....................480 Adams Street, Suite #208, Milton Massachusetts, USA • 617.696.7758
 
 
 
 

Blog Post:
Enough Is Enough

By Elliott Topkins, Esquire
7/21/11
There comes a time when you cannot take it anymore. You have tried as hard as you can to assist your client with a mortgage modification, but if you hear one more time that the person you are working with has been reassigned, or that a document you have faxed to the lender four times cannot be located, you will scream.

In my case, my associate counsel Sarah Dulong and I have been working with a couple for almost a year trying to get them back on track after they sustained some family crises that made them fall behind on their mortgage. These were people who previously had never had a problem paying their mortgage. A loss of job and family illness changed their financial picture. On the brighter side, however, things have recently stabilized. They retained my law firm to assist them in getting a modification of their mortgage which would get them back on track.

One reason we were retained was to try to keep the lender (Chase Mortgage) focused on the modification. Our client reasoned that if professional counsel were in the picture, we would command respect and merit a good stream of communication. That has not proven to be the case, and, lately, our clients have articulated their frustration with the lack of progress e have been making.

In the past, I have had success when dealing with a lack of movement in a large corporation by skipping the chain of command and going “right to the top” to see if I can make some progress. On July 11, Dulong drafted a letter to the Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, to see whether he can help. I do not expect that Dimon will answer our complaint personally. What I am hoping for is for one of Dimon’s lieutenants to look at the situation, and inject some order where there is now chaos.

I will be interested to see whether any movement can be initiated by apprising the top person at Chase of inefficiencies at the lower end of his company. It has always been my belief that an organization is only as strong as its weakest link. Perhaps Dimon (through his EA, or whomever takes care of his correspondence) will not be pleased with what he hears. Perhaps he will authorize some decisive action, which will get our clients the modification they are qualified for. Only time will tell. Certainly, we have not been able to develop progress in any other manner. I will let youknow how it turns out. For some reason, I am optimistic.

(Mr. Topkins is an attorney with Topkins & Bevans, Braintree Executive Park, 150 Grossman Dr., Braintree, MA 02184. His blog can be found at http://realtorsresourceblog.com. His telephone number is 617/596-3184 and his e-mail address in etopkins@topbev.com.)