Common Questions about Home Loans, Mortgages and Predatory Lending
This document answers common questions about loans, mortgages, and how to protect your home from predatory lenders.
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society
High-Cost Home Loans: Don't Be a Target
(Separate Website)
This document warns of abusive lenders trying to sell home owners a loan with payments that are too high which could result in losing your home at a foreclosure sale or spending all of your spare cash paying off a loan you didn't need or want.
By: National Consumer Law Center
Read this in:
Chinese / 中文
,
Spanish / Español
History of Predatory Lending
This is testimony of Atlanta Legal Aid's Bill Brennan, as one of the nation's experts on predatory lending, testifying at the Senate Special Committee outlining the problems of predatory lending and equity theft, how victims are targeted, and some historical perspective.
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society
Predatory Mortgage Lending Abuses
This document describes the different ways that mortgage lenders can trick homeowners into giving up their homes.
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society
Protect Your Investment - Don't Let Predatory Lenders Take Your Home
(Separate Website)
Senior citizens are an attractive target for unscrupulous mortgage lenders because they have a lot of equity in their homes after years of diligently paying off their mortgages, and they use that equity to finance home repairs, medical care and other needs. While these lenders may encourage seniors to use their hard-earned home equity to secure new loans - they will not tell seniors about the high fees, hidden payments or other disadvantageous loan terms that could lead to the loss of their homes.
By: National Consumer Law Center
Schemes to Cheat the Unwary Homeowner If you are like most homeowners, your house is your most valuable investment. As a homeowner you have to be very careful to protect your investment or you may become the victim of schemes to steal your money, your equity, or even your house. This brochure will help you recognize equity theft and title conversion scams and avoid them.
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society
Read this in:
Chinese / 中文
,
Vietnamese / Tiếng Việt
What You Should Know About Refinancing
(Separate Website)
Refinancing is a process in which you pay off one or more existing debts with a new home loan. If you have perfect credit, refinancing is sometimes a good way to obtain a lower interest rate or to convert a variable rate loan to a fixed rate. However, if you are in the midst of financial difficulties, if you have too much debt, or if you have bad credit, refinancing is loaded with pitfalls. We recommend that you be very careful when refinancing debts. Many refinancing loans hurt consumer. Here are twelve things to consider before refinancing.
By: National Consumer Law Center
Putting Your Home on the Loan Line is Risky Business
(Separate Website)
More and more lenders are offering home equity lines of credit. By using the equity in your home, you may qualify for a sizable amount of credit, available for use when and how you please, at an interest rate that is relatively low. Before making a decision, you should weigh carefully the costs of a home equity line against the benefits. Shop for the credit terms that best meet your borrowing needs without posing undue financial risk. And remember, failure to repay the amounts you've borrowed, plus interest, could mean the loss of your home.
By: Federal Reserve Board
Read this in:
Spanish / Español
New Protections For Tenants After A Foreclosure On May 20, 2009, President Obama signed a new federal law protecting tenants when the property they rent is sold at a foreclosure sale. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act is a federal law but it applies to state court eviction proceedings. The new owner must give the tenant the required notice before filing to evict. The law expires on December 31, 2012.
Protections for Tenants
When property is purchased at a foreclosure sale, this law requires that the new owner accept and follow any existing leases. The tenant?s lease does not end when the property is sold at foreclosure. For example, if a tenant living in the foreclosed property has a lease with nine months remaining, the new owner cannot evict the tenant until the lease expires and proper notice is given the tenant. There are three exceptions to the rule that the new owner cannot terminate the existing lease:
By: Georgia Legal Services Program®
Saving Your Home From Foreclosure
(Separate Website)
Unemployment, divorce, death and abusive
lending practices put many homeowners at
risk of losing their home. If you are facing
foreclosure, you may be tempted to give up
and walk away from your home. Don?t give
up! There may be an option available that
allows you to keep your home or sell or transfer
your home quickly before a foreclosure
sale. Here are some guidelines.
By: National Consumer Law Center
Mortgage and Foreclosure Relief: Answers for Reservists, Guardsmen and Other Military Personnel
(Separate Website)
Information for service men and women about how the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act helps with mortgage relief, lease termination and eviction issues.
By: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Steps That Advocates Can Take To Help Prevent Foreclosure
(Separate Website)
Older homeowners fall behind on their mortgages for many reasons: sudden decreases in income due to the loss of a spouse; poor financial management which contributes to nonpayment of utility bills, service shutoffs and liens against the property; failure to perform necessary repairs and maintenance which make the property uninhabitable; second mortgage scams which make impossible demands on the homeowner's limited resources.
All of these contributing factors can be addressed by skilled advocates -- if homeowners turn to them in time. This issue of Consumer Concerns for Older Americans examines some of the measures that legal and non-legal advocates for the elderly can take to defend homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
By: National Consumer Law Center
Foreclosure Rescue Scams
(Separate Website)
This website discusses foreclosure scams that disproportionately targets older Americans.
By: National Consumer Law Center
Avoid Foreclosure Scams Con artists know that people facing foreclosure are often looking for help to keep their home. Here are tips on how to protect yourself from foreclosure scams!
Other Formats:
WPD File
Brochure on the Foreclosure Process This brochure discusses the basic steps involved in the foreclosure process in Georgia and what to expect.
By: Georgia Legal Services Program®
Other Formats:
WPD File
How to Avoid Foreclosure and Keep Your Home This document provides ten (10) important steps to take if you have fallen behind in your home mortgage payments.
Your Home: Money Matters From the Federal Trade Commission
(Separate Website)
This FTC website offers videos, brochures and options for homeowners facing foreclosure.
By: Federal Trade Commission
Tenants at Foreclosure Act Know your rights as a renter of a foreclosed property under the new federal law
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society
Recognizing Foreclosure Rescue Scam in English and Spanish Recognizing Foreclosure Rescue Scam in English and Spanish
By: Georgia Legal Services Program®
The Making Home Affordable Program
(Separate Website)
Find out if you qualify for the new Making Home Affordable Refinance and Modification options. The Making Home Affordable program will offer assistance to as many as 7 to 9 million homeowners making a good-faith effort to make their mortgage payments, while attempting to prevent the destructive impact of foreclosures on families and communities.
By: financialstability.gov
HOPE NOW Loan Servicing
(Separate Website)
HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, servicers, investors, and other mortgage market participants that reaches out to homeowners in distress to help them stay in their homes.
Georgia Department of Banking and Finance Website
(Separate Website)
The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance (Department) is the state agency that regulates and examines banks, credit unions and trust companies which are chartered by the State. The Department also has regulatory and/or licensing authority over mortgage brokers and lenders, check cashers, sale of check companies, money transmitters, international banking organizations, and bank holding companies conducting business in Georgia.
By: Georgia Department of Banking and Finance
Mortgage and Real Estate Loans Information from the Federal Trade Commission
(Separate Website)
This web site contains documents relating to: (1) home equity loans, home equity credit lines and common home equity scams, (2) high rate, high fee mortgages, (3) reverse mortgages, (4) payday loans, and (5) mortgage discrimination. You may view the documents on-line and print them out or print them in PDF format.
By: Federal Trade Commission
Read this in:
Spanish / Español
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America Website
(Separate Website)
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America ("NACA") is a non-profit, community advocacy and homeownership organization. NACA?s primary goal is to build strong, healthy neighborhoods in urban and rural areas nationwide through affordable homeownership. NACA has made the dream of homeownership a reality for thousands of working people by counseling them honestly and effectively, enabling even those with poor credit to purchase a home or refinance a predatory loan with far better terms than those provided even in the prime market.
Struggling to Pay Your Mortgage? FHA Secure can Help If you have an adjustable rate mortgage coming due or if your interest rate is already too high, you may be able to refinance your mortgage using the FHASecure program offered by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
Other Formats:
WPD File
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Information Not Legal Advice
LegalAid-GA.org provides general information only. This is not legal advice and cannot replace legal advice. You can get legal advice only from a lawyer. Deadlines are extremely important in most legal matters. You may lose important legal rights if you do not hire an attorney immediately to advise you. Viewing this web site or sending an e-mail message through this web site does NOT create an attorney-client relationship.
LegalAid-GA is a project of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, the Georgia Legal Services Program and the Pro Bono Project of the State Bar of Georgia. This website was produced with funding from the Legal Services Corporation.
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