New McLean County Foreclosure Mediation Program

Last month, McLean County launched a new foreclosure mediation program aimed at facilitating communication between homeowners and lenders.  Homeowners everywhere complain that they are unable to get through to a person at their lender’s office who will actually listen to them.  While the program is voluntary for homeowners, its goal is to allow the homeowner and the lender to speak to each other face-to-face, and hopefully iron out some of their issues.

Starting last month, every foreclosure in McLean County became subject to an additional $25 filing fee.  Lenders are also required to serve a special summons to the homeowner, which states that they have a right to participate in the voluntary mediation program.

McLean County is small — you can see that just in the number of foreclosures that were filed in 2010.  Only 574 foreclosures were filed there, as compared to thousands in Cook and some of the other collar counties.  Local officials hope that many homeowners will sign up for the voluntary mediation program, and that many cases will be resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved.