Lender Reverses Position After Media Applies Heat; Now Agrees To Waive $9K Prepayment Penalty For SW Florida Couple Nearing Foreclosure

In Charlotte County, Florida, WINK News reports:

• Punished for paying a mortgage early? That's what one Charlotte County couple says happened with their lender, but now WINK News Call for Action helps that couple avoid foreclosure. [...] Janice and Rick Brooks could no longer afford their Charlotte County home, so they put it up for sale. [Now] it will officially sell, and they'll settle their debt with their lender. But that almost didn't happen. "We would literally have been out that door with no where to live or we would have been stuck in here, forced into foreclosure," Janice Brooks says.

• That's because they owed the bank an additional $9,000 -- a penalty for paying their mortgage before it's due. The Brooks say they were punished for always paying on time. "(The lender) said if I had been 90 days in [arrears], they would be more apt to waive the penalty because it would show that we're in a hardship case," Janice Brooks says. The Brooks begged to have that penalty waived in lieu of the alternative -- foreclosure. "They denied us four times. Four times," Janice Brooks says.

• That's when WINK News got involved -- calling and sending emails to their mortgage company, wanting to know why it would rather a homeowner go into foreclosure than accept a payment that covered all of the debt -- minus that pre-payment penalty, that under contract, the lender could -- and in this case -- did choose to waive. [...] The couple says no one from their mortgage company would return their calls until WINK News started asking questions.

For the story, see WINK News saves family from foreclosure.

For the earlier report on this story, see Penalized for paying mortgage on time?