Excessive late fees and interest on mortgage

[WVBrady]

I am inquiring on behalf of a friend of mine. He and his wife have a 15 year loan on their house. The monthly payment is $1140. His wife has been paying $500 on the 15th of the month and the rest was taken out of her husband's retirement at the end of the month (He retired from this bank). What she was not aware of was that the payments were supposed to be made in two equal halves per month, so she was underpaying the first payment. Suddenly they got a registered letter stating that they had been delinquent in their payments for some extended time period (I don't know the exact number) and that unless they paid over $6000 dollars in penalties and interest, the bank was going to foreclose on their house. They had one month to do this. Fortunately, I heard of their plight and was able to loan them a few hundred dollars that, along with their savings, they were able to pay the amount demanded.

They contacted a local attorney and she said that the one month's notice was consistent with the bank's regulations, but admitted that she was new to this kind of problem.

It seems to me that it should not be permitted for a bank to let penalties and interest to pile up like this without any notice. I urged them to try to find an attorney that specializes in this sort of situation.

I have three questions:
Do you think that they have any chance of getting their money back?
Where could I find any applicable regulations or statutes?
How could we locate an attorney who could help us?

TIA, Brady

[realtyrider]

ICICI Bank and HDFC have increased home loan rates by 0.75 percentage points, moving quickly to preserve margins in the wake of RBI raising key interest rates. This is the second hike from the top two home loan providers in the phase of a month. ICICI Bank hiked the floating reference rate (FRR) for consumer loans, which also includes home loans, to 14.25 from 13.5 per cent, with effect from July 31. HDFC's adjustable rate home loans will be priced at a minimum of 11.75 per cent with effect from August 1. Its fixed rate remains unchanged at 14 per cent per annum. The bad news is that a 0.75 percentage point hike will mean customers on floating rate home loans will have to pay an additional EMI of Rs 51 per lakh on a 20-year term. The good news is that the increase in interest rates may be offset by a fall in real estate prices.