Writing a Qualified Written Request

Under RESPA section 6 any servicing complaints or issues addressed to your lender / servicer must be addressed and resolved within a certain time frame.

Those time frames can be found on the HUD site here: HUD RESPA

An at risk borrower should always utilize this section of RESPA to begin the loan modification process.

It will give you the opportunity to gather all of the documents in the possession of your loan servicer.

Once you have these documents in your possession you may be able to identify problems with your loan, misrepresentations made to you, missing documents and more.

I can't tell you how many times I have found that the lender does not have the signed note, or under disclosed APR's, improperly constructed TIL's, HUD 1's that don't match the TIL, Un signed altered HUD 1's, wrong names on documents, notary information missing, etc.

If you are unsure of what to do with these documents it may be worth paying someone to do a forensic audit on your file.

To begin the process of negotiating a modification I recommend you tailor the letter below to your situation and fax it to your lender as well as sending it by certified mail.

Below is a sample of a Qualified Written Request.



Impossible Lender
12345 SW Any Street
Anywhere, US 12345

Re: Loan # 1122334455
Borrower: John & Jane Doe
Property
Address: 123 Any Street
Anywhere, USA 12345


This is a "Qualified Written Request" under Section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

We are writing to request:

(1) Copies of all documents pertaining to the origination of our mortgage including our loan application, Right to Cancel, Deed of Trust, note, adjustable rate note, addendum to the note for the interest only payment period, Truth in Lending statements, Good Faith Estimate (GFE), HUD 1, appraisal, and all required disclosures and rate sheets associated with this transaction for the above referenced loan. The copies should be legible and all documents shall be copied in their entirety.


(2) A copy of the loan history including all payments made, all fees incurred, what has been paid out of the escrow account, and how all payments were applied. This information should cover the entire life of the loan.

(3) Please forward ALL of the requested documents to us at:
John & Jane Doe
123 Any Street
Anywhere, USA 12345

We have reason to believe that the loan terms were misrepresented to us at the time of application and further obscured and possibly modified prior to signing. We believe that our income may have been inflated on the application. We also have reason to believe that certain statements were not provided for our approval prior to closing, and that signatures may have been forged on various documents. It is also our belief that certain documents may have not been presented at all.

As you are aware we have fallen behind in payments.

Our home is currently valued at less than we owe your bank, making it impossible to refinance or sell.

We started the process of trying to renegotiate this loan in January 2008 when we spoke with your loss mitigation department. On 1/03/08, we faxed a letter of hardship, along with bank statements and pay stubs as requested. I was advised that someone would contact me within 7-10 working days and there would be no problem getting assistance to bring the account current and capitalize the arrears and negative escrow. On 2/10/08, I called back, as I hadn’t heard from anyone. I was told my payment was going to be $2,300.00. I hung up the phone in despair and in tears. If we could make a payment of $2,300.00 we would not be delinquent.
Since January I have again spoken to the loss mitigation department, Home Retention, Work Out Department, and any one else who would listen. I have involved 995HOPE as well as a number of other not for profit agencies.

The situation is urgent. YOUR BANK can not continue to drag there feet in this process. We do not want to see our home going into foreclosure we want to find a solution pleasing to YOUR BANK, ourselves, as well as the investors that hold the loan. It would behoove all parties to come to amicable solution today!!!

We are very proactive in keeping our family home. We do not want to loose it, nor do we have to, we can make a reasonable payment.

We have been given the runaround by the voice recognition call routing system on numerous occasions. We have talked to various agents with different versions of what the loan modification process really entails. The customer service provided to us to date has been less than adequate.

We want copies of EVERY document we have ever signed with your company along with a full accounting of our loan from it’s inception.

Let this letter serve to document our request to have my communications responded to in a timely manner.

I can be reached at 555-1212 whenever YOUR BANK wishes to contact us. If we are not available we will call you back promptly if a message is left with the phone number and extension that we can actually call and get thru on. Our email address is Modify Our Loan@EMail.com, and this is probably the quickest way to contact us.

We understand that under Section 6 of RESPA you are required to acknowledge our request within 20 business days and must try to resolve the issue within 60 business days.

In closing we are not trying to get out of paying anything only having the loan modified and the interest rate lowered. We are not looking for a short term band-aid. We want a payment we know we can live with, one that will not get us into trouble again.

Sincerely,