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Consumer Rights: Home Ownership
Find local court forms and rules - Use this tool to find and link to the webpages of local courts that contain that court's local rules and forms. Not all courts have a website or have posted local rules or forms to their website.
Filing a Complaint Against a Real Estate Agent
- If you have a problem with a real estate agent, you can get assistance.
Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) Overview
- With one Combined Energy Assistance Programs application, you may apply for several federally or state-funded energy assistance programs including the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), the Emergency Home Energy Assistance Program (E-HEAP), and the Percentage of Income Payment Plan for (PIPP).
Housing Discrimination Complaints
- Housing discrimination based on your race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, or disability is illegal by federal law.
Legal Education
Be Careful When Using Home Equity Loans
-Secured debt is debt that uses some form of collateral, such as a home, to ensure that the debt will be paid.
Home-Buyers Should Determine Asbestos and Lead Paint Risks
-Article from the OSBA.
Home-Buyers Should Investigate Water and Septic Systems
-Identifying certain potential environmental risks or concerns before purchasing a home can alleviate future stress and expense.
Laws Protecting Consumers
-Ohio Attorney General website provides information regarding Ohio's consumer protection laws.
Relocation Assistance to Tenants Displaced From Their Homes
- Information from the government concerning procedure and payments to individuals displaced from their homes due to rehabilitation, demolition or acquisition for a project in which federal funds are used.
What You Should Know about Land Contracts
- A Land Contract is an agreement by a Seller to sell you land and a house on that land for an agreed price.
Other Resources
Buying a Home
- The home buying process can seem complicated, but if you take things step-by-step, you will soon be holding the keys to your own home.
Choosing The Mortgage That's Right For You
- This guide from the FannieMae Foundation helps to answer questions about choosing the right mortgage.
Disability Info.gov
- DisabilityInfo.gov is a comprehensive online resource designed to provide people with disabilities with quick and easy access to the information they need.
Foreclosure - Don't Let it Happen to You!
- Two-page brochure on foreclosures from the Ohio Department of Commerce.
Foreclosure Prevention - Work Out Resolutions
- Before you fall behind in your mortgage payments, call your lender or the company servicing your loan as soon as possible and explain your circumstances. This brochure from the Ohio Department of Commerce can help.
Home Solicitation Sales Problems
- What to do when you've been talked into buying something you don't want.
Home Weatherization Program
- Ohio's Home Weatherization Assistance Program is a federally funded low-income residential energy efficiency program.
How to Out-Smart the Predators
- This article from the Ohio State Legal Services Association provides a detailed explanation on credit, rent-to-own, predatory lending, and credit reports.
HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agencies
- HUD sponsors housing counseling agencies throughout the country that can provide advice on buying a home, renting, defaults, foreclosures, credit issues, and reverse mortgages. This page allows you to select a list of agencies for each state.
Mortgage Payments Sending You Reeling?
- brochure from the Federal Trade Commission
Owning a Home
- These tips and other information can help make your experience as a homeowner a little easier.
Predatory Lending Hotline
- The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) has recently activated a toll-free hotline for individuals and/or organizations to call with questions regarding predatory. COHHIO's Predatory Lending Hotline: 1-877-228-1645.
Real Estate Marketplace Glossary
- This is an explanation of different terms you will hear when you start to look for and try to buy a home, from the Federal Trade Commission
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
- The FHA has posted these common questions and answers for reservists, guardsmen and other military personnel about mortgage payment relief and protection from foreclosure provided by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (formerly known as The Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940).
Cleveland Law Library Association Consumer Law FAQs
- This website contains information on obtaining your credit report, motor vehicle lemon laws, home buying and home ownership, consumer tips for investors in securities and commodities, consumer credit, and other consumer law topics.
Payday Lending Overview
- Payday loans are marketed as a way to put quick cash into your hands when you have a budget shortfall, but the business is designed so that borrowers can’t easily pay off their loans and walk away.
Your Credit Scores
- The Consumer Federation of America and Fair Isaac Corporation have prepared this pamphlet to help you learn more about credit scores and how they are calculated, and for suggestions about general ways to improve your scores.
Related Library Topics
Co-Habiting (Unmarried) Partners
See More Consumer Rights Topics
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