There was an interesting article last week in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that described actions that can be taken if you were harmed by an improperly handled foreclosure. If you qualify, you can request an independent foreclosure review. If the review finds that you were financially injured due to errors, misrepresentations or other deficiencies in the loan servicer’s procedures, you may entitled to receive compensation.

There are specific requirements that must be met in order to be eligible so not everyone who lost a home in foreclosure will qualify. For starters, the loan servicer who handled it must be one specifically named on the list issued by the governing bodies over financial institutions. This list includes Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, Citibank and Countrywide, as well as many others.

Other requirements are as follows:
The home must have been your primary residence.
The mortgage loan was active in the foreclosure process between Jan 1, 2009 and Dec 31, 2010.
Your request for a review must be postmarked by April 30, 2012.

There are many ways that the review process will determine whether or not you had a financial injury and the list given does not purport to be complete but does mention several. A few examples are: 1) You were doing everything the modification agreement required but the foreclosure sale still happened; 2) Fees charged or mortgage payments were inaccurately calculated, processed, or applied; and, 3) You requested assistance/modification, submitted complete documents on time, and were waiting for a decision when the foreclosure sale occurred.

For more complete information, go to http://independentforeclosurereview.com.