Deceased Iraq Vet's Widow Gets Loan Modification Jerk-Around; Says Select Portfolio Yanked Approved Loan Mod, Claiming An Error In Processing

In Amboy, Washington, KATU-TV Channel 2 reports:

• No one seems to have a definitive answer for her. She has heard a variety of excuses, and dealt with months of what she says are stall tactics. But the bottom line is, the wife of a slain local soldier is about to lose her home. And she's losing it to a company that took hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to help people just like her.

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• Casey [Werner] knew she wouldn't be able to make mortgage payments. She now knows she'll have "to fight for my house." It's a fight Casey did not expect when she heard how the federal government and banks were working together to save homes through "loan modification" programs. [...] Casey was especially encouraged after she received a letter from "Select Portfolio Servicing" telling her she was approved for a modification. Her monthly payment of $1,736.29 would be reduced to $517.39. [...] However, after Casey made one payment, Select Portfolio said it made a mistake. Casey needed to provide pay stubs, tax returns and other documents: paperwork she had already given the company. "It's just like a continuous cycle of, you know, ridiculousness," she said.

• Then she got a letter from Select Portfolio stating: "We regret that we are unable to qualify you for the Obama administration's home affordable modification program ... You did not pass the U.S. Treasury's net present value test." Basically, the money Select Portfolio would get from selling Casey's home – after foreclosure – was more than it would get by modifying her loan. It's the same type of excuses one Portland-area real estate attorney says he hears all the time. "It's not for real," said attorney Rich Vial. "Banks just aren't getting it done."

For more, see A fight for the hero's home: One loan-modification saga.