When are they going to become responsible?

This is an interesting phenomenon, I keep running into while doing Loss Mitigation work, when you contact people with a delinquent mortgage and present hem with an option to see if they qualify for a loan modification and you ask if they received the information sent to them by the bank to complete, many of them respond with, “yes I received that on Friday, and I have not opened it yet”.  You inform them that the bank is willing to help them save their home if they can complete the paperwork requested, to many of they say that they will get to it sometime soon. Note: the requested paperwork consists of:

1. Filling out a single page form
2. Providing proof of income for each working member of the household. This could be pay stubs for the last month that included amount paid in the period as well as year to date totals, or bank statements if they get direct deposits without pay stubs, or  year to date profit and loss statement if self employed.
3. Signing bank required documents
4. Copy of last year’s tax return

After verifying I am speaking with the person who signed the mortgage, I tell them that the Servicing bank would like to help them with a possible loan modification and all they have to do is complete the requested paperwork. When I ask them when I can come and pick it up, I usually receive a blank stare or they ask when it is due. If you tell them next week (7 days from now), that is when most of them may have it completed. I did say “may” because if you call them and ask to pick it up I get “I didn’t have time to complete it”, or “I still need to gather some of the information”, or I can get hat to you next weekend, today is Sunday, that is seven days from now, or they come up with some other excuse.

In order to complete the paperwork and get it mailed in to the  mortgage servicer, I have learned that you have to reduce this deadline by a couple of days, otherwise I end up going back two and three additional times just to gather up the requested paper work and by that time, my deadline has passed.

I have wondered for a long time, why it takes these people so long to get the Paperwork to me, and then I realized, so many of these people have not paid a mortgage payment is 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 months or longer, why should they hurry to get the paper work done? We wonder when all of this is going to end, I believe it will be when we again teach people that “they are responsible for their actions” not “I am not responsible, it is ______ fault” (you fill in the blank).

Remember when Real Estate contracts were one or two pages long, when many people completed a deal on a hand shake, when you said “OK, I can get that done in a week” and you know they would. When we again, mean what we say and say what we mean, we will return to dignity and honesty and integrity.

Your thoughts are appreciated.