Regulators Give Borrowers More Time for Foreclosure Review

WASHINGTON — U.S. regulators said Thursday they will be giving homeowners who believe they may have been wrongfully foreclosed upon more time to get an independent review.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board extended the deadline for borrowers to submit requests for an independent foreclosure review to December 31. This is the third time that regulators have extended the deadline, which was previously extended until July 31.

"The new deadline provides additional time for borrowers to request a review if they believe they suffered financial injury as a result of errors in foreclosure actions on their homes in 2009 or 2010 by one of the servicers covered by enforcement actions issued in April 2011," regulators said in a statement.

The hope is that with additional time, regulators will be able to reach more borrowers. They said they will be working with the servicers to expand their outreach to encourage as much participation as possible.

Regulators are requiring the 14 largest mortgage servicers to retain independent consultants to do a review of foreclosure activity and identify borrowers whose foreclosure process might have resulted from errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies.

A borrower could receive remediation in a lump sum payment from $500 to $125,000 based on the results of the review.

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