Archive for Goverment
Mortgage refinancing penalties prompt backlash
Posted by: | CommentsLow interest rates may have made mortgages cheaper. They have also made Douglas Melville a much busier man.
His office, which handles complaints from consumers about their banks, has seen a spike in the number of new cases it is investigating. In the quarter that ended Jan. 31, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, or OBSI, opened 301 new files – nearly twice the number in the same quarter last year and almost three times as many as in 2008.
Part of the reason for the increase: More consumers are looking into breaking their mortgages to refinance at lower rates – only to discover that doing so often triggers a prepayment penalty of thousands of dollars.
One frequent complaint is that the method of calculating the penalties is confusing. Last year, as interest rates were falling to all-time lows, Michael Davie looked into breaking the mortgage contract on his two-bedroom Ottawa condominium. The 27-year-old engineer, a first-time homeowner, was just two years into a five-year, fixed-rate mortgage of 4.479 per cent, but he suspected that refinancing might be worth it. /p>
“I decided to have a look at it but I had the same problem as everyone else – I couldn’t figure out how the penalty was calculated,” he said.
He searched his mortgage documents and failed to find it spelled out anywhere. A quick call to the mortgage company revealed that his penalty was the so-called interest rate differential, or IRD. Mr. Davie was charged a $2,500 penalty for breaking his mortgage and refinancing at a lower variable rate, saving himself roughly $300 a month in interest payments.
On a variable-rate mortgage, a penalty of three months’ interest is usually charged for prepayment. For fixed mortgages, the penalty could be three months or the IRD, which is more difficult to calculate. The IRD is based on the difference between the existing mortgage rate and the one at which the customer would be renewing.
Sometimes lenders calculate it using the posted mortgage rate – increasing the size of the penalty – rather than using the lower, discounted rate that many customers actually pay.
Over the years, most people had grown accustomed to the fees being three months interest, Mr. Melville said. “It just happens that in this unique interest rate environment, that was not the case. It was the three months’ interest or the IRD, and right now the IRDs are a lot bigger than the three months’ interest.”
Complaint: Anti-tax campaign broke rules
Posted by: | CommentsOpponents of three anti-tax ballot initiatives have charged that the petition campaigns violated state law by not registering with the secretary of state.
Protect Colorado’s Communities filed complaints Monday against the proponents of Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101. All three campaigns turned in about 130,000 signatures to get their questions on the ballot last month.
Together, they would drastically lower taxes in Colorado. Proposition 101 would cut income taxes 0.1 percent a year until the rate was 3.5 percent – down from the current 4.63 percent. The initiative also would cut auto-registration fees to $1 or $2 and repeal all taxes and fees on telephones and computer networking, except for the 911 fee
The paper and printing costs alone for the 1,600 pages of petitions would have exceeded $200, according to the complaint.
“I just don’t think they have any regard for that aspect of the law,” said Tyler Chafee, spokesman for Protect Colorado’s Communities.
Of the official six ballot proponents, only conservative activist Freda Poundstone is well-known in political circles. Poundstone was visiting family in Washington on Tuesday and said she was not aware of the complaint, but she said she spent no money on the petition campaign.
She referred questions to Jeff Gross, the main sponsor of Proposition 101. Gross did not return an e-mail Tuesday, and he has declined previous interview requests.
Even if the complaints are successful, they will not keep the three questions off the ballot, said Rich Coolidge, spokesman for Secretary of State Bernie Buescher. If Buescher finds the complaints meet legal requirements, he will send them to an administrative law judge, who will set a hearing in the next 15 days, Coolidge said.
Chafee’s group is asking for fines of $50 a day and disclosures of the fundraising and expenses of the anti-tax campaigns since they started working
Oregon Trans Mayor receives complaint
Posted by: | CommentsA group has filed a complaint against the first openly transgender U.S. mayor, Mayor Stu Rasmussen, for violating the Silverton, Ore. City council’s dress code reports the Advocate.
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Silverton Together, a nonprofit community organization in Silverton, filed the complaint after Rasmussen wore a short skirt and halter top to speak to a group of teenagers.
“It is surprising and disappointing that an organization chartered to promote diversity and cultural understanding would take a public position of intolerance,” Rasmussen said.
The group’s executive director, Brenda Sturdevant, said that her group regularly sends youth home to change into appropriate clothing. “I expect our public leaders to follow the same guidelines that we have for our youth,” she told the Statesman Journal.
Rasmussen -who identifies as transgender prefers male pronouns- has called the dress code unnecessary and explained that he wore the outfit due to the heat.
“It was hot and sticky. My attire was completely appropriate to the circumstances and I also received a number of compliments during the day,” he said.
Complaint to council moves potholed street to top of repair list
Posted by: | CommentsTHE PROBLEM: Ivy Westmoreland’s 1950 Chevy DeLuxe hasn’t been out of her garage much lately, but it’s not because it doesn’t run – she’s afraid of her street.
The condition of the street along a three-block stretch west of Main Street has worsened over the last nine months or so, she said. She wrote a letter, gathered 47 signatures on a petition and protested to the mayor and council at a meeting this month.
Then she was told Mt. Vernon was on the city’s schedule for resurfacing in 2011. “To me, this is unacceptable,” Westmoreland said. “I felt as if they didn’t care about the concerns of the citizens living on this street.”
STATUS: Westmoreland’s complaint and petition to the council prompted city leaders to reconsider, said City Manager Graham Mitchell, and Mt. Vernon became a higher priority.
The original 2011 timetable was based on a systematic assessment of pavement and roadbed quality on Lemon Grove streets a few years ago, Mitchell said.
At the time, Mt. Vernon ranked lower than many busier Lemon Grove streets. But engineers took another look after Westmoreland’s council comment and discovered the road had gotten worse.
“We are moving this street up on the list,” Mitchell said. The work could be scheduled by the end of June, he said, depending partly on any stimulus money the city receives.
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