Bill to clean up foreclosure process targets loan firms
Dayton Daily News – Standing in front of an abandoned house just off North Main Street on Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, decried abuses of lenders that have thrown hundreds of thousands of homeowners into foreclosure in recent years, and called for passage of his bill to clean up the foreclosure process.
Joined by a host of local elected officials and housing advocates, Brown, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, called for passage of his Foreclosure Fraud and Homeowner Abuse Prevention Act of 2011. The bill contains 16 provisions, mostly aimed at loan servicing companies, that would help protect the interest of both homeowners and mortgage holders in the foreclosure process.
Brown said the foreclosure crisis in the region, the state and the nation has been made worse by the abusive and sometimes illegal tactics used by lenders and the servicing companies that collect payments for them.
“Predatory practices are occurring right now in the (loan) servicing industry that are similar to the predatory practices that led a few years ago to the sub-prime crisis,” Brown said.
