I was on Capitol Hill yesterday, with bankruptcy attorneys from all over the country, talking to our Members of Congress about bankruptcy law issues.    One Congressman we talked to in person was Rep. Frank Wolf,  from Virginia’s 10th District, which runs from Manassas and Herndon out through Sterling, Ashburn, Leesburg and from there through Winchester.

Rep. Wolf voted against us on the judicial mortgage modification bill, proposed by President Obama, that would allow bankruptcy judges to use Chapter 13 reorganization to reduce the balance on the loan to what the house is now worth.    And there’s no sign he is going to change his vote.

But he did say that one person on this staff is working almost full time to hammer the banks into doing what they are required to do in offering loan modifications  under the HAMP program.  Even before I met with him, I had suggested to two families that they write to their Congressman when Bank of America offered modifications and then backed out after the family had made the three trial payments.   Both reported the bank’s attitude changed, apparently after the Congressman’s office contacted them.

So if you live in Virginia’s Tenth Congressional District, and your mortgage company is giving you the run-around, contact Rep. wolf and see if a letter from him to the bank helps straighten them out.  It can’t hurt, and he’s happy to give it a try.

Letters no longer make it into the U.S. Capitol, so write to him at his Herndon address:

Herndon Office
13873 Park Center Rd
Suite 130
Herndon, VA 20171

If you live in some other part of Virginia, try writing to your own Congressman.  If you don’t know who your congressman is, you can look it up on the Virginia State Board of Elections website.  https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicPollingPlace.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1.