BAC tries to foreclose on same home, twice!
Complaint
Dory Tallent
Country: United States
I HAVE READ EVERYONE’S HORROR STORIES ON THIS BLOG, AND I HATE THAT BANK OF AMERICA (AKA BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING LP) IS BEING ALLOWED TO OPERATE THIS WAY!!!
we have our own horror story…which I will make short.
Our nightmare started in late May 2009, when Countrywide got bought out by Bank of America. It’s been less than pleasant ever since. BAC immediately began foreclosure proceedings on our home, saying we were 5 months behind. I did the math, and we were one payment behind, not 5. Countrywide wasn’t that much better at posting payments! Two payments we had sent in to Countrywide went uncashed, and were never returned to us.
Well, my husband and I began working with a non-profit credit counselling place, and worked with BAC to obtain a loan mod, as we were instructed it was either pay the full reinstatement amount or do a loan modification or a short sale of our home. WE contacted BAC and had a rep help us in the Hope Dept. He took our financial information over the phone, and came to a conclusion that we did in fact pre-qualify for a modification. We needed to send in a hardship letter, copies of both our pay stubs for 2 weeks, copies of our monthly expenses, last 2 years tax returns, and 2 copies of our bank statements.It took BAC until the end of July to “approve” us for the final loan mod. Well, when we got the thing, it kept us at our current interest rate, hiked up our monthly payments from $855.19 to $938.00, and tacked 2 years onto the back of our mortgage. They also wanted “up front funds” to process the modification to the tune of $877. Well, they got all that, never posted they received the $877. We made all our payments (no trial payment period, this was an “in house” mod) on time, with no late fees, as per their modification (we were never told not to do so otherwise) for 8 months before someone from BAC calls us, telling us too much time has gone by and we needed to start the process over again! They showed us in April 2010 as being 16 payments behind! They were taking our payments and stashing them into a “fees due” account, and showing us delinquent every month. Oh, and during all those months our mortgage statements never changed over to reflect the modification price. We kept getting told, month after month by their oh-so-qualified-to-work-there reps “oh well the modification was approved, it’s in underwriting”, “just pay what’s on the mod, ignore the mortgage statements”, “oh well now it’s in the closing dept. so any day now your mortgage statements will change”…blah, blah, blah. they never did. We kept getting further and further behind. On top of that, they were escrowing our property taxes and additional homeowners insurance because BAC deemed we didn’t have enough coverage under our current homeowners policy. Plus, they still showed us 16 payments behind, as if we hadn’t paid on our loan in a year and a half. We were, in april 2010, over $18,000 in the hole with BAC in late fees, uncollected costs, past due payments, escrow fees, homeowners insurance fees.
We kept on paying them, and we got to August 2010, and BAC inadvertently “cancels” the loan modification right out from underneath us. doesn’t give us a reason, and doesn’t bother telling us. We just got a Notice of Intent along with our mortgage statement that month. I called in to find out what was wrong, and just got told it was “cancelled” with no reason listed. So, their Advocacy dept. took over. Advocacy has had our account from August 2010 up until the day BAC decided they were gonna start foreclosure proceedings (that as 2/28/11). I have contacted them numerous times, documented each and every call in a call log, have employee names and ID’s (when they will actually give them to you). This account has been “escalated” to more supervisors than I can count on my fingers and toes combined…to no avail. Nobody has done a darn thing to help me or my husband. You get transferred from one department to the next, and the next department doesnt have the same information the first department had. There is constant miscommunication between their departments, and we have had our fair share of rude representatives speak to us.
One call in particular really ticked me off…December 14, 2010 I call BAC and get an actual rep, probably the only one in the building with a conscience, and she tells me there’s a note, plain as day on the account dated for ONE YEAR PRIOR…that says “12/14/2009 –note from closing dept. to workout negotiator: error on loan modification document. negotiator needs to resend loan mod docs to customer asap.” Well folks, she couldn’t find where those documents EVER LEFT THEIR BUILDING! The workout negotiator dropped the doggone ball, and BAC kept on collecting our money, for an entire year!!!
In Jan. 2011 I called in at the end of that month to make payment arrangements, because we had been getting Notices of Intent to Accelerate since August (along with collections calls from 800-669-0102, sometimes 3- 8 a day, 7 days a week). I knew we couldn’t keep going on this, relying on the Advocacy Dept. to grow a pair and actually help us…so I called in to make payment arrangements for what they “said” we were behind. A lady named C@*#y helped me in Advocacy dept. She took our financial info, ran the numbers up the flagpole, and came back adn asked just how much we could put down to secure the repay plan. I told her we could feasibly do $2000.00 and she said they could work with that. So, she determined that we would have to make 5 more payments of $2653.00 to get current, adn she would set those up to be an automatic draft out of my checking account. Well, she took my checking info, had “computer issues” and said she’d call back. to this day that woman has never called me back. I have called in numerous times, before I finally got frustrated and just mailed in the dang payment of $2800.00 in February, to get that pay plan set up. Each rep was afraid to do anything, saying this lady had put a note in the computer that she’d follow up at a later date/time with homeowner. Nobody wanted to “step on her toes” and do the repay while I was on the phone. I got tired of their crap and just mailed the payment in…so you’d think this would have satisfied my end of the deal towards whatever repay plan Miss C@#$y had tried to set me up on? NOPE!!! On 2/28/11 BAC began foreclosure proceedings on my home.
I have hired legal counsel who would love to put together a pattern of behavior in court against BAC. If you’re interested, please email me at dory@ohiostreet.com or by phone 256-486-8085. Our attorneys are out of Birmingham, AL and we are desperately needing people to come forward and provide us with affadavits of their dealings with BAC to take to court to prove a pattern of behavior against BAC. If you can or are willing to help me, please contact me. In turn, I will provide you with an affadavit to use in suit against BAC as well. Thank you.
we have our own horror story…which I will make short.
Our nightmare started in late May 2009, when Countrywide got bought out by Bank of America. It’s been less than pleasant ever since. BAC immediately began foreclosure proceedings on our home, saying we were 5 months behind. I did the math, and we were one payment behind, not 5. Countrywide wasn’t that much better at posting payments! Two payments we had sent in to Countrywide went uncashed, and were never returned to us.
Well, my husband and I began working with a non-profit credit counselling place, and worked with BAC to obtain a loan mod, as we were instructed it was either pay the full reinstatement amount or do a loan modification or a short sale of our home. WE contacted BAC and had a rep help us in the Hope Dept. He took our financial information over the phone, and came to a conclusion that we did in fact pre-qualify for a modification. We needed to send in a hardship letter, copies of both our pay stubs for 2 weeks, copies of our monthly expenses, last 2 years tax returns, and 2 copies of our bank statements.It took BAC until the end of July to “approve” us for the final loan mod. Well, when we got the thing, it kept us at our current interest rate, hiked up our monthly payments from $855.19 to $938.00, and tacked 2 years onto the back of our mortgage. They also wanted “up front funds” to process the modification to the tune of $877. Well, they got all that, never posted they received the $877. We made all our payments (no trial payment period, this was an “in house” mod) on time, with no late fees, as per their modification (we were never told not to do so otherwise) for 8 months before someone from BAC calls us, telling us too much time has gone by and we needed to start the process over again! They showed us in April 2010 as being 16 payments behind! They were taking our payments and stashing them into a “fees due” account, and showing us delinquent every month. Oh, and during all those months our mortgage statements never changed over to reflect the modification price. We kept getting told, month after month by their oh-so-qualified-to-work-there reps “oh well the modification was approved, it’s in underwriting”, “just pay what’s on the mod, ignore the mortgage statements”, “oh well now it’s in the closing dept. so any day now your mortgage statements will change”…blah, blah, blah. they never did. We kept getting further and further behind. On top of that, they were escrowing our property taxes and additional homeowners insurance because BAC deemed we didn’t have enough coverage under our current homeowners policy. Plus, they still showed us 16 payments behind, as if we hadn’t paid on our loan in a year and a half. We were, in april 2010, over $18,000 in the hole with BAC in late fees, uncollected costs, past due payments, escrow fees, homeowners insurance fees.
We kept on paying them, and we got to August 2010, and BAC inadvertently “cancels” the loan modification right out from underneath us. doesn’t give us a reason, and doesn’t bother telling us. We just got a Notice of Intent along with our mortgage statement that month. I called in to find out what was wrong, and just got told it was “cancelled” with no reason listed. So, their Advocacy dept. took over. Advocacy has had our account from August 2010 up until the day BAC decided they were gonna start foreclosure proceedings (that as 2/28/11). I have contacted them numerous times, documented each and every call in a call log, have employee names and ID’s (when they will actually give them to you). This account has been “escalated” to more supervisors than I can count on my fingers and toes combined…to no avail. Nobody has done a darn thing to help me or my husband. You get transferred from one department to the next, and the next department doesnt have the same information the first department had. There is constant miscommunication between their departments, and we have had our fair share of rude representatives speak to us.
One call in particular really ticked me off…December 14, 2010 I call BAC and get an actual rep, probably the only one in the building with a conscience, and she tells me there’s a note, plain as day on the account dated for ONE YEAR PRIOR…that says “12/14/2009 –note from closing dept. to workout negotiator: error on loan modification document. negotiator needs to resend loan mod docs to customer asap.” Well folks, she couldn’t find where those documents EVER LEFT THEIR BUILDING! The workout negotiator dropped the doggone ball, and BAC kept on collecting our money, for an entire year!!!
In Jan. 2011 I called in at the end of that month to make payment arrangements, because we had been getting Notices of Intent to Accelerate since August (along with collections calls from 800-669-0102, sometimes 3- 8 a day, 7 days a week). I knew we couldn’t keep going on this, relying on the Advocacy Dept. to grow a pair and actually help us…so I called in to make payment arrangements for what they “said” we were behind. A lady named C@*#y helped me in Advocacy dept. She took our financial info, ran the numbers up the flagpole, and came back adn asked just how much we could put down to secure the repay plan. I told her we could feasibly do $2000.00 and she said they could work with that. So, she determined that we would have to make 5 more payments of $2653.00 to get current, adn she would set those up to be an automatic draft out of my checking account. Well, she took my checking info, had “computer issues” and said she’d call back. to this day that woman has never called me back. I have called in numerous times, before I finally got frustrated and just mailed in the dang payment of $2800.00 in February, to get that pay plan set up. Each rep was afraid to do anything, saying this lady had put a note in the computer that she’d follow up at a later date/time with homeowner. Nobody wanted to “step on her toes” and do the repay while I was on the phone. I got tired of their crap and just mailed the payment in…so you’d think this would have satisfied my end of the deal towards whatever repay plan Miss C@#$y had tried to set me up on? NOPE!!! On 2/28/11 BAC began foreclosure proceedings on my home.
I have hired legal counsel who would love to put together a pattern of behavior in court against BAC. If you’re interested, please email me at dory@ohiostreet.com or by phone 256-486-8085. Our attorneys are out of Birmingham, AL and we are desperately needing people to come forward and provide us with affadavits of their dealings with BAC to take to court to prove a pattern of behavior against BAC. If you can or are willing to help me, please contact me. In turn, I will provide you with an affadavit to use in suit against BAC as well. Thank you.
Comments
Our story was recently headline news in southern, ca. You can see the article at our website: www.mystolenhome.com
Thanks,
This Bank needs to be sued and stopped for all the wrong that they have done to poor people like myself and others.
This hits home with me, as I was just informed by BAC that I am supposedly 4 payments behind, yet my statement reflects that I only owe my regular payment and show ZERO payments behind. I've NEVER missed a payment, yet because some lacky somewhere at BAC screwed something up (I don't know what), I have one department threatening me with foreclosure.
Bank of America is by far the worst company I've dealt with on any level.
said they lost the first two. Then out of the blue , said I did not qualify. Words of advice do not deal with BAC. Seems like after you
file for modification they automaticaly put you in escrow. I always paid my own taxes and insurance ( this is good idea to pay your own taxes..because they cannot foreclose on you then because they did not pay the taxes ) Well now they have billed me for taxes and insurance and say that I am behind. Called them numerous times and they just do not get it. They did manage to pay the taxes early but I went in and repaid the taxes on time and had the money sent back to them.. now they say I am up for foreclosure because they they would not except partial payment when it is the full payment. again they just do not get it.I have always made my payment on time. I think a class action needs to be brought against them either they are incompetent or they are trying to steal property. Worst bank in the world to deal with.
What can we do? This just can't be right. A homeowner should be given an opportunity to do something after being declined for a modification. It doesn't do any good to send a letter in the mail that I was declined after my home had already been sold.
Does anyone have any ideas? If so, please contact me at mlmjd@austin.rr.com.
Because banks profited from selling their borrowers insurance, they sold it aggressively. In a presentation to the Department of Justice, the inspector general's investigators claimed that banks forced borrowers to buy more expensive policies than they needed.
"Nearly all loan files reviewed show borrowers with excessive coverage placed on their loan," the presentation concluded.
Most of the time, lenders did not tell borrowers in advance that their captives were reinsuring the deals, HUD investigators reported to the DOJ. In some cases, banks allegedly told customers that the charge for the reinsurance was "none."
Banks and insurers that spoke to American Banker denied that they had sold unnecessary or improperly disclosed insurance.
Major banks deny that their reinsurance agreements were illegal, but they have not been eager to defend them in court. In July, Bank of America spent $34 million to settle a RESPA class action suit accusing Countrywide of taking the same mortgage insurance kickbacks alleged by HUD investigators.
In court filings prior to that settlement, Countrywide's attorneys argued that eventual payouts made by the company's captive reinsurance vehicles demonstrated that they had taken on real risk.
A Bank of America spokesman made the same argument to American Banker.
"[W]hen loan default rates are low — there would be limited or no reinsured losses; and in other years — when loan default rates are high — there would be significant reinsured losses and, correspondingly, significant reserves," he wrote.
Court filings show that Countrywide paid zero reinsurance claims between 2000 and 2006. What losses Countrywide might have later sustained from the deals, however, is not in the public record.
Under an agreement between Countrywide and the plaintiffs' attorneys, case files documenting the company's alleged behavior — as well as how much it earned from reinsurance deals — were sealed by Judge Paul Diamond of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Wells Fargo has also reached a preliminary settlement with the same law firm, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, in a case alleging "a secretive conspiracy to circumvent RESPA's prohibition on kickbacks and unearned fees." A Wells spokeswoman said the company's decision to settle the case does not mean that the allegations had any merit.
Bank of America has not received any HUD inquiries on the subject of Countrywide's captive mortgage reinsurance since 2008, according to a company spokesman, and is unaware of any current review of its deals.
Forensic Loan Audit Example Report
Why would an audit give you the upper-hand in your negotiations?
• When a violation is identified, you always have the ability to stop the foreclosure proceedings by filing a lawsuit. Your lender knows this as well as the fact that if correctly distinguished, they will lose. So you have the ability to be patient and fight for the modification that you want, knowing that your attorney can stop them from foreclosing at anytime. This is the best way to get a principal balance reduction on your first mortgage
• Most RESPA and TILA violations require attorney fees be paid for by your lender. This means that once all is said and done, your bank will have to pay their attorneys, your attorneys and the judgment against them for the violation; all while not collecting any mortgage payments from you. Most penalties paid from the bank to the borrower are small, but the attorney fees add up extremely fast. While this does not add much benefit to the homeowner when all is said and done, it can cost the banks an extreme amount of money, time, and effort. It is much more logical to just grant you the modification you desire and keep collecting your lowered payments.
• Violations couple the threat of litigation with the threat of foreclosure. If you cannot afford your house after the lawsuit, the foreclosure will cost them 40 to 60 cents on the dollar. Add that to the attorney fees and the banks could lose it all. This is all during an 8 – 24+ month process where you are living rent free. Imagine the banks fear!