Housing body starts foreclosures

The National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC) said it will foreclose starting next month the mortgages on its housing loan accounts which are delinquent in payments for at least 24 months.

NHMFC president Angelico Salud said however, that prior to the filing of foreclosure proceedings, NHMFC will publish in major news dailies the list of delinquent borrowers to provide them due notice and enable them to update their accounts within 30 days from duplication and save their accounts from foreclosure.

Salud also informed that delinquent borrowers may still avail themselves of the opportunity to update their payments under the loan penalty condonation program being implemented by NHMFC, which is set to expire on June 30 this year.

The housing loan penalty condonation scheme is available under the Housing Loan Condonation Act of 1998, or R.A. 8501.

Under the loan relief scheme, the accumulated loan penalties of a delinquent borrower may be waived when he either fully pays his outstanding loan account; pays his monthly arrearages; or when he restructures his loan, where the delinquent amortizations will be added on to his outstanding balance to be amortized monthly over the remaining term of the loan, after he makes a nominal downpayment.

Through the loan updating options, the loan penalties will be waived up to 100 percent or proportionate to the amount of arrearages to be paid by the borrower, Salud pointed out.

By availing himself of the loan relief, a borrower will save himself from paying loan penalties and incurring costly litigation expenses attendant to foreclosure.

Interested borrowers may proceed to the nearest NHMFC office or to the NHMFC loan counseling unit at the One-Stop-Shop Center, at the ground and fourth floors of Filomena Bldg., 104 Amorsolo st., Legaspi Village, Makati City, Salud added.