Rogers Healy & Associates real estate owner Rogers Healy discusses efforts to prevent foreclosures from escalating during the coronavirus crisis.
Wells Fargo customers are accusing the bank of pausing their mortgage payments without permission.
Tammi Wilson is one of those clients who said her active accounts were deactivated and that she was unable to make loan payments backed by the federal government that she said she had attempted to repay in April and May.
“I click on this button and the next thing I know is that I get something that says I’m deferred and I can’t reverse something that I didn’t even want,” Wilson told NBC News. “If you’re going to help people, there’s a super simple first step: just ask, ‘Do you need our help?'”
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She said the bank, without her knowledge, put her on tolerance, a program that suspended payments through a CARES Act program that aims to help borrowers with financial difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic.
The tolerance provisions, included as part of the CARES Act, apply to federally backed mortgage loans, such as those backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
| Heart | Security | Latest | Change | Change% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WFC | WELLS FARGO & COMPANY | 26.26 | +0.06 | + 0.23% |
As of July 5, about 4.1 million loans were in tolerance, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The percentage of patience loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was around 6 percent, while those backed by Ginnie Mae was approximately 10.56 percent.
Relief provisions allow individuals to request tolerance for 180 days with the option to extend the break for an additional 180 days.
People who took advantage of the leniency option will need to repay those amounts, and generally have several ways to do so, depending on their loan.
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The $ 2.2 billion CARES Act passed by Congress in March provided coronavirus relief options to American workers and companies.
Over the course of the pandemic, millions of Americans lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19 closings across the country. The speed and magnitude of job loss was unprecedented and more than double what the United States saw during the 2008 global financial crisis.
Wells Fargo is one of the largest banks in the United States that handles mortgage loans. Borrowers in at least 14 states claim Wells Fargo forced them into leniency plans.
FOX Business inquiries to Wells Fargo were not immediately answered.
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