The FTC has issued its final rule to protect struggling homeowners from mortgage relief scams. The new rules regarding loan workout solutions, affect those individuals/companies that provide these types of services. The new rules directly impact the way these companies do business. The major affect of these rules is that no company providing work out solutions, which includes loan modifications and short sales, is allowed to collect any money in advance of the home owner receiving a written offer from their lender or servicer that the home owner deems as acceptable. The fee ban goes into effect as of January 31, 2011. The homeowner must also be clearly advised that they have the option of accepting or rejecting the written offer. The rule further requires many disclosures that are different depending upon whether those services are offered to a consumer, directly, or not. The disclosure requirement goes into effect as of December 29, 2010.
Our company will be required to provide written disclosures on communications with our clients and referral partners. We are otherwise in no way impacted by these new regulations. We have been operating in a manner that is already consistent with these new regulations. If you are interested in understanding these new regulations better, I am attaching them to this article.
