Oh, I just love how out of touch our bureaucrats are with the pain and havoc they wreak in people’s lives:
Marc Sanders, who lost his job as a radiology consultant in October, was thrilled to find out he qualified for a federally funded program that will make up to $3,000 a month in mortgage payments on behalf of unemployed homeowners in California.
Sanders was eligible for the maximum assistance – $3,000 a month for six months – from the Keep Your Home California program, but he was shut out for an astonishing reason.
His mortgage payment is $3,180 a month and his loan servicer, Bank of America, will not accept a $3,000 payment from the program and a separate payment from Sanders for $180.
BofA – like most banks participating in the state-run program – will accept only a single, full payment.
Sanders can’t combine the $3,000 with his own funds and make a full payment to BofA because the program will only send money to loan servicers, not homeowners.
The program can’t make a combined payment either because it is not set up to accept money from homeowners, says Diane Richardson, director of legislation with the California Housing Finance Agency, which administers the program.
As a result, Sanders – like most California homeowners who owe more than $3,000 a month – can’t get help from the unemployment assistance program even if they meet the qualifications.
“It is truly mind-boggling that BofA would rather receive nothing and face a possible foreclosure than accept two payments per month for the next six months,” says Sanders. He and his wife are using credit cards to make payments on their home in Lincoln (Placer County).
BofA spokesman Rick Simon says, “California made decisions to limit the monthly benefit cap to $3,000, and to not collect and consolidate partial payments from homeowners when the monthly mortgage payment exceeds that cap. This has the result of disqualifying some homeowners with payments above $3,000 from receiving the program benefits at this time.”
Yeah, Bank of America, but you’re still dicks.
Unless the mortgage was set up a really shady outfit, the servicer must accept (and post immediately) all payments received. If your mortgage is set up for monthly installments for 30 years, and you make half-payments twice per month, the interest reduction will knock about 4 years off the total.
why the fuck would they care how many payments they got in a month as long as they got the payment? because they don’t want anyone who is not super rich to be allowed to own anything. feature, not a bug.