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The vast majority of people in Nassau County who default on their subprime loans go through the foreclosure process without legal representation, according to a New York University study on foreclosures released this week.
The lack of legal help puts homeowners at a disadvantage, since most laypeople don’t know how to negotiate better loan terms or discern whether their lender operated legally, said Melanca Clark of the Brennan Center for Justice at the university, who co-authored the study.
“If lenders think there’s going to be no one on the other side, they can act with impunity,” Clark said.
During a six-month period ending in May 2009, 92 percent of the people who had subprime loans and were facing foreclosure on their homes in Nassau County did not have legal representation, the study found.
