Getting a loan modification can be a complicated process. During a modification, homeowners put up with their mortgage lender’s never-ending requests for documents and financial information because a loan modification may be their only hope to avoid foreclosure. Although the modification process can be ongoing, there are and will be additional problems. In certain scenarios, a mortgage lender might ignore the law and refuse to participate and respect a loan modification that has been agreed upon by both parties.

Loan modifications have assisted on the salvation of thousands of homes and the chance to make homeowners’ mortgages affordable. However, many mortgage servicers will make more money by pursuing a foreclosure than they would by modifying the mortgage loan. As a result, banks and mortgage servicers do not make the modification process easy and may attempt to avoid their responsibilities under the loan modification agreement.

One of the loan servicers’ more common schemes to avoid modification involves changing mortgage servicers in the middle of a modification. For example, a homeowner may have received a loan modification from Wells Fargo. Halfway through the trial modification period, Wells Fargo transfers the loan to Nationstar for servicing. Nationstar may claim that it had no idea that the homeowner was in a modification and could refuse to honor the modification agreement. Nationstar could then attempt to foreclose on the property.

As of 2014, federal law requires loan servicers to honor existing loan modification contracts. While this law helps homeowners, many loan servicers will still attempt to get out of an existing modification and will hope that a homeowner will not have the resources to sue the company for a breach of contract.

While loan servicers have the power to switch servicers in the middle of a modification, they can also delay and stretch out6 the process until it is too late for the homeowner to get any assistance. In response, the servicer can declare that they did not receive documents or may badger the homeowner into sending documents that they have already previously received.

In addition, the loan servicer can refuse payment on a current modification. Then, the servicer will look into your contract that you signed and point out minor clauses that allow them to refuse money, and will continue to use these clauses against the homeowner in order to foreclose their home.

If a mortgage servicer or bank refuses to accept payments or rejects an existing mortgage modification, you must act quickly to protect your rights . If you stop making payments because the bank refuses to accept them, the bank will likely argue to the court that you were the one who breached the agreement. The longer you wait to contest the mortgage servicer’s actions, the more likely that the bank’s arguments will be believable.

In order to show that you are a victim of the loan servicers, you must hire an attorney. Taking the fight to the mortgagers will give you the chance to keep your house and allow the loan servicers to keep the loan modification that was previously agreed upon.