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Foreclosure and Predatory Lending
Special Bulletin
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Rights Tool Kits Help Lawyer
Moratoriums
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how the foreclosure crisis
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There are 26 resources

Avoiding Bad Loans You Are Here

GA
Common Questions about Home Loans, Mortgages and Predatory Lending
Choose Another Location
This document answers common questions about loans, mortgages, and how
to protect your home from predatory lenders.
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.
Choose Another Subtopic
Basic Landlord Tenant Law
High-Cost Home Loans: Don't Be a Target (Separate Website) Buying a Home
This document warns of abusive lenders trying to sell home owners a loan
with payments that are too high which could result in losing your home at a Community Planning, Land
foreclosure sale or spending all of your spare cash paying off a loan you Use, and Zoning
didn't need or want. Discrimination in Housing
By: National Consumer Law Center
Evictions
Read this in: Chinese / 中文 , Spanish / Español
Homeless Issues
History of Predatory Lending Identify and Avoid
This is testimony of Atlanta Legal Aid's Bill Brennan, as one of the nation's Foreclosure Prevention
experts on predatory lending, testifying at the Senate Special Committee Scams
outlining the problems of predatory lending and equity theft, how victims are Information for
targeted, and some historical perspective. Homeowners
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. Mobile Homes and
Manufactured Homes
Predatory Mortgage Lending Abuses Public Housing
This document describes the different ways that mortgage lenders can trick
Public Utilities - Gas,
homeowners into giving up their homes.
Electricity, Telephone
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.
Rental Security Deposits
Repairs in Rental Housing
Protect Your Investment - Don't Let Predatory Lenders Take Your Home Section 8 Housing Vouchers
(Separate Website)
Senior citizens are an attractive target for unscrupulous mortgage lenders
because they have a lot of equity in their homes after years of diligently View All Subtopics
paying off their mortgages, and they use that equity to finance home repairs,
medical care and other needs. While these lenders may encourage seniors to
use their hard-earned home equity to secure new loans - they will not tell
seniors about the high fees, hidden payments or other disadvantageous loan Resources in Other
terms that could lead to the loss of their homes. Languages
By: National Consumer Law Center
Arabic / ‫العربية‬
Armenian / Հայերէն
Schemes to Cheat the Unwary Homeowner
Chinese / 中文
If you are like most homeowners, your house is your most valuable

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investment. As a homeowner you have to be very careful to protect your Creole / Kreyòl
investment or you may become the victim of schemes to steal your money, Farsi / ‫فارسی‬
your equity, or even your house. This brochure will help you recognize equity
theft and title conversion scams and avoid them. French / Français
German / Deutsch
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.
Haitian Creole / Kreyòl
ayisyen
What You Should Know About Refinancing (Separate Website) Italian / italiano
Refinancing is a process in which you pay off one or more existing debts with Japanese / 日本語
a new home loan. If you have perfect credit, refinancing is sometimes a good Korean / 한국어
way to obtain a lower interest rate or to convert a variable rate loan to a Polish / polski
fixed rate. However, if you are in the midst of financial difficulties, if you Portuguese / português
have too much debt, or if you have bad credit, refinancing is loaded with
Russian / Pусский
pitfalls. We recommend that you be very careful when refinancing debts.
Many refinancing loans hurt consumer. Here are twelve things to consider Somali / Soomaali
before refinancing. Spanish / Español
By: National Consumer Law Center Tagalog / Tagalog
Vietnamese / Tiếng Việt
Putting Your Home on the Loan Line is Risky Business (Separate Website)
More and more lenders are offering home equity lines of credit. By using the
equity in your home, you may qualify for a sizable amount of credit, available
for use when and how you please, at an interest rate that is relatively low.
Before making a decision, you should weigh carefully the costs of a home
equity line against the benefits. Shop for the credit terms that best meet
your borrowing needs without posing undue financial risk. And remember,
failure to repay the amounts you've borrowed, plus interest, could mean the
loss of your home.
By: Federal Reserve Board
Read this in: Spanish / Español

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Foreclosures

New Protections For Tenants After A Foreclosure

On May 20, 2009, President Obama signed a new federal law protecting
tenants when the property they rent is sold at a foreclosure sale. The
Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act is a federal law but it applies to state
court eviction proceedings. The new owner must give the tenant the required
notice before filing to evict. The law expires on December 31, 2012.
Protections for Tenants When property is purchased at a foreclosure sale,
this law requires that the new owner accept and follow any existing leases.
The tenant?s lease does not end when the property is sold at foreclosure. For
example, if a tenant living in the foreclosed property has a lease with nine
months remaining, the new owner cannot evict the tenant until the lease
expires and proper notice is given the tenant. There are three exceptions to
the rule that the new owner cannot terminate the existing lease:
By: Georgia Legal Services Program®

Saving Your Home From Foreclosure (Separate Website)

Unemployment, divorce, death and abusive lending practices put many
homeowners at risk of losing their home. If you are facing foreclosure, you
may be tempted to give up and walk away from your home. Don?t give up!
There may be an option available that allows you to keep your home or sell
or transfer your home quickly before a foreclosure sale. Here are some
guidelines.
By: National Consumer Law Center

Mortgage and Foreclosure Relief: Answers for Reservists, Guardsmen and

Other Military Personnel (Separate Website)
Information for service men and women about how the Soldiers and Sailors
Relief Act helps with mortgage relief, lease termination and eviction issues.
By: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Steps That Advocates Can Take To Help Prevent Foreclosure (Separate

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Website)
Older homeowners fall behind on their mortgages for many reasons: sudden
decreases in income due to the loss of a spouse; poor financial management
which contributes to nonpayment of utility bills, service shutoffs and liens
against the property; failure to perform necessary repairs and maintenance
which make the property uninhabitable; second mortgage scams which make
impossible demands on the homeowner's limited resources. All of these
contributing factors can be addressed by skilled advocates -- if homeowners
turn to them in time. This issue of Consumer Concerns for Older Americans
examines some of the measures that legal and non-legal advocates for the
elderly can take to defend homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
By: National Consumer Law Center

Foreclosure Rescue Scams (Separate Website)

This website discusses foreclosure scams that disproportionately targets
older Americans.
By: National Consumer Law Center

Avoid Foreclosure Scams

Con artists know that people facing foreclosure are often looking for help to
keep their home. Here are tips on how to protect yourself from foreclosure
scams!
Other Formats: WPD File

Brochure on the Foreclosure Process

This brochure discusses the basic steps involved in the foreclosure process in
Georgia and what to expect.
By: Georgia Legal Services Program®
Other Formats: WPD File

How to Avoid Foreclosure and Keep Your Home

This document provides ten (10) important steps to take if you have fallen
behind in your home mortgage payments.

Your Home: Money Matters From the Federal Trade Commission (Separate
Website)
This FTC website offers videos, brochures and options for homeowners facing
foreclosure.
By: Federal Trade Commission

Tenants at Foreclosure Act

Know your rights as a renter of a foreclosed property under the new federal
law
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.

Recognizing Foreclosure Rescue Scam in English and Spanish

Recognizing Foreclosure Rescue Scam in English and Spanish
By: Georgia Legal Services Program®

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Related Information

The Making Home Affordable Program (Separate Website)

Find out if you qualify for the new Making Home Affordable Refinance and
Modification options. The Making Home Affordable program will offer
assistance to as many as 7 to 9 million homeowners making a good-faith
effort to make their mortgage payments, while attempting to prevent the
destructive impact of foreclosures on families and communities.
By: financialstability.gov

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HOPE NOW Loan Servicing (Separate Website)

HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, servicers, investors, and other
mortgage market participants that reaches out to homeowners in distress to
help them stay in their homes.

Georgia Department of Banking and Finance Website (Separate Website)

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance (Department) is the state
agency that regulates and examines banks, credit unions and trust
companies which are chartered by the State. The Department also has
regulatory and/or licensing authority over mortgage brokers and lenders,
check cashers, sale of check companies, money transmitters, international
banking organizations, and bank holding companies conducting business in
Georgia.
By: Georgia Department of Banking and Finance

Mortgage and Real Estate Loans Information from the Federal Trade
Commission (Separate Website)
This web site contains documents relating to: (1) home equity loans, home
equity credit lines and common home equity scams, (2) high rate, high fee
mortgages, (3) reverse mortgages, (4) payday loans, and (5) mortgage
discrimination. You may view the documents on-line and print them out or
print them in PDF format.
By: Federal Trade Commission
Read this in: Spanish / Español

Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America Website (Separate Website)

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America ("NACA") is a non-
profit, community advocacy and homeownership organization. NACA?s
primary goal is to build strong, healthy neighborhoods in urban and rural
areas nationwide through affordable homeownership. NACA has made the
dream of homeownership a reality for thousands of working people by
counseling them honestly and effectively, enabling even those with poor
credit to purchase a home or refinance a predatory loan with far better terms
than those provided even in the prime market.

Struggling to Pay Your Mortgage? FHA Secure can Help

If you have an adjustable rate mortgage coming due or if your interest rate
is already too high, you may be able to refinance your mortgage using the
FHASecure program offered by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
Other Formats: WPD File

Foreclosure Freezes and Moratoriums: What Do They Mean for You?

Learn about how the recent foreclosure freezes and moratoriums might
affect a person facing foreclosure.
By: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.

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