“My mortgage payment is so high I have tried since last year talking to them lower it and they won’t,” Snook said.
If the bank takes her to court for foreclosure, a test program operating only in the Big Island’s 3rd Circuit Court may help. Judges there are now giving foreclosed owner-occupants notice that they have a chance for mediation, to bring the bank to the negotiating table.
Judges Ronald Ibarra of Kona and Greg Nakamura have had mediators specially trained to handle the negotiations. “We’ll do our best to make sure that both sides fully participate in the mediation,” Nakamura said.
The Big Island was chosen because its foreclosure rate is higher than other counties.
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This is the best idea yet. Make the bank come out into the open and stop hiding behind some extention we don’t know
It’s been a good thing in Florida. More than half of the foreclosures I mediate end successfully, with both sides happy.
-Ken