Weston attorney Kraig Weiss and his wife, Ana, are living what they call a ``loan modification horror story.''

Earlier this year, the Weisses agreed to a loan modification with Bank of America, only to have the bank rescind the offer. The Weisses sued. Now the bank is moving toward foreclosure, even though the Weisses are making mortgage payments.

``The truth is, they don't care. They feel they are above it all and they don't have to answer to us,'' Kraig Weiss said.

A new federal report shows lenders are restructuring home loans for troubled borrowers, but stories like the Weisses' abound across South Florida and the nation.

On one side are borrowers. They want better mortgage terms, like the Weisses, to stave off foreclosure. In Broward and Palm Beach counties, more than 14,000 homeowners were in some stage of foreclosure as of August, the most recent month for which data were available.

On the other side, lenders say they're doing the best they can to deal with millions of troubled borrowers.

The Weisses' suit, filed in June, accuses the bank of breach of contract. They've also said that bank representatives traipsed onto their property to take pictures of their house during Yom Kippur, frightening Ana Weiss' 76-year-old mother when she looked outside.

Bank of America declined to comment on the case.

The Treasury Department announced last week that lenders have modified almost 500,000 mortgages in the eight months since the federal government announced its Making Home Affordable program, a plan to encourage -- even pay -- for loan modifications. Lenders hit that number a month earlier than expected.

Still, only 16 percent of eligible home loans have been modified, out of 3.1 million delinquent mortgages in September. The Treasury has said the program's aim is to help as many as four million homeowners through 2012.

The Congressional Oversight Panel reported last week that the federal program may not reach its long-term goal and urged the Treasury to improve the program or create new ones to meet an expected rise in foreclosures fed by increased unemployment.

Foreclosures, the report said, are now stalking families who took out conventional, fixed-rate mortgages and put down payments of 10 percent to 20 percent on homes that would have been within their means in a normal market.

SHORT SALE PURSUED

Jerry Buechler, a firefighter who lives in a rental home in Plantation, tried to get the loan on his Port St. Lucie home modified. Then he pursued a short sale. Both efforts failed. Now, he rents out the Port St. Lucie home, but he's not paying the mortgage. Buechler said he can't charge enough rent to cover the cost of the house because the neighborhood is packed with foreclosed homes that banks are renting for a pittance. His plans to retire to the house in a few years are on hold.

Bankers don't seem to be happy about this situation, either.

``Nobody has the loan modification approval process nailed down,'' said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

There are no statistics available on how many have applied for or received a loan modification in South Florida.

Underwriter Terri Schmitz, a mortgage broker at AmeriFirst Funding in Fort Lauderdale, estimated that more than three of every four recent borrowers are going to need new deals because of the tough economy, lost jobs, reduced work hours or major changes in circumstances, such as illness.

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