Why does my mortgage company ask for the same documents over and over during a loan modification?
“Why does my mortgage company ask for the same documents over and over during a loan modification?”
This is a ridiculously frustrating situation to be in when you’re trying to save your Alabama home.
When you’re facing foreclosure, taking action is important.
You’re looking into loss mitigation, specifically a loan modification.
The mortgage company asks you to fill out a form, so you fill it out and send it to them. They also say that they need your tax forms, so you send those as well.
Whatever documents they ask for, you send those their way.
Then, they ask you again.
You think to yourself, “I just sent these to you, but okay…”
So you send them again because you want to save your home.
However, they keep asking you for the same documents, and you’re wondering why.
There are a few possibilities.
One, they could have legitimately lost your documents. They received the documents that you sent them, but somehow they got lost internally.
The second possibility is that the documents were never delivered to the mortgage company.
Or, it could be that they received your documents, but they need them again or they need slightly different documents than what you’ve sent.
But here’s the most likely reason that they keep asking for the same documents over and over.
They’re trying to discourage you.
Let’s think about this.
If you’re taking the time to email/mail/scan/fax all of these documents and they ask again, it’s frustrating. It may have taken you a whole weekend to put those documents together for the mortgage company.
By the 4th or 5th time around, you’re ready to give up.
That’s exactly what they want.
They want you to give up.
You may be wondering, “What’s the solution to this, then?”
Keep sending them the documents.
Here’s one way to make this easier to do.
When you prepare the documents for them the first time, make a copy of them and put them in a folder. You should also scan them, make sure they’re saved in the Cloud, etc.
Then, you can label the folders so you can see what you sent and when you sent it.
“Loan modification documents sent on June 1” for example.
That way, when they ask you for documents again, and they say that they need the exact same documents you sent before, you can pull them from the folder and send the documents to your mortgage company.
Once you’ve sent the documents again with a letter saying when you sent the documents last, you can make a second folder with the documents and put the date you sent them on there.
So your second folder might say “Loan modification documents sent on June 21.”
This is great because you can keep a record of what they’ve asked for, and how many times they’ve asked for the documents.
Also, make sure you send the documents in a way that you can prove they got them, whether it’s by FedEx, UPS, priority mail, certified mail, etc.
If you’ve faxed or emailed the documents, make sure you get some sort of confirmation that they received it.
The bottom line is that they’re trying to discourage you, but you have to persevere.
Keep sending them whatever they ask for, especially if you want a loan modification.
Take away every excuse the mortgage company could give for foreclosing on you.
They may violate the federal consumer protection law of RESPA by doing this, because there are certain rules about when they need to notify you about loan modification requests, etc. And if your mortgage company is a debt collector (most are) then they may violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by lying to you about needing documents.
Keep pushing through.
In addition, you should get in touch with a foreclosure attorney who can help you figure out your rights and options.
If you live in Alabama and you’d like to get in touch with us, you can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447.
Or, if you prefer, you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly.
We look forward to chatting with you!
Thanks for reading, and have a great day.