In August, we warned you that some banks were misleading homeowners by telling them to stop making their full mortgage payments after submitting a HAMP (or a HARP) application. Now a federal judge granted a La Jolla homeowner by the name of Kaveh Khast his motion for a temporary restraining order blocking Washington Mutual and JPMorganChase from foreclosing on his house on the grounds that the banks misled him into defaulting on his mortgage.

CourtHouseNews wrote:

Kaveh Khast claimed the banks instructed him to stop making his mortgage payments so he could qualify for a loan modification.

Does it sound familiar to you? We warned our readers about this pattern of abuse relating to HARP back in August.

A Washington Mutual representative confirmed receipt of the documents, but did not contact Khast within two months as promised. After learning JP Morgan Chase had acquired Washington Mutual, Khast contacted JP Morgan Chase, and a representative told him he needed to submit another application. Meanwhile, he resumed making his monthly mortgage payments.

Back in August, we wrote how you can protect yourself in a similar scenario:
HARP: All You Have to Do is Ask? The Pitfalls of Government-Backed Mortgage Refinancing and how to dodge them.