WASHINGTON—The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and U.S. Department of Justice have issued two joint letters on legal housing protections for military families, with one letter sent to mortgage servicers regarding military borrowers who have already exited or will be exiting COVID-19 mortgage forbearance programs in the coming weeks and months, and the second letter sent to landlords and other housing providers regarding protections for military tenants.
The letter to mortgage servicers comes in response to complaints from military families and veterans on a range of potential mortgage servicing violations, including inaccurate credit reporting, misleading communications to borrowers, and required lump sum payments for reinstating their mortgage loans, according to a joint announcement from the Bureau and the DoJ.
These complaints are being reviewed for compliance by the CFPB with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES), the announcement states.
The letter to landlords and other housing providers “reminds property owners of the important housing protections for military tenants, some of whom may have had to relocate or make other changes to their housing arrangements” in response to the crisis, the announcement notes.
“While military families enjoy the same legal protections and privileges afforded to all other homeowners and tenants, they also have additional housing protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which is enforceable by the DOJ and servicemembers themselves,” the announcement reads.
“The illegal foreclosures of military families in the last crisis was one of the financial industry’s worst failures,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The CFPB will be closely watching mortgage servicers and will hold them accountable for illegal tactics perpetrated against military families.”
7.6 Million in Forbearance
According to the joint announcement, during the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 7.6 million homeowners entered forbearance.
“While the majority have resumed their regular mortgage payments, approximately 1.25 million borrowers – many of whom are military borrowers – remain in forbearance programs that will expire at the end of the year,” the joint statement reads. “Ensuring that mortgage servicers comply with their legal obligations is crucial, especially since a decade ago some large financial institutions illegally seized the homes of military families, sending their lives into a tailspin. These violations were a result of breakdowns in the mortgage servicing industry that were severe and widespread.”
According to the Bureau and DoJ, the result was numerous settlements with regulators, including a $186 million settlement between DOJ and some of the country’s largest mortgage servicers.
Reminder Offered
The joint letter reminds that servicemembers have several legal protections under the SCRA that are designed to enable them to devote their entire energy to the national defense, including:
- A prohibition on foreclosing on certain servicemembers’ mortgages without court orders, the ability for military families to terminate residential leases early, and without penalty, upon receipt of military orders
- A prohibition on evicting military families from their homes without court orders
- Under the CARES Act and Regulation X, servicemembers and veterans have the same protections available to all mortgage borrowers. These include, for example, streamlined COVID hardship forbearance options, requirements that mortgages receiving a COVID-19 hardship forbearance be reported as “current” to credit reporting agencies if the loan was current before entering forbearance under the CARES Act, and requirements in the Bureau’s Regulations X and Z for treatment of delinquent borrowers and borrowers who have applied for loss mitigation, the joint letter states