During the past year, many Chicago tenants found out that they were living in a foreclosed home, apartment or condominium only when the sheriff’s office turned up at their door to make them leave. However, Chicago has laws to protect tenants from sudden evictions, and as a tenant you have the right to expect certain notices in the event of foreclosure. First of all, if you are signing a lease for a property that is the subject of a foreclosure suit, the landlord is required to notify you before you sign the lease. If the landlord doesn’t do that, you are allowed to terminate the lease. Second, if you are renting a home that becomes the subject of a foreclosure suit after you have already signed the lease, the landlord is required to notify you within seven days after the foreclosure is filed. Third, if the property you live in… read more →
On March 4, 2009, the Treasury Department issued new guidelines and created the Making Homes Affordable Initiative, part of which includes a program to modify loans, called the Home Affordable Modification Program. If your lender can service your loan under the Home Affordable Modification Program, you may be able to reduce your monthly payment to 31% of your gross monthly income for five years. Additionally, if you make all payments on time during each of those five years, you may receive $1000 principal reduction per year. Approximately four million qualifying homeowners will be able to take advantage of this plan. Are you one of them? To qualify, you must meet the following criteria: 1. The home must be your primary residence.2. The principal balance on your home must not be greater than $729,500.3. You must have obtained the loan prior to January 1, 2009.4. You can only modify your loan… read more →
If you are a cash-strapped homeowner with a loan from CitiMortgage, there may be help on the horizon for you. As more and more homeowners are trying to modify the terms of their loans in an attempt to avoid foreclosure, CitiMortgage announced a plan last week that may help. Under CitiMortgage’s new plan, dubbed the Homeowner Unemployment Assist program, some homeowners will be able to reduce their monthly mortgage payment to about $500 a month. To qualify, you must meet the following basic criteria: 1) You must be unemployed; 2) The primary mortgage on your home must be both owned by and serviced by CitiMortgage; and 3) The home must be your primary residence. In order to determine what other criteria may apply in your situation, you or your attorney should call CitiMortgage to discuss the possibility of a loan modification with them. You may be eligible for assistance, even… read more →
The Stimulus Plan encourages homeowners to make energy-efficient home improvements by providing a sizeable tax credit to benefit homeowners that do. Congress has allocated approximately $4 billion for the tax credit, in the hope that it will not only stimulate spending by homeowners, but that it will encourage owners of existing homes to make improvements in a responsible way which conserve energy use. A recent study conducted in California showed that 70 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions coming from single-family properties come from homes built before 1983. According to that study, new homes are fairly energy-efficient, but existing homes — particularly older homes — could benefit a great deal from the use of energy-efficient materials and appliances. If you need certain specific home improvements and can afford them, now is a great time to do them. Which home improvements are eligible for the tax credit? Well, if you install energy-efficient windows… read more →