Louisiana Residents to Begin Receiving Servicing Settlement Checks

The Louisiana Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division is urging borrowers who have submitted foreclosure-related claims to the National Mortgage Settlement Administrator to check their mail closely. That’s because 5,953 individual Louisiana borrowers who submitted a valid foreclosure payment claim through the National Mortgage Settlement should each be receiving a check for approximately $1,480 under the terms of the settlement. The settlement administrator has mailed claim payments to 962,278 eligible borrowers nationwide over the last few weeks. In February 2012, 49 state attorneys general and the federal government announced the historic joint state-federal National Mortgage Settlement with the country’s five largest mortgage servicers--Ally (formerly GMAC), Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo. Eligible borrowers had their mortgage serviced by one of the settlement’s five participating mortgage servicers, lost their home to foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2011, and timely submitted a valid claim form to the National Mortgage Settlement Administrator. “These payments will help offset some expenses the borrowers have experienced as a result of abusive foreclose practices by the five national mortgage servicers,” said Sanettria “Sam” Pleasant, Director of the Attorney General’s Public Protection Division. Pleasant added that these payments, made directly to the individual borrower from the National Mortgage Settlement Administrator, do not prevent a borrower from seeking additional relief on their own through a separate lawsuit or other claim. In addition to these direct payments, under the terms of the settlement, the national mortgage servicers are also required to make up to $17 billion in principal reduction loan modifications and other forms of loss mitigation nationwide for affected homeowners. The national mortgage settlement is being implemented in several stages through 2016.