Terri,

My husband and I are in the same situation. How long did it take for your HAP sale to close as a buyer? Were there any difficulties along the way for you? 

Thanks.

Joe: we are in Fairfax.  My husband's offices is in Alexandria (MWR) in leased space.  He is not active duty, but a civilian employee.  He is one of the many whose position has been transferred to San Antonio as part of BRAC 05.  The fact that they are moving these Army support centers, such as MWR, is what brought on the "Expanded" HAP, to include people like my husband: not active duty, rather support service for the Army.

We have contacted our congressman, who has seemed very interested in the issue.  So we are now collecting all the information that they have asked us to send, among which all the communications that we have had with HAP representatives to date.

We are, of course, having to look into short sale... with all that that implies for the future.  We had a buyer, but she withdrew the offer when she was notified that we would have to go for a short sale.  I can only assume that she was unwilling to wait the three months for the bank to process the short sale, and I cannot blame her.  My husband has had to amend his PCS orders, but we are not sure to what date, because we don't know when we will have another buyer.

In short, it's a bit of a mess.  I hope that something will come through.  We are of course appealing HAP's determination, but there are no guarantees whatsoever.  And the appeal process is a long and arduous road.  We are unsure on how long to postpone his move to SA: if we chose for a short span of time, we might not have sold the house yet, if we choose a longer span of time, we might have to be out of the house before we can move altogether, then having to move to a motel or something.  They are not willing to keep on amending hubby's PCS orders.  So that's that.  Lots of decisions to make, very little time to make them, days, in fact.

Let's hope for the best... It is my understanding that other people have gotten denied after my husband was, people in his same department who were told they were eligible for HAP.  So... unfortunately, we are not alone.

Thanks for all your help!  It might seem like nothing, but the fact that anyone shows interest in this matter, it's amazing to me!

I'll keep you posted.

Carole,

I don't entirely understand your situation.  Where in VA are you and what BRAC base is affected?   Joe

 Thank you so much, Joe.  It's a great comfort to me to have gotten some type of response! 

We have started our appeal process, and tonight we have contacted our congressman.  We are certainly not going down without a fight, if nothing else, we will give them a headache.  We feel very discouraged, but such is life, I guess.  It would have been nice to know beforehand of employment eligibilities, but since our HAP agent didn't seem to know herself, then I guess we are not total morons!

Sad.  I feel much, much worse for members of the armed forces who get put in terrible financial predicaments.  Somewhere, somehow, I am hoping that we will see the light at end of the tunnel.

It's important, however, to let this information out there.  Some of my husband's co-workers had absolutely NO IDEA (just like us) about this, and were totally devastated by the news.  They too will be facing financial distress because of this lack of information.  It's appalling.

Thank you for your words of support.  We'll keep you posted.

Carole, very sorry to hear this.  It may be very little consolation, but we are finally seeing a few Congressmen get involved with this.  I strongly encourage you to write and call your elected officials repeatedly until they listen. Since you live in VA, pay them a visit.   They WORK for you only if you insist that they do.   I hope your situation gets resolved.  Joe

 Dear Hapless, I so understand your situation, as we are going through it right now, smack dab the same as yours.  We are supposed to be in San Antonio in less that 45 days, and HAP never returned a phone call with tangible information on our many, many questions.

Now, after months of our listing out home for sale, we finally got a buyer, who is offering (of course) much less than we currently owe.  We went through the due process, and today, finally!!!, we got our first phone call back from the good folks from HAP.  To tell us, months after submitting our application and months after we left messages upon messages, that we are not eligible for HAP benefits because my husband, who was been working for DOD for the last 8 years, was not officially a Federal Employee on May 13, 2005, when the BRAC announcement was made.

It totally knocked the wind right out of us, and I am left perplexed, speechless, dumbfounded and pissed off.  Though nowhere in their guidelines from Expanded HAP will you find an exclusion clause determining that employees hired post 5/13/05 are NOT eligible (and I mean, NOWHERE, not even the good folks at HAP can find any verbiage on the subject), they stick to their guns and they also stick it up our arses.  What can you do.  That's what conflicting information, misinformation, and abuse of power does.  We have been asking for information for months, we followed due procedure, filled out all their questionnaires and requests, and now, this.  We are going down the road of serious financial distress without HAP, to say the least.

I hope that your problems are solved, and that somehow this situation has been rectified for you.  You are not alone, out there, I wish you the best of luck in the uphill battle against ignorance and irresponsibility.  As for us, who knows.  I see not much hope.

HAPless- As Joe said, you really do need to email or call me, or have your Realtor do so.  There is no good reason to continue this battle on your own.

Absolutely agree that this process is very bad.  Since you are in San Diego, I strongly encourage you to contact Denise Korpinen (info below).   Denise is a military spouse, excellent Realtor with as much knowledge of HAP as anyone I know.   She would be happy to offer her insight on the process. denisekorpinen@hotmail.com

(858) 442-7233

Please let me know your status and when you contact her.  Thanks.   We agree that this is a really substandard, inefficient process and wish you the best.   Joe Gladden 

PS  Write your Congressmen, call them, bug them until this gets fixed!  

 Hello all.  I am currently in a very tough situation.  I qualified and applied for the HAP program months before my detach/report date on my orders.  I purchased my home for 620K in San Diego in 2006.  It is currently worth 400K.  The HAP "counselors" said that I had to list the home at market price, find a buyer, and submit an offer to the HAP office.  While all of this sounds like a blessing on the surface, it has been nothing short of a nightmare.  First, HAP office told me that they would not consider any offers on my home until 90 days out from my PCS date.  Once I submitted an offer within the 90 day window, they told me that it would be at least 60 days before my case was assigned to someone.  Once the case was reviewed, the sale would proceed and close within a respectable time period.  Now that I have a solid offer in to the HAP office, they are telling me that they are still processing cases from 2007-2009.  I am summarizing here, but the next advice I got from the overworked HAP employee was to call her back in 6 months and she'd have a better idea of my time table. There are so many things wrong with this picture.  I am moving to Bethesda, MD, and will need to maintain a 620K mortgage plus insurance, taxes, and HOA dues in San Diego while paying for a rental for my family in my new duty station.  Meanwhile, I have buyers in limbo wondering when and if this sale will ever close.  The HAP program is good in theory if there are enough employees in the office to handle the high volume of cases. I am current on my mortgage and will be facing hardship trying to maintain two residences and my credit score.  It seems as though they make up the rules as they go along.  For all I know, 6-12 months from now when they do get to my case, they will say that I am not even qualified for the program.  Also, how do they expect buyers to hang around indefinitely?  There is no reliable source for information.  If you call HAP Sacramento on two different days, you will get two different answers.  A short sale is an option, but I am trying to be a good citizen.  A short sale makes much more financial sense if this HAP will drag on indefinitely without any established timeline.  This is another glaring example of government inefficiency and fraud.  The HAP program was established to help military members in need, and in my case, the help will come far too late or not at all.

Thanks for sharing this and congratulations.   I think everyone could benefit from seeing your victory on this.  Persistance pays off.   I wish more folks were in the "window" to get this assistance and hope that everyone will continure to participate in pushing Congress to adopt a long term solution to an age old problem.  Joe Gladden

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While HAP (Sacramento District) disbursed the closing costs and reimbursement (90% orig purch price) at closing, I believe it was more by serendipity than design. I had my own funds available to close and await reimbursement, but fortunately for me, the timing worked out right and I received my funds on the same day as closing.  (btw, it was a private sale, not a govt acq).

These figures are not accurate and are for illustration purposes only. Scenario reflects what happened in my short sale situation.

$275,000 Principal of Loan on Closing

 - 190,000 amount paid towards prin from HUD1

  85,000 Dificiency

$325,000  Amount paid for Home off HUD 1

 325,000x95% BRAC on installation  on11 May 05

308, 750

-200,000, home sold for

108,750 Brac Entitlement

-85,000 Written off by Bank

23,750 amount due me

I am contending that this 85K should be paid to the Bank to show account settled and not reported as a short sale which is not good for my credit.

Any feedback?