Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Re: morgage law

Normally, when refinancing you would replace both mortgages with the new mortgage. Normally the lender wants to do that because they make more money on a larger loan, as do the brokers.

I think they probably can refuse to cooperate, but it might depend upon how the mortgage document is written, what exactly it says.

However, at the present time, with so much pressure on lenders to accomodate homeowners in trouble and avoid foreclosures, there is probably a lot of pressure on them to help.

Who is the 2nd lender?

They may be under some government mandate to cooperate, such as if they accepted bail out money or Federal Reserve loans.

You might contact HUD at www.HUD.gov and ask them for help leaning on the 2nd lender.

Also you might consider checking whether either your 1st or 2nd mortgage is legally defective and might not be enforceable.

You can talk to www.MortgageFraudExaminers.com

If they made mistakes in the technicalities of the mortgage, you may be able to cancel the mortgage and/or have a lot of leverage to lean on them to cooperate.

NOTE: You may find that phone calls are not the best way to communicate with them. It sounds more immediate, but not if they don't call you back.