9 consumer investigator Todd Ulrich reports the program's fine print left many owners facing foreclosure nightmares.
“It put a gaping hole in my roof,” Tracy Crapps said.
Crapps, a disabled veteran, claims the mortgage forbearance program that helped cover hurricane repairs now threatens to kick him to the curb.
“I'm a veteran with a home just fighting to save mine, so I can stay in it and not be homeless,” Crapps said.
He said his lender approved missing three mortgage payments for hurricane recovery and the payments would be added to the end of his loan. But this summer, he received a new demand.
“They want it now, all in one lump sum,” Crapps said.
He claims he can't afford to pay back $4,600 and now the lender has started foreclosure.
“I think they're really trying to take my house,” Crapps said.
Action 9 first exposed the hurricane forbearance trap six months ago.
Consumers claimed lenders were changing the deal they had initially agreed upon. Lenders were demanding immediate, full repayment, or the consumers could face loan modifications at higher rates. And many of those consumers are now facing real foreclosure threats.
“Stop sending me harassing letters that they're going to foreclose on my house,” said Ken Gibbs.
Gibbs, a high school teacher and single father, got the forbearance offer. But now, unless he pays back $4,000 all at once, he could lose his house.
“This is not what you said,” Gibbs said when explaining what he was telling his lender on the phone.
Twenty local homeowners sent Action 9 similar complaints from 10 different lenders.  All of the homeowners feel betrayed by the federally backed hurricane assistance, which was made available in disaster areas.
“It's not how the law was written,” said real estate attorney Karen Wonsetler. She said the program allowed lenders to demand full repayment within a year, but she said that's not how many lenders sold the deal. “The question is whether the lenders misled consumers to take advantage of it. Had they known the terms, they would never agree to it.”
“I would have never put myself in this predicament if they were upfront from the get-go,” Gibbs said.
Consumers who felt burned by the program can send complaints to Florida's Department of Financial Services.
Unless hurricane forbearance changes, it's a program most hurricane victims need to avoid.
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Cox Media Group

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