By Harriet Johnson Brackey, Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Oct. 30--With hundreds of Floridians filing complaints about troubles with their lenders over home mortgages, state and federal officials say they're ramping up efforts to improve the process for borrowers who need a loan modification.

Florida attorney general Bill McCollum's office said it is spending $4 million over two years to fund free legal services to homeowners facing foreclosure. The money comes from a legal settlement with lender Countrywide Financial, which is now a part of Bank of America.

Bank of America, one of Florida's largest lenders, has more complaints about stalled loan modification deals than any other servicer, according to figures from McCollum's office.

In Washington, the Treasury Department said Friday that it had begun an audit program to ferret out eligible borrowers who have been incorrectly denied loan modifications.

Officials continue to prod banks and loan servicers to improve the loan modification process.

"We believe all servicers must do more to reach struggling homeowners faster," Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said.

Loan modification efforts are shifting to the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable program. Through September, the Treasury Department says Bank of America started loan modifications for 11 percent of its almost 876,999 borrowers nationwide who are behind on their payments. All large lenders combined had modified 16 percent of troubled loans.

The Florida attorney general's office this week said it had received 452 complaints about Bank of America since last October. That's when McCollum reached a settlement with the lender that was supposed to provide foreclosure relief and loan modifications to 52,000 Florida borrowers. The attorney general's office has received a smaller number of complaints about other lenders, as well.

Bank of America on Friday said it is working with the attorney general's office regarding each inquiry and attempts to resolve every complaint that is brought to its attention.

Bank of America, "was the first company to publicly announce and execute a (loan) modification program for customers in Florida," bank spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said.

As part of that effort, the bank has extended loan modification offers to 22,400 Florida customers since last October. A total of 10,128 loan modifications have been completed through the middle of this year. The remainder of the offers either are in process or customers did not respond to the offer, Bauwens said.

Nationwide, Bank of America says it expects to offer almost 400,000 customers a loan modification by June 30, 2012, under the program launched one year ago.

One South Florida mayor says he's so concerned about the mortgage meltdown that he wants to re-consider doing business with Bank of America.

"These banks are just causing such problems with my residents because of their lack of wanting to work with them and help them through these tough times," said Sunrise Mayor Roger Wishner. He said he wants to bring the issue up at a city commission meeting. Bank of America was recently chosen to be part of an upcoming $103 million bond deal.

Harriet Johnson Brackey can be reached at hjbrackey@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4614.

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