Expert: Dick Dennis - 9/28/2008

Question
Hi Mr. Dennis..I live in California, I have a MTG with Nationstar.  I am currently deliquent on my Aug 1st, Sept 1st and coming up on Oct 1st. payment.  I do plan on making my Aug 1st payment as soon as I get paid which should be first week of October.  I have not received any notices from Nationstar regard late payments other than my regular Mtg. Statement which shows I'm beind in payments.  Can Nationstar refuse to take my Aug 1st Mtg. payment?  I have a company working on a Loan Modification at this point, they have sent the paperwork to Nationstar for approval to start the process, but haven't heard back yet.

Answer
It sounds to me, Anne, like the reason why you have not received any late notice from your lender is because they may have indeed heard from the loan modification company and saw no point in sending you a late notice.

Or, your lender just doesn't bother until the payments are three months late. Every lender is different. Remember, there is already a late charge on your monthly payment coupon/statement sent to you each month.

I think they will accept your August payment as long as it includes the late charge. If you fail to do that, they will not accept that payment. Chances are your lender has so many other borrowers behind in their payments they have fallen behind in keeping up.

Also, if it happens to be a FHA loan, they recently were instructed to delay any notice of default filing another 60 days. There are so many reasons why they have not sent you a late letter. But I will bet they WILL send you one if your October payment is late. I do wish you well.

Dick Dennis      dick@DickDennis.com