The Baltimore Sun had a good interview today with Diane Cipollone, Maryland Mortgage Fraud Prevention Project manager of the nonprofit law firm Civil Justice Inc. Ms. Cippolone has routinely worked with homeowners in danger of foreclosure and has a novel idea: many home owners and borrowers could have avoided trouble by consulting with an attorney before buying their home or refinancing their loan.
“Cipollone is managing the new Maryland Mortgage Fraud Prevention Project, which links homebuyers and refinancing homeowners with free legal help — before they sign on the dotted line, not afterward.
The foreclosure crisis could have been prevented if homeowners throughout the country had access to reasonably priced legal services and realized that it’s in their best interests to get an independent third party to advise them.”
She recalls the case of a borrower who lost his Columbia, Maryland home to foreclosure even though he never missed a payment:
“He refinanced his loan, he was never in default, but the settlement company never released the lien. The title company never went back to the first lender and paid off the loan to get a lien release. That’s part of what we’re going to do — we’re going to make sure that everything that was supposed to be done, either at closing or post-closing, gets done.”
Every buyer should have a good, seasoned real estate attorney involved in the transaction early on, preferably during the negotiation phase before an offer is made. It’s smart, and it’s cheap compared to the potential problems without one.
The full article–
