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What is a Mortgage Forbearance Agreement?

Marc Dann

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OH Foreclosure Timeline

Understanding Mortgage Forbearance Agreements

If you fall behind on your mortgage, your lender may offer alternatives to foreclosure that will enable you to stay in your home. The alternatives can include loan modifications, repayment plans, and forbearance agreements which are specifically designed for borrowers who are having difficulty making their mortgage payments due to temporary problems like unemployment, illness, unexpected medical bills, or other types of financial hardship.

Under the terms of a forbearance agreement your lender will reduce or even suspend mortgage payments and agree not to initiate foreclosure proceedings against you for a set period of time. You must agree to bring your loan up to date by paying the delinquent principal, interest, taxes, and insurance that is due by the end of the forbearance period. You will then resume making your full payments.

FHA-insured Loan Forbearance Plans

If you fall behind on a mortgage loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the government requires your lender or servicer to determine if you qualify for one of the loss mitigation programs offered by the FHA. Those programs include formal, informal and “special” forbearance. Any qualified borrower may enter into a formal or informal forbearance plan. Special forbearance is available only to homeowners who are struggling to make their mortgage payments because they recently became unemployed.

Mortgage Forbearance Agreements vs. Loan Modifications

As mentioned above, forbearance agreements are designed to help homeowners who are experiencing short-term, temporary financial difficulties. They are not a long-term solution for delinquent borrowers who have more fundamental financial problems. Those borrowers, including people who have adjustable rate mortgages with an interest rate that has reset to a level that makes their monthly payments unaffordable, must usually seek remedies other than forbearance.
If you are in that category, a loan modification which permanently changes the terms of the mortgage by extending the life of the loan, reducing the interest rate, or removing a portion of the principle may be the right option for you. Unlike a forbearance agreement, a loan modification is a long-term solution that will help resolve your delinquency and save your home from foreclosure.

Contact An Ohio Foreclosure Defense Attorney Before Entering into any Agreement with a Mortgage Lender or Servicer

Whether you are considering forbearance, a loan modification, or other type of repayment plan, you should always contact an experienced foreclosure attorney before entering into any agreement with a mortgage lender or servicer. DannLaw’s skilled legal team will guide you through the process, make sure you understand what your lender is offering, and help ensure that that the choice you make is right for you, your family, and your financial future.

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DannLaw today filed suit against the owners of the Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel located in Mahwah, New Jersey and Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc. for repeatedly violating both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws. The suit, filed on behalf of Erika Symmonds, alleges that the defendants twice failed to provide ADA-compliant accommodations after confirming that mobility accessible rooms were available at the Mahwah, NJ facility. The pleading in the case, which was filed today in the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey may be viewed and downloaded here:0001. (09-04-2019) COMPLAINT against APPLE SEVEN HOSPITALITY OWNERSHIP INC. HILTON WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS INC. (Filing a

According to Attorney Emily White, Managing Partner of DannLaw’s Disability Rights Practice Group, Symmonds and her family, including her grandmother who has a mobility impairment traveled to the Mahwah area to visit relatives for the winter holidays in December 2017 and again in 2018.  A few weeks before each trip, Symmonds researched accessible rooms, and made a hotel reservation at Homewood Suites in a room designated “mobility accessible”. Symmonds then followed up by phone to confirm that the room was both accessible and available so that her spouse, young daughter, and grandmother could be in close proximity in a shared suite. In both instances, however, the hotel failed to provide a mobility accessible room, resulting in humiliating and distressing experiences for her family.

In December 2017, the family arrived at Homewood Suites Mahwah and were informed that the accessible room they had reserved was not available.  The family was instead placed in an inaccessible room.  As a result, Symmonds’ then 92-year-old grandmother was not able to independently use the bathroom and had to rely upon physical and emotional support from family members.

In December 2018, Symmonds again booked a room at Homewood Suites after receiving assurances from the hotel staff that the mobility accessible room was available and would be provided.  But when Symmonds arrived with her family late on Christmas evening, she found that the room she was given was not mobility accessible.  The bathroom lacked grab bars around the toilet and the space was too small to accommodate a walker or a wheelchair.  Because the bathroom was not accessible, the family member with a disability was unable to independently access it, and the family spent the morning after Christmas laundering the grandmother’s clothing. When one of the family members alerted the hotel front desk staff about the situation, she was told that the hotel considered the room to be “mobility accessible” because the tub was large enough to fit a stool that could be requested from the engineering department.

The ADA, which includes specific technical specifications for mobility accessible rooms, requires hotels to provide equal access to people with disabilities and to ensure that rooms are available to travelers with disabilities. Since 2012, the ADA has mandated that online reservation systems describe the features of accessible rooms so that travelers can independently identify whether a room has accessible features such as a wheel-in shower or grab bars. In addition, the law requires that people with disabilities have equal opportunity to reserve an accessible room.

In 2010, Hilton entered into an agreement with the United States Department of Justice to improve its reservation system. The agreement resolved a lawsuit alleging that:

  • Hilton “Systemically, and across its various brands…fails to provide individuals with disabilities the same opportunity to reserve accessible guest rooms using its on-line … reservations systems”;
  • Hilton “Failed to provide accurate, reliable information about its accessible sleeping rooms and amenities throughout its reservations system”;
  • “…individuals with disabilities are unable to reserve, on-line, accessible sleeping accommodations with either a tub or a roll-in shower.”

“Hilton’s failure to provide the accessible rooms reserved by Symmonds represent a serious violation of the ADA,” Attorney White said.”

“At a time when so many people are caring for elderly relatives or other family members with disabilities, hotels must provide the legally-required services families need,” Symmonds said. “It is disappointing that a company like Hilton, which could be a leader in disability access, refuses to meet even the baseline requirements of the law. Hilton should know better and do better to ensure that the rooms it designates as ‘mobility-accessible’ have grab-bars near toilets and enough space to make it possible for individuals with walkers and wheelchairs to enter bathrooms,” Symmonds continued. “We are filing suit in the hope that Hilton will honor its commitment to people with disabilities and their caregivers by fully complying with the ADA at all its properties.”

Along with compensatory damages, the suit asks the court to order Homewood Suites by Hilton Mahwah and Hilton Worldwide Holdings to ensure that equal access to accessible guest rooms is provided to individuals with disabilities and their families in the future and that such compliance is to be monitored by the federal court.

For more information, please contact Attorney Emily White at 614-705-0107 or [email protected]

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Attorneys for Cleveland, Ohio-based DannLaw, one of the nation’s leading consumer protection law firms, today filed separate class-action suits in Federal Court against Phoenix Financial Services, LLC and Central Research, Inc. The suits allege that both firms have repeatedly violated the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (“FDCPA”), the federal law that prohibits debt collectors from engaging in abusive, deceptive and unfair practices.

Former Ohio Attorney General and DannLaw founder Marc Dann said the case against Phoenix Financial Services involves the firm’s efforts to collect “zombie” debt. “In Ohio, creditors are barred from suing to collect after four years,” he said. “But if the debtor makes a payment after the statutory time limit, the dead debt is brought back to life. That’s why the term zombie applies.”

“The law requires companies like Phoenix to tell consumers they aren’t obligated to pay a debt after the time limit has expired,” Atty. Dann continued. “Unfortunately, Phoenix and a number of other companies featured in a Washington Post story about the growing zombie debt industry, ignore that requirement and instead try to trick people into paying thousands of dollars they don’t actually owe. The practice is illegal and immoral so we’re asking the Court to make our clients whole and to bar the company from misleading consumers.”  The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division at Cleveland.

According to Attorney Brian Flick, Managing Partner of DannLaw’s Cincinnati office, the suit against Central Research alleges that the Lowell, Arkansas debt collection firm has engaged in false, deceptive, and or misleading conduct by sending collection notices to debtors that list the amount due but do not disclose that the balance may increase due to late fees, interest, and other charges.

“A number of courts have ruled that debt collectors must tell consumers the amount they owe when they receive a demand letter will grow each and every day,’ Atty. Flick said. “Central’s conscious decision to disregard those rulings and the FDCPA have harmed our lead client and hundreds of other Ohioans. We’re determined to hold the company accountable for willfully violating the law.” The Central Research case was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.

Both suits seek statutory and actual damages and include a demand for a jury trial.

For more information, please contact Atty. Marc Dann at 216-373-0539/[email protected] or Atty. Brian Flick at 513-951-7124/[email protected]

The pleadings and exhibits may be viewed/downloaded by clicking on the links below:

Allen_Candace_2019_08_08_Complaint_draft_v_2.0

Allen_Candace_2019_08_09_Exhibit_A_-_Dunning_Letter

Hall_Warren_2019_08_08_Complaint_v_2.0

Hall_Warren_2019_08_09_Exhibit_A_-_Dunning_Letter

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Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann recently asked the members of the Ohio General Assembly to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for rape and extend the civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse. Atty. Dann who led efforts to strengthen the state’s rape, sexual abuse, and sexual predator laws as both a member of the Ohio Senate and Attorney General cited the sexual abuse scandals that have roiled the Catholic Church, U.S. Gymnastics, Penn State, and the Ohio State University as reasons why reform is needed now more than ever.

Following is the letter he sent to Speaker of the House Larry Householder, Senate President Larry Obhoff, and all members of the GA in early June:

June 3, 2019

President Larry Obhoff

Senate Building

1 Capital Square 2nd Floor

Columbus OH 43215

Speaker Larry Householder

77 S.High St. 14th Floor

Columbus OH 43215

*Sent via electronic mail

 

         Re:            Criminal and Civil Statutes of Limitations for Rape

 

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Speaker:

I write to you today to express my support for legislation that will eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for rape in the state of Ohio. Like the current and former attorneys general who registered their support for this proposal earlier this week, I devoted much of my time as Ohio’s AG to ensuring that law enforcement had the resources needed to pursue, prosecute, and incarcerate offenders.

While I applaud the AGs for their advocacy on this important issue, anyone who truly cares about the victims of this heinous crime knows we must do more than erase the criminal SOL. We must also extend the civil statute of limitations to 20 years so that victims have the time they need to hold their rapists and their rapists’ enablers accountable for the pain and suffering they have caused.

I first learned about the terrible physical and psychological pain victims endure in 2005 when I led the effort to pass Senate Bill 17 while serving as the Ranking Member of the Senate Civil Justice Committee. After hearing harrowing testimony from women and men who had been sexually abused as children, both the Committee and the Senate unanimously passed the bill which contained a provision that extended the civil SOL to 17 years.

Unfortunately, in one of the ugliest and most destructive displays of the negative impact big money donors can exert in the state’s pervasive “pay-to-play” culture, the nation’s multi-billion-dollar insurance companies placed the pursuit of profits ahead of the interests of victims and succeeded in stripping the civil SOL extension from SB 17 when it reached the House.

Today, 14 years after that shameful act of legislative malfeasance, the need to significantly extend the civil SOL in more urgent than ever before. A fact underscored by the sexual abuse scandals that have roiled the Catholic Church, U.S. Gymnastics, Penn State, and the Ohio State University. In each of these cases as well as many others, powerful officials and administrators looked the other way as innocent boys and girls were abused. And, in many of these cases those boys and girls, who often did not come forward until years after they were assaulted, were left with little opportunity to obtain the justice and just compensation they deserved because the civil stature of limitations had run out. In effect, they have all been victimized twice: by their rapists/abusers and by a political system held captive by the insurance industry and institutions that vigorously oppose legislation that would hold them accountable.

Fortunately, Representatives Kristen Boggs and Tavia Golonski are taking up the work I and my Senate colleagues of both parties began in the Senate in 2005. They have promised to introduce a bill that will address both the criminal and civil statutes of limitations. Extends the civil SOL to 20 years and tolling it until a child victim turns 18 years of age will represent a monumental step for victims and impose much-needed accountability for those who committed monstrous acts and those who knew what was happening but chose to look away.

It is my sincere hope that the current and former AGs who registered their support for eliminating the criminal SOL will join me in advocating for victims past, present, and future.

Sincerely,

Marc Dann

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Ohio Sheriff Sale Eviction Process

How Long Do I Have in My House After a Sheriff Sale?

Once the Ohio foreclosure process is over and your home has been sold at a sheriff sale, you are not yet legally required to leave your home. There are a few steps the sheriff, court and new owners must take before you can be evicted. You may also be able to save your home or stay the eviction process.

The Ohio Sheriff Sale Eviction Process

Once your lender obtains a Final Judgment of Foreclosure, the sheriff sale process will begin:

  1. The sheriff appraises your home with the aid of three neutral parties. The sale will then be advertised in a local newspaper for three consecutive weeks.
  2. The sheriff sale is held. The sale is a public auction. The property may not be sold for less than 2/3 of its appraised value. The lender is often the winning bidder. It is important to note that you are not required to leave the property and the buyer cannot change the locks or otherwise obstruct you from continuing to reside in the property when the sale concludes.
  3. What is known as a redemption period begins immediately after the sale. The sheriff has 60 days to inform the court of the sale. The court then has 30 days to confirm it. This is called “redemption period” because during these 90 days you can redeem your home by paying the full amount owed on the judgment plus any fees or costs incurred during the foreclosure. This could take the full 90 day period, but may also be completed in only a couple days. Therefore, it is wise to move fast if you plan to redeem your home.
  4. Once the sale has been confirmed, the deed will be drawn up and the buyer will pay the purchase price and record a new deed. At this point the buyer has possession of the property and you can be evicted.
  5. The buyer can request a Writ of Possession and the sheriff will generally give you 3-7 days to vacate the property.
  6. If you do not move by the deadline, the sheriff will remove your belongings from the house. You may request an deadline extension from the sheriff’s office, but they are not obligated to grant the request.

You can choose to wait out the time period and save money to pay for a new place to live. You may also hold out in the hope that the new owner will offer you money to move sooner, a transaction known as “cash for keys.” You also have the right to file for bankruptcy, which will stop all foreclosure proceedings. You should speak to a professional Ohio bankruptcy attorney to see if this is a viable option.

At DannLaw, we provide sound advice throughout the foreclosure process and make sure you are not removed from your home before you are legally obligated to vacate. We can also help you stay the sheriff sale and fight to keep your home. Contact us today to learn more about your options when facing an Ohio sheriff sale.

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Ohio Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Income Limit

If you are buried under a mountain of debt and your phone is ringing constantly with harassing calls from creditors and debt collectors, it may be time to consider filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy exists to help you regain control of your life without being weighed down by the nasty side effects of debt, including wage garnishment, mounting late fees, interest charges and unpleasant phone calls and letters. There are two major types of consumer bankruptcy filings: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. It is important to note, however, that you don’t necessarily have a choice between the two. Ohio Chapter 7 bankruptcy income limits will determine if you are eligible to file under Chapter 7.

Chapter 7 vs Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Chapter 7 is liquidation based. This means unsecured debts are wiped away after you sell all non-exempt assets to pay back creditors. In many cases, most if not all your assets will be exempt from liquidation, which means you can keep those assets. Secured debts are unlikely to be discharged in Chapter 7.

Chapter 13 is repayment based. This means a five-year payment plan is put in place. At the end of the payment plan your remaining unsecured debts will be discharged. You you will still have to pay the collateral value of your secured debts.

It may seem like Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the best and most obvious choice. But there are measures in place to ensure that only people who truly need Chapter 7 debt relief can obtain it. To qualify, your income must be under the Ohio Chapter 7 bankruptcy income limit for Ohio. If your income is too high, then you must pass the Ohio Chapter 7 means test, which calculates whether you have enough disposable income to pay back some of your unsecured debts.

The Means Test and Ohio Median Income Limits

Your eligibility for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Ohio is dictated by how your annual household income compares to the median household income for a household of the same size. While we are going to use numbers determined after November 1st, 2018, you can find the exact numbers for your time period at the U.S. Trustee Program website.

The median income for a single earner is $48,441, a two-person household is $60,822, a three-person household is $73,182, and a four-person household is $87,321. Every additional person in a household beyond four adds an additional $8,400 to the total. Your annual income is determined by adding your average monthly income over the past six months and then dividing the total by six. If the result is less than the median income, you automatically qualify for Chapter 7.

If your income is more than the median, you don’t need to give up. You just have to use the means test. The court is concerned that because your income is high enough, you may be able to pay back some of your debts. In order to display that you need to file for Chapter 7, you must prove that your disposable income is not high enough to satisfy a repayment plan under Chapter 13.

Means Test and Disposable Income

The means test requires you to calculate your income and expense information. Income includes almost all sources of income you have, including business income, interest and dividends, pensions and retirement plans, household expenses paid by others, alimony and child support, worker’s compensation and unemployment income, amongst others.

Allowable expenses are subtracted from your average monthly income. These expenses are based on national standard of living, car ownership and out of pocket health care costs, as well as local standards for housing and transportation. These expenses are derived from information supplied by the Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service.

If your total monthly income over the course of the next 60 months is less than $7,475 then you pass the means test and may file for Chapter 7. If you are over $12,475 then you do not pass the means test and must instead consider Chapter 13 bankruptcy for debt relief. If you fall in between these two values you must do additional calculations to determine if you have enough income to pay 25% of your unsecured debts over the next five years. If you don’t, you qualify for Chapter 7. If you do, Chapter 13 is your only option. In addition, the court after examining the totality of your circumstances, may decide you qualify for Chapter 7. All calculations aside, if you demonstrate a need for Chapter 7 due to events like a serious family or medical matter, the court may allow you to file Chapter 7.

Ohio Means Test Exemptions

In some instances, you do not have to pass the means test to pursue Chapter 7 bankruptcy. These include situations in which the debt in not consumer debt like credit card or medical debt. You also are exempt if you are a disabled veteran and incurred your debt while on active duty or during a homeland defense operation.

Find Out if Bankruptcy Is Right for You

Sorting all the information about Ohio bankruptcy income limits, expenses and whether you qualify for Chapter 7 or must utilize Chapter 13 can be confusing. That’s why DannLaw is here to help you determine the best course of action for your situation. Contact us today for a free case evaluation so we can find the right solution to your debt problems.