Ocwen Shared Appreciation Modification and Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

[Cations]

Hello everyone,

After many sleepless nights and constant paper work my family and I were finally offered the Shared Appreciation Modification (SAM) from Ocwen in 12/2011. My lawyer reviewed the deal and said it was golden, so we ahead and sign the papers and have been paying accordingly ever since. We only had a two month trial period (January and February) and we just recently made our June payment. My wife and I initially wanted to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but obviously retaining our home, back in 2010, but my bankruptcy lawyer had advised us to go with the loan modification process first and than file for chapter 7 bankruptcy After we received our SAM papers and send it back with our signatures, we called our bankruptcy lawyer to inform her that we were ready to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy that we wanted to file back in 2010. She advised again to wait until the two month trial period was over and to come back to sign the bankruptcy papers in March, in order to prevent the loan modification that we work so hard for from being nullify. So, to be on the safe side, my wife and I waited until May to sign our bankruptcy paperwork after we submitted our June mortgage payment.

After a couple of weeks of signing the bankruptcy papers, I sign onto my Ocwen account to look up my July statement and there was a notification in my screen stating that my loan was part of an active bankruptcy and that I needed to call the 1800 number to update them or for further assistance.

My wife and I are now extremely worry that the modification that we fought two years for will be voided. I reread the SAM agreement and nothing is mention that we cannot file bankruptcy or that filing for bankruptcy will nullify the agreement. I emailed both my bankruptcy and home modification lawyer, but I haven't heard responses yet and I'm started to lose sleep over it. Can someone please give me some insight or perhaps shed some light? Will my modification be saved or would I have to repeat this whole process over again?

[Cat Damiano]

Hi Cations,


Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining..........

If the customer care was not able to resolve your questions you may want to try contacting the Ombudsman at Ocwen instead.

You may contact the Ocwen Consumer Ombudsman a variety of ways as provided below:

• By email at Ombudsman
• By phone at (800) 390-4656
• By fax at (866) 771-5152
• By mail at:
  Ocwen Financial Corporation
  Attn P. O. Box 785061
  Orlando, FL 32878-5061

[Cations]

Hi Cat Damiano,

Basically, what I'm asking if I able to file for bankruptcy after a modification agreement has already been made?

[Cat Damiano]

As long as you have been making payments on the permanent modification it shouldn't disrupt anything, but if you have not received the permanent modification as of yet, then you may want to hold off filing until then.

[Cations]

By permanent modification, do you mean the payments AFTER the trial periods? Our trial was back in Jan and Feb, and we have been making a monthly payments accordingly. What information about our loan modification do you need to help answer my question?

[Cat Damiano]

I don't need any information other than did you receive, sign and send back the permanent modification docs to your lender. If you did then you should be able to file your bk at this time.

[Cations]

Oh yes, my lawyers send back the modification documents after I sign them and the modification took place in January 2012. So we won't lose or will our modification be voided due to BK 7?

[Cat Damiano]

No it should not be voided due to filing a bk, but I can only speak of my experience. I am sure others will chime in as well.

[Cations]

Okay. Because i call Ocwen earlier and they are stating that my account has been transfer to the bankruptcy department. But I don't understand why, if the loan isn't included in the bankruptcy.

[Cat Damiano]

Once you file the bk, the only dept. that will be able to speak with you is the bk dept. as they are a debt collector. Your attorney should have explained the process and what will happen to you.

[Cations]

Right, but even if my home loan isn't in the bankruptcy? I'm not even able to make my monthly payments online anymore because Ocwen has stated that my home loan is part of active bankruptcy. The loan is not in bankruptcy petition.

[Cat Damiano]

Have you spoken to the attorney yet? If so then let them know that your lender has placed the loan with their bk dept. If not, then you will have to let the lender know that they have made an error and to correct it so that you can resume making your payments online.

[Cations]

Okay, will do. I'll call her in the morning. Thank you!