I wanted to call your attention to the strict short sale timelines that mortgage servicers will be held to under the terms of the state Attorneys General foreclosure settlement that was filed in federal court this week (March 12), As
reported on HousingWire.com, the new requirements for short sales include the following standards for the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers (Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo):

· Mortgage servicers are required to give a decision to a borrower within 30
days of receiving a completed short sale package.

· The servicers’ internal groups must review all short sale requests in the
first two months of the quarter, according to Exhibit E in the settlement filed
this week.

· And if a servicer takes longer than 30 days on more than 10% of the
requests, the firm is considered in “potential violation.”

· The settlement also requires a servicer to notify a borrower within 30 days
if any documents are missing from the package.

· Servicers will also be required to notify a borrower if there is a
deficiency payment needed before the short sale is approved, including an
approximate amount.

· If more than 5% of all short sales approved in a given quarter did not
include this disclosure, the bank would be in violation.

Documents pertaining to the Mortgage Servicing Settlement are available on the
U.S. Department of Justice Web site.

Let’s see if they do it. Somehow the banks always manage to play by their own rules