The foreclosure case of Williams, a 52 year old executive of a food distribution business is probably one of the most bizarre and telling examples of foreclosure madness run amok.  Williams lives in a 3,500 square foot home with a $2500 monthly mortgage on which he was never late.  His credit score was 795 out of 800 and he was current on all of his bills.  But when Williams tried to pay his mortgage online, he was told that his mortgage company had put a “stop” on his mortgage account.  He later discovered that they had put him on the foreclosure assembly line and that the mortgage company would not take any future payments from him. After repeated calls and letters, the executive has not been able to get his home out of foreclosure even though the mortgage company has admitted that they lost his mortgage paperwork.

The Williams foreclosure saga is just one of the stories that we know about.  Here we have a well-paid executive who has a high credit score and is probably positioned well in other ways; but he cannot get off of his mortgage company’s foreclosure assembly line even after the company has admitted errors.  What about the less privileged homeowners who might be paying their mortgage on time; but who are not sophisticated enough to understand that they have the right and power to fight a foreclosure? What about the elderly who have mortgage free homes now facing bogus foreclosures?  Those people are vulnerable to losing their homes when they don’t deserve that.  When are our political leaders going to take a stand and make these bank executives pay with prison time for the blatant disregard they have shown for American homeowners?  After we have allowed the banks to get away with peddling toxic mortgages, failing to make a good-faith effort to stop foreclosures with affordable modifications and now literally stealing homes with significant equity through a foreclosure process that is error prone, it is time to take a stand.

Our economic system is far from perfect.  Consumer reform is finally seeping through the cracks, but it may not be available to you.  However, that does not mean that you have to throw in the towel and give up your home.  Before you give up on your mortgage or sell off everything you own, consider talking to a bankruptcy attorney.  A qualified bankruptcy attorney will go through your debt obligations and help you plan for an effective bankruptcy.  Part of that planning is determining which assets will be protected through bankruptcy.  If your house is homesteaded it will usually qualify as an exemption and be protected through bankruptcy.    Another part of your planning is determining which debts are best to pay off first and how to get the remainder discharged in bankruptcy.   When you are in a spiral, it is extremely tempting to pay off the creditor that is yelling at you the loudest.  Quite frankly, this is just debt collector bullying.  If you have funds available, a bankruptcy attorney can guide you on how to maximize those funds to resolve all your debt obligations through bankruptcy, instead of just the pushiest ones.  Bankruptcy protection is your personalized economic recovery package.  Call an attorney in the Dallas-Forth Worth area today to plan your recovery.