Late Paying Your Mortgage? Facing Foreclosure?
Tired of Getting The Runaround By Your Bank?
Protect Yourself With a Mortgage Modification Lawyer!

If you're struggling to make your mortgage payments or are already behind on those payments and facing foreclosure, we can help. As loan modification attorneys who live and work on Long Island, we understand when our neighbors in Nassau County and Suffolk County fall behind on their mortgage payments. There is help.

When your loan becomes unaffordable, the loan (or mortgage) can be "modified" to a monthly payment that you can afford, allowing you to stay in your home. But the banks must first approve your loan modification, which can be a complicated and difficult process. An experienced mortgage modification lawyer can stand between you and your bank, and put you in the best possible circumstances to get your loan modified. You've heard about loan modification, but didn't know any loan modification lawyers on Long Island, until now.

What Is A Mortgage or Loan Modification?

A loan modification is a term used to describe when banks modify existing mortgage loans. Loan modifications, or " loan-mods," are accomplished through various programs, depending on each individual's particular circumstances and finances. These programs are sponsored either by the banks themselves, or through government programs like the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). If accepted into a program, the bank may agree to: reduce monthly mortgage payments, reduce interest rates to as low as 2%, forbear (defer) arrears, and/or forbear (defer) a portion of the principal until the loan is paid off and waive interest on the deferred amount.

Why Use A Mortgage or Loan Modification Lawyer?

Often times, banks can give borrowers a hard time when they attempt to modify their loans. This process can be emotionally draining and frustrating if done without a capable mortgage modification lawyer. The bank's customer service representatives shuffle you around between departments and give different answers to basic questions. They make you fill out applications, and provide bank statements, pay-stubs and whatever other documents they want. Of course, after they receive this information and documents, they request it again and again. When you respond, the application has already expired and needs to be resubmitted. This process repeats itself and can drag on for months, even years. All the while your home and finances are in limbo and the foreclosure continues. Sometimes, the application gets lost in the shuffle, wrongly denied, or denied without any reason at all. Sound familiar?

To break the cycle, start by calling an experienced Long Island mortgage modification lawyer like Monteiro & Fishman LLP and getting some answers. Monteiro & Fishman LLP will schedule a face-to-face meeting with one of its loan modification attorneys, not a paralegal or support staff. We will review your particular situation, finances, loan file and status, and discuss your options.

We know how to deal with your bank from a legal perspective. Our attorneys will prepare your application, in the format the banks desire, to ensure a speedy process. We will go over your finances, work through the numbers, and present your application in its most favorable fashion. We then use our legal know-how and experience to negotiate with the banks.

In New York, many modification offices are often run, not by lawyers, but by so-called mortgage "professionals." These offices are not law firms, are not licensed, and are not bound by the strict legal and ethical rules that New York attorneys must obey. Our mortgage modification lawyers also know about pending laws and legislation in this evolving field that affects your rights as a homeowner. Your home is your most precious asset; give yourself the best possible chance of keeping it by contacting an experience loan modification lawyer like Monteiro & Fishman LLP.

We are Long Island modification lawyers who focus our practice on our Long Island neighbors in Nassau County and Suffolk County. We have assisted clients throughout Nassau and Suffolk, from Oceanside and Bethpage to Islip and Dix Hills.

How The Process Works

Most of you reading this fall into one of three categories:
(i) you haven't yet applied to have your loan modified,
(ii) the bank rejected your application, or
(iii) you submitted the application and the bank is giving you the runaround and you need help.

The first step in having your loan modified is calling an experienced Long Island loan modification attorney, like Monteiro & Fishman LLP. Many people ask initial questions over the phone and then set up an initial, face to face consultation. During that consultation, we review your loan modification application (if any), review your finances, then give you our professional assessment as to whether we believe your modification will be successful. If we agree to accept you as a client, we provide a more extensive analysis and document review.

We closely analyze the documents that the banks examine when determining your loan modification eligibility. These documents include: financial documents (pay stubs, bank statements, income, expenses), delinquency status, insurance policies, real estate taxes and debt to income ratio. Based on your finances, we determine what your targeted monthly loan amount should be and then focus our efforts toward hitting that target.

We work the numbers and correctly prepare your application (or fix any errors on a previously submitted application) and present your application in the most advantageous form to your bank.

Because the bank employees are not trained underwrites but inexperienced loss mitigation department staff, they confuse their own procedures. They request supporting documents in piece-meal fashion. By the time you submit the supporting documents, the bank alleges that the earlier application has "expired" and you need to start all over again. Other times, the inexperienced bank staff misread the application and wrongly deny the application for a variety of reasons. This cat and mouse game can be frustrating.

At Monteiro & Fishman LLP, we break the cycle and end this game. We know what the bank wants and needs from the beginning and streamline the process to avoid the typical pitfalls. Recognizing the bank's staff as obstacles that need to be overcome, we make it easy for them from the beginning by accurately, completely and timely providing all necessary documents.

Once the application is submitted, the banks may hold up your application without even telling you why. We consistently follow up with the banks on behalf of our clients so the Firms files don't get "lost" or "misplaced," and to ensure there are no outstanding phantom document requests. We keep the banks on their toes to ensure they are working for you, not against you.

Once the application is accepted, the bank will put you in a "trial" period. This period will allow you to pay a lowered, "modified" loan amount, and usually lasts for three months. After you successfully complete the trial period and timely make your mortgage payments, the bank should permanently modify your loan to the new, reduced amount. Generally this amount will be substantially similar to the trial payments and you will have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. Congratulations! You broke the cycle, saved your home, and now have payments that you can afford!