Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Active Duty Foreclosures

The House Veteran Affairs Committee has held a hearing on some of the nation's largest banks violating the Service members Civil Relief Act. The laws in order under this act have been in place since WWI and forbid legal procedures, such as foreclosures, being implemented while members are still in active duty. Unfortunately, this is exactly what has happened to a number of active duty military members. Some banks have also violated another law which caps interest rates at 6 percent for military currently in active duty.

North Carolina's very own Representative, Brad Miller, is taking a strong stand against the injustice against the service members having said,“The thinking behind the law is that if you’re deployed, if you’re in harm’s way, you should be able to give that your entire attention. It’s hard to imagine that the banks did not know that was the law.”

One bank that acknowledged wrong doing was JPMorgan Chase with foreclosures on 18 service members and overcharging interest rates to 4,500 members. Chase has since refunded this money to the active duty members. Even so, the Veteran's committee is not completely satisfied with the money being refunded and wants this to be a wake-up call to the entire industry and not happen in the future.

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