Homeowners File Class Action Lawsuit Against Bank Of America For Allegedly Failing To Modify Troubled Mortgages
A class action lawsuit was filed against Bank of America in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (Seattle), No. 10-00488, on behalf of homeowners alleging that Bank of America reneged on a promise to modify troubled mortgages as a condition to accepting twenty five billion dollars of federal bailout money, according to a class action news report at news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100323/us_nm/us_bankofamerica_mortgage_lawsuit.
The Bank of America class action lawsuit reportedly alleges that Bank of America agreed to take part in the U.S. Treasury Department’s $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) since it accepted bailout funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), but allegedly had an incentive not to modify loans because doing so might cause it to repurchase more loans, collect lower servicing fees, or assess lower default charges because fewer payments would be deemed late.
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How does one find out how to join in the class action Law Suite with BOA in Michigan if there is one started?
Is there an actual freeze on foreclures in Michigan yet?
Thanks much.
James
So far to my I have not found one. I can’t even get a consultation. I believe as the others in this forum. You will get farther filing on your own. I have found the laws in Michigan are quite different than other states. I don’t know where you are at in your dealings with BOA. My house already went to foreclosure..sold at the sheriff sale and a court date for my eviction is Nov.24. It does seem hopeless but I will continue to try and keep my home even if I am put out on the street. What I feel will help those of us in Michigan is to come together for support and documentation. I know we are not the only two people from this state to have been wrongfully foreclosed on.
Lu … file an immediate temporary injunction. I have an example/template you can alter. Email me and I’ll send it.
What is your email…
donsweet@verizon.net
And for those BofA employees and agencies or lawyers monitoring this site … a reminder from the HAMP web site:
“Recently, several large servicers have taken actions to temporarily suspend foreclosures in a number of states, pending review of their internal foreclosure procedures. Treasury wishes to remind you that, as a participant in the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program, you are required not only to comply with all applicable federal and state laws, but as described in Section 3.4.3 of Chapter II of the MHA Handbook, you are prohibited from conducting a foreclosure sale until you have issued a written certification to foreclosure counsel or the trustee, attesting that all loss mitigation options have been considered and exhausted for a potential Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) eligible borrower. Further, you are required to have a written policy describing how your organization will implement this certification. Adherence to these requirements is subject to audit by Treasury’s compliance agent.”
Also, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 can be read at:
fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-2530.html
Also Reg. X § 3500.21(f)2 of the United States Code can be reviewed at:
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=e3d8aabbdb712ea96c0dbadc0d92f60b;rgn=div5;view=text;node=24%3A5.1.3.1.7;idno=24;cc=ecfr
In Regulation X it states:
“Qualified written request; defined. (i) For purposes of paragraph (e) of this section, a qualified written request means a written correspondence (other than notice on a payment coupon or other payment medium supplied by the servicer) that includes, or otherwise enables the servicer to identify, the name and account of the borrower, and includes a statement of the reasons that the borrower believes the account is in error, if applicable, or that provides sufficient detail to the servicer regarding information relating to the servicing of the loan sought by the borrower.”
It further states:
“Individuals. In the case of any action by an individual, an amount equal to the sum of any actual damages sustained by the individual as the result of the failure and, when there is a pattern or practice of noncompliance with the requirements of this section, any additional damages in an amount not to exceed $1,000.”
For those employees, agencies and lawyers planning “monkey business” with RESPA letters, notice that you can be held PERSONALLY LIABLE for violations of the act, plus court costs and attorney’s fees.
Think we won’t bother to follow up with a legal complaint? Think again. Think we won’t cite multiple instances of violations? Think again.
We are also protected under Truth In Lending Act [TILA] 15 U.S.C. § 1601, et seq, which can be viewed at:
http://www.nchelp.org/elibrary/Law/FederalLaws/CreditandInterestRelated/1C6-Truth%20In%20Lending%20Act.pdf
“Conflict resolution” is really quite simple.
Follow the law in the first place … then there’s no “conflict” to resolve.
But then, by following the law, you may forfeit your ability to profit from foreclosure.
Wouldn’t that be a shame.
send template of in junction
James …
I don’t mean to complicate your life, but I don’t have much choice. Neither do you.
Please click on the “Previous Comments” at the top or bottom of this column TWICE, to go back two pages.
Not far from the top of that page is a note of mine to Randy. It may help orient you to this situation.
Also, please see the 17 point list at the bottom of that page. They are things you may find helpful to move your situation along.
There are few law suits to simply sign up for, and none here. This is merely a forum/blog where we can exchange information to fight this war … and yes, you’ve found yourself in the middle of a war. It can only be won using and applying the law with procedures and the courts, forcing the banks to do what the law expects.
There are no heros. You have to be your own hero. Please learn what you’re up against by researching and reading through this blog/forum. Holler with questions, there’s plenty of folks willing to share what they know.
Don..
I haven’t been on here in a little while. My mother passed a month ago, and there has been stress and heartbreak beyond. I have recently noticed not many emails from this site…
I had mentioned earlier I send letters to everyone on the planet and in government…got some feedback…one in particular a referral from Ill Governor Pat Quinn’s office to State of Il Dept of Banks…gentleman there said he would handle..was VERY familiar with BAC and nonsense…he would make call to them…
Meantime, I sent RESPA letter as well…my loan was already moved to Office of Pres (I know, not much there, but at least they answer the phone). About 2 weeks ago I called BAC to check status for umpteenth time…told it was approved…in Underwriters hands…paperwork would came FEDEX in approx 2 weeks. TODAY, I received 3 letters of Intent to Accelerate via reg Mail….and LO & Behold FEDEX at my door with approved Loan Mod…..it is $200 over trial mod amt…and includes $5.000 + on back end of loan for interest charges. Does this sound right? It is 2% interest for 5 years and goes up each 5 years . I am having a lawyer look at this on Monday b4 signing and sending back to them. I had recently contacted a lawyer and she had said she would get perm loan mod from them…so we shall see what she says about this on Monday. Personally, I am shock that this actually came today. Any advice??
~~~Thanks, Florence
Florence …
It sounds to me like you’re doing everything you can to monitor … including keeping your lawyer in the loop …
… however …
You didn’t mention whether they answered your RESPA letter. I’m assuming they haven’t.
If that’s the case, the scenario isn’t difficult to follow.
Since they HATE answering RESPA letters and are refusing to provide the information so loans can’t be traced and ownership established under the law, they only have two choices. It’s obvious they’re “hedging their bets” by exercising BOTH of them.
They can either give you your modification or foreclose.
Escalating and sending a mod at the same time snows you with Too Much Information, but “obfuscates” the fact that they haven’t proven they even have the RIGHT to foreclose … or even make a mod offer legally.
It’s likely they can [easily?] prove they are the loan servicer, but connecting themselves to loan ownership (either through accounting or paper trail) is MUCH harder …
… but …
They’ve made NO effort at proof in the first place … if they haven’t answered your RESPA. This is against the law … literally.
Your lawyer will be the one to clarify this … although no lawyer is either perfect or fully rehearsed with the detail of law that applies here … and, yes, may miss something.
One thing to pay VERY close attention to is what they’ve tacked on as “delinquent interest” or other charges. It may not be valid at all, but simply an illegal bonus they’re writing into your new agreement. Some folks are so happy they’ve finally gotten a modification, they just sign, committing themselves to thousands of dollars (added to the loan) that the bank was never entitled to.
Two critical factors …
First, if there’s an amount or amounts tacked on to your mod agreement (like your $5,000), do a quick math problem to see the difference between your trial payment over the period of this ordeal and the regular payment you would have paid adds up to the total they’ve tacked on. If it doesn’t (and it’s more) it’s HIGHLY likely they’re overcharging you, giving themselves an illegal bonus.
Second, keep in mind that EVERY SINGLE DELAY of this process was THEIR fault, not yours. So ANY charge that came about during the ordeal was THEIR fault, not yours.
Remember, if you sign, and the charges are excessive or even illegal, you’ve approved them, whether they’re illegal or excessive or not.
It’s the same thing as someone with a lemonade stand on a hot Summer day telling you that every minute you hesitate to spend the five cents for the lemonade, the price goes up another nickel. If you hand them a quarter after five minutes, you’ve agreed to the higher price and you’ve lost your money.
An interesting thing about fraud, though … something “illegal” … even if you’ve signed, you can go BACK and sue, and possibly even void the entire agreement/contract since it was based on fraud.
Also, using the psychological and emotional pressure of being thrown into the street could be considered “coercion,” too, which the courts take a dim view of (but usually needs to be proven beyond reasonable doubt). However, coercion can easily fall under “racketeering” which the courts also SHOULD view dimly.
If they profit from forcing you to sign an illegal document with illegal charges, it’s RACKETEERING.
If you can prove … by getting records through RESPA … that they had no right to threaten foreclosure since they had no legal authority … because your loan was sold too many times and no one knows who owns it … OR they DON’T own it … they have forced you to sign and ILLEGAL document, possibly taking ILLEGAL profit.
Ask your lawyer about THAT.
Either way, be VERY careful what you sign. Once your signature is on paper, it’s harder (although not impossible) to call them into account.
NEVER forget the details … whether they’re dangling a modification in front of you or not.
p.s. … Florence, I’m very sorry to hear of your loss. I lost my dad in 2001 to Parkinson’s. It’s never easy.
Michigander, i am from mi, have getting my mod done since 2009, still to this day nov17, nothing….. They have a excuse every time …. Its always some thing either the paer work needs up dating or they loss it (BS). But in the mean time we have this amount adding up, on the side… which went from 10.ooo to 70.000 thousand… WTF .. they have us making a monthly payment… The amount on the side keeps growing,and they keep putting this on our credit report every month…… We hire a mod co ,which is doing nothing,only hear from them when we call them…. Ok i guess we got sucker, we was just trying to save our hm from foreclosure……. At this point we r out of options…… We do plan on suing tho…. The lawyer here do not return yr calls, please if u know someone who can help ….
Bea
I too am in Michigan and may have found some help. Don’t give up! send me your e-mail. As soon as I know more I will let you know. We have to ban together against these monsters.
James,
We are on the same page. I want to find out about a class action law suit against Bank of America too. They held a Sheriff’s Sale on Sept. 22, 2010 and sold my home to Fannie Mae who has listed it for sale and is actively trying to sell it on their website but yet, these idiots keep telling me I still own the home and that I am in my 6 month Redemption period…after they sold my home!! From what I’ve been told by my realtor, the Redemption period is supposed to be 6 months prior to the Sheriff’s Sale (which is state law in Michigan). They wouldn’t even stop the process while I was trying to short sale the property. I believe the buyer was planted by BOA because the for some strange reason, the buyer was allowed to go through the entire closing process and at the last minute his bank wouldn’t fund his loan. The sheriff’s sale took place 2 days after all parties signed the closing documents. There is a lot more to this story including the home being broken into and personal property removed and damage done to the house by whom I believe was BOA assigns but it is too much to post here. I do know that someone I believe in the Grand Rapids area is filing suit against BOA for taking possession of her property and disposing of personal property because she was 2 months behind on her payments due to her losing her job. She, just like myself was trying to work with BOA with no avail. As soon as I find out who she hired to represent her, I will post it out here and maybe we can get one started.
I am going to start by filing complaints against BOA with the Attorney General’s office, US Senators and Congresspeople for Michigan and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency.
It is time for us to fight back against the greed of BOA by any legal means necessary!!
hello
the reason all of this happening to you is because the Comptroller will not use his regulatory powers known as Rule 30 of the occ regulations in which Mr. Bill Walsh acting director of the occ can issue a cease and desist order to Bof A and their contractors to stop this kind of activity. It seems that Chase and Nationstar and Chase subsidiary, EMC allegedly are going around neighborhoods here going on peoples property and getting VIN numbers of cars in the driveway and looking in on women getting dressed in their bedrooms.
All with the tacit alleged forebearance approval of the OCC and the Treasury Dept along with your local sheriff’s office that won’t do anything to stop it. in my case, I am not even in foreclosure, bankruptcy or late or behind in my payments.
I do however have a predatory loan, fraudulent loan modification and discriminatory housing actions by Chase/EMC and Nationstar including capilaization of interest or adding monies to my mortgage balances while receiving my payments and NOT crediting them to my mortgage. in other words, putting the money in suspense accounts to pay for their attorney fees.
There are reports here in the pacific northwest of forgery of mortgage documents by national banks as reported to the oregon and Washington attorney’s generals.
yet they all are looking the other way.
there is talk now on the blogs and elsewhere that BofA is talking of a settlement fund for homeowners who were wrong foreclosed on. but if like the countrywide atty generals’ settlement that Bof A administers no one has gotten a dime and is now in federal courts here in Tacoma, Washington.
Im in NJ and still havent found a lawsuit. I was sent a new Modification agreement but am scared the same crap is gonna happen. In a couple months they are gonna start losing stuff, lies and more lies
I would like to join in the lawsuit. Is there one in South Carolina?
Christine and Diane …
Please see my note to James above.
I know I often sound like mister-smarty-pants, but this situation insists that we learn … and fight.
I just don’t know any other way to put it.
Mr. Smarty-pants!
LOL! We all had best get a pair of those pants and pull them on quickly!
Na…seriously – we’re here to learn and share what we’ve learned with others similarly situated. IMO, that doesn’t mean “smarty-pants”, it means you’re armed to protect yourself and your interests.
We have to learn their game and arm ourselves with knowledge or we end up as the game, bagged and skinned…
BofA Reveals Its Fraudclosure RICO Defense Strategy
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bofa-reveals-its-rico-defense-fraudclosure
“The core of BofA’s defense revolves around the following argument:
Plaintiffs plead no facts to support their claim that the result, i.e., a judgment of foreclosure, would have been any different had the alleged inaccuracies in the underlying affidavit been discovered in the state court proceeding. Indeed, Plaintiffs’ issue with the affidavits is that the affiants did not have personal knowledge and the affiants’ titles were misstated, but Plaintiffs take no issue with the facts and figures showing Plaintiffs’ default on their mortgage. Thus, Plaintiffs plead no facts to show they were injured by reason of the allegedly false affidavits, and therefore do not have standing to assert a claim under RICO…..
Eventually there will materialize a case where BofA is found to be note deficient. And that case will serve as the basis for the required series of steps to backtrack, to set case precedent with the unwinding of a prior foreclosure, and then, if so desired, to seek a RICO case against BofA. We are confident that is only a matter of time. Until then, BofA has decided to hide behind technicalities.”
The Davises should’ve insisted the foreclosure be unwound and they get the home back. As borrowers facing foreclosures have to temporarily skirt behind technicalities, so does BofA in regards to a RICO complaint that will stick, but we know the skirt will not cover forever.
“What keeps you awake at night?“
Folks …
I just wanted to repost “admin’s” reminder that the board’s owners have changed the way email of this blog is sent to you.
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TIC Update: In September Foreign Central Banks Dumped The Biggest Amount Of US Agencies On Record
“The biggest surprise by far in today’s TIC update had little to do with Treasury holdings but instead had everything to do with Agencies, the security most in peril courtesy of the massive fraud perpetuated by MERS and the robosigners. To wit: Foreign Official institutions (primary central banks) dumped a massive $31.4 billion in Agencies: a record number since the TIC data has been reported in 1978.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/tic-update-september-foreign-central-banks-dumped-biggest-amount-us-agencies-record
As predicted….this is just the beginning. If investors and bond insurers fight banks over fraud and prevail, they stand a good chance in losing all rights to enforce if they used your Note (or a copy of it) to perpetuate their crime(s).
We think WE are getting the shaft, but when the Notes were bungled (yeah – that’s the word) and sold into securities numerous times, a bond insurer got placed on the hook each time and when a default occurrs, they paid for each instance in which the defaulted security “showed up”. IOW, your principle balance may have been paid by the bond insurer several times over, clearly a possibility of insurance fraud.
Now, do you know WHY AIG went under and AMBAC’s bow is about to succumb to the cold depths?
livinglies.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/ambac-bond-insurer-going-bankrupt-but-it-need-not-be-so/
“AMBAC, whose business was insuring those alleged mortgage bonds that turned out to have nothing in them, is going broke. Like its competitor, AIG, it paid out billions of dollars on non-existent losses declared by deviant investment bankers on pools of assets that were entirely empty.”
The writer is too nice – he calls them “deviant investment bankers”….
it seems that many of these trust notes and/ or promissory notes or both were never securitized as we have been led to believe. that is what appears to have happened in my case. on the surface was told that a bear stearns trust owned my note but it was never securitized and sold off. what that means is that Chase allgedly owns my note not the Bear Stearns Trust.
what I did find out is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as sole member of the Maiden Lane Trust I is the owner of the my second trust. and no one is suing them for anything.
and they are the ones that have come up with this NET PRESENT VALUE computer model for which software is now being distributed to all banks federal and state and thrifts and savings and loans. it is called TIME VALUE software which can be googled. if a mod is determined not to meet the critieria, off you go without no disclosure by the lender to dual track and off to foreclosure land while they take your payments to pay for their attorney fees and you think yo uare solid in your home.
the bottom line we deserve tohave full disclosure like in TILA RESPA HUD 1 disclosures on any mod before we sign anything.
using the NPV value constitutes prima facie evidence of a qualifying process for a new loan yet it has no disclosure.
a mod is for the most part a sting to find out what your assets are since you and I have been marked by our own actions to try to stay in our homes as loan risks as in loan loss mitigation.
I perceive this as fraud and misrpresentation.
A bit off topic but equally depressing for those of us who voted for Obama:
Obama’s Greatest Betrayal: The Coming Sellout To The Super Rich And What It Means For The Rest Of Us.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/148857/obama%27s_greatest_betrayal%3A_the_coming_sell-out_to_the_super_rich_and_what_it_means_for_the_rest_of_us?page=1
Received responses to letters mailed to US Attorney Generals Office and Senator Franken.
Neither are very promising, the US Attorney Generals office referred me to the OCC , while the Franken staffer said they would look into it but gave me the impression they are powerless to do anything.
Still waiting for responses from the US Treasury, President Obama, Senator Klobuchar and the banksters best friend in the senate, Chris Dodd.
We are on our own in this fight to save our homes as our elected officials are powerless or unwilling to make things right while the government departments above seem to be protecting and enabling the banksters and crooksters on Wall Street while also protecting the house of cards our financial system was built on.
With that said, we must all be one man/woman armies to save our homes!
Tony …
My suggestion is to concentrate on your State politicians, State agencies, your Federal representatives, Congress and Senate, your State Attorney General and the OCC … not ignoring the others, but keep the communication going with all, soliciting cooperation and even action from the others.
Much of these issues fall under “State’s Rights,” meaning your local government is much more responsible for protecting your interests. Corporations and the Federal government are doing what they can to deflect control away from local or State government … which is contrary to the basic principle of States that are “united.”
Each State is a mini-country in and of itself. Most people don’t realize this. The Federal government is only supposed to handle the “business” of things that are for the good of the “united” States … not make the rules for everybody.
It’s a critical point.
The MERS situation will be a test case for this basic concept of American government, particularly individual State government.
Houses and properties don’t move across State lines … yet they want to “federalize” … control the management of land and property … federally … by legalizing the MERS system. It was the same with the bill HR3808 where they would legalize another State’s notaries, crossing State lines. Notaries Public are licensed and controlled by STATES, your local government.
This includes legalizing what MERS has done “retroactively” … meaning dip into the past and “forgive” anything they’ve done wrong … AS WELL AS federalizing something that can ONLY happen within an individual State … control property rights.
You can’t make laws “retroactive” according to the Constitution … neither can you federalize something that can’t leave a State … like land and houses.
Here’s a quote I’ve read recently that supports the first part of that statement …
“Retroactive protection, like retroactive punishment, is expressly forbidden in Article One, Section 9, Sentence 3 of the US Constitution, written 2 years before the Bill of Rights (1787) and passed 2 years before it (1789): ‘No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.’ It doesn’t say ‘maybe’ and it doesn’t say ‘sometimes;’ it says ‘No.’ Ex post facto is Latin for ‘after the fact.’ That’s Article One.”
Let me be ABUNDANTLY CLEAR here … that’s the FIRST THING the Founding Fathers wanted to make absolutely clear … “Article One.”
There really isn’t much option here. Legislation to indemnify MERS is simply unconstitutional … period. “Indemnify” is another word for the phrase “protect from prosecution”.
Your local politicians and State agencies should be VERY conscious of State’s Rights. If they aren’t, you need to be one of the people reminding them of the concept of “home rule.” which is another way to put it.
p.s. Your last line is TERRIFIC!
I received the SAME response from the Oregon State Attorney General. I contacted my State representative Jean Cowan, and there has been NO response at all from her.
I am sorry to say but my experience with politicians is that they are born without INTEGRITY, HONOR, RESPECT or REVERENCE. That my friends is how they sleep at night.
WE ARE ON OUR OWN. So I am writing a personal letter to ask 301 homeowners in my area, that are in foreclosure, to gather together and be heard.
Anyone interested in how to find other Foreclosure recipients to help you, just go to any trustee site and the list will be there.
You don’t have to go it alone ASK for others that are in YOUR situation to help you and themselves. It’s gonna take an army of folks FILLING UP THE COURT ROOMS to get this turned around.
So:
1. Help & get help (Contact others in foreclosure)
2. Start an email tree (I already Have)
3. Share ideas on this site
4. JOIN TOGETHER
To coin phrase fading in popularity …
“You go girl!”
Folks …
This is a “must view.” Note the typical corporate “double-speak.”
stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/11/16/must-watch-mers-ceo-testimony-before-senate-banking-housing-committee/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ForeclosureFraudByDinsfla+%28FORECLOSURE+FRAUD+%7C+by+DinSFLA%29
The statement that most caught my ear was Senator Shelby’s definitive shot across MERS and Arnold’s bow, “I think that when you deviated from the basic property laws of the country, you got yourself into trouble, maybe I’m wrong?”
Ms. Thompson made it clear further investigation would uncover that problems with MERS is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of corruption and fraud.
HELLO TO ALL OF YOU, I know it’s been a long time since I have been able to sit down and write to you. I have moved into a much smaller home with my children. The other day I had to go and give my keys to the Boa and Fanny Mae Realtor and that was very hard. My 10- year old son was with me and he was really a hero, he wanted to beat the guy up but I told him violence wasn’t the cure. LOL , I was a proud mama though. Were going through it but I am sure one day we will be able to look back at this and know it was for a good reason. FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE GOING THROUGH EVICTION COURT LET ME TELL YOU ONE THING, RIGHT NOW FILE A CIVIL LAWSUIT AGAINST BOA BEFORE YOU GO TO COURT. THE ONE THING THE JUDGE TOLD ME IS THAT JUST BECAUSE WE ARE INCLUDED IN THE CLASS ACTION DOESN’T GIVE US THE RIGHT TO STAY IN OUR HOME, YOU HAVE TO FILE A CIVIL LAW SUIT ALSO, AND THEN DEPENDING ON YOUR FACTS AND WHAT YOU PRESENT TO THE JUDGE, THE JUDGE CAN PUT THE TWO TOGETHER AND THEN THERE IS REASON TO ALLOW YOU TO STAY IN YOUR HOME, AT LEAST THIS IS WHAT THE JUDGE TOLD ME. I DIDN’T KNOW THAT THEN BUT I DO NOW. I DON’T BELIEVE I WILL GET MY HOME BACK, BUT I DO BELIEVE THAT BOA AND FANNY MAE WILL HAVE TO BUY ME ANOTHER HOME, OR AT THE VERY LEAST PAY ME OFF.
BY THE WAY DID I MENTION THAT I WAS NOW GOING TO SCHOOL TO BECOME A PARALEGAL? IT WILL TAKE ABOUT ONE YEAR, BUT THAT IS OK, I ONLY HAVE TIME ON MY HANDS NOW AND IT’S ON MY SIDE. WATCH OUT BOA AND FANNY MAE I AM COMING TO GET YOU, AND I WON’T STOP UNTIL YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR ALL OF THE HARM AND WRONG YOU HAVE DONE, AND THIS IS MY PROMISE TO YOU. NOT TO MENTION THAT YOUR BUSINESSES WILL BE DISSOLVED ALSO AFTER YOU PAY. THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT I WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO THIS WITHOUT ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT, KINDNESS, AND LOVE.
TO MR DON SOMEDAY I WOULD LIKE TO MEET YOU FACE TO FACE AND GIVE YOU A HUG, IF IT WASN’T FOR YOU I WOULDN’T HAVE HAD THE STRENGTH TO GO THROUGH THIS AND COME OUT FIGHTING. I WILL BE WATCHING THIS SITE AND PUT IN MY COMMENTS WHEN I FEEL FIT.
SINCERELY,
MARGO LA BAYNE AND CHILDREN
MARGO LA BAYNE
Margo
Could you please e-mail me at locklinlane@yahoo.com. I have a couple questions as I am due in court next week for eviction.
I am in Michigan, I have been going through a nightmare with BOA for the past year and a half in the modification process. I finally got final paperwork for the modification, had it signed notarized and sent back that day. Now BOA claims they didn’t get that paperwork and therefore closed my modification. They say I can start all over and apply again. I don’t know what to do anymore but would like to find an attorney who can help or information on joining a class action suit. I just don’t even have words for what I have been through with this company.
Jennifer …
I don’t mean to complicate your life, but I don’t have much choice. Neither do you.
Please click on the “Previous Comments” at the top or bottom of this column TWICE, to go back two pages.
Not far from the top of that page is a note of mine to Randy. It may help orient you to this situation.
Also, please see the 17 point list at the bottom of that page. They are things you may find helpful to move your situation along.
There are few law suits to simply sign up for, and none here. This is merely a forum/blog where we can exchange information to fight this war … and yes, you’ve found yourself in the middle of a war. It can only be won using and applying the law with procedures and the courts, forcing the banks to do what the law expects.
There are no heros. You have to be your own hero. Please learn what you’re up against by researching and reading through this blog/forum. Holler with questions, there’s plenty of folks willing to share what they know, including others from Michigan.
Do y’all recall I’d posted a comment about LandSafe and ReconTrust being wholly owned subsidiaries of BofA and that those were sham entities fabricated to extract inflated fees from borrowers?
See the top paragraph of page 26 of Diane Thompson’s testimony here:
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/11/17/testimony-of-diane-e-thompson-before-the-senate-banking-housing-committee/
I’m not the only one seeing through the filthy, corrupt banksters’ labyrinth of crooked schemes concocted to defraud and extort money from working Americans.
“What keeps you awake at night?“
Folks …
BRAND NEW as of the 16th …
In any filing with the court, include this document to aid the court’s understanding of your situation …
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/11/17/testimony-of-diane-e-thompson-before-the-senate-banking-housing-committee/
Simply click “Download” at the top of the document illustration.
That’s a great deposition to have in one’s defense OR offense file.
Also, Adam Levintin’s deposition and testimony yesterday before the Senate Banking Committee is VERY damaging to banks trying to foreclose and both are a “must have” in the equipment necessary to assist judges in comprehending the depth of the issue, rather than a superficial but anal, “you don’t pay, you don’t stay” mentality.
If I were a bank or attorney working for one attempting foreclosures, I handle them like they were radioactive waste.
Quick story to help you touch base with Reality … not what you’ve been told to believe about Reality, but Reality itself —
A couple of week ago I was rushing through the grocery store to get some essentials. I knew where I needed to go and where those things were. The store was busy and people were darting around doing the same thing.
Bee-lining for the dairy products, my path was blocked by two fellows struggling with a full pallet of bottled water, which stood higher than my chest. They were talking to each other, wiggling it past other stacked items to get it into the intended aisle.
A thought flushed through my head that I couldn’t control, and as I came face-to-face with the older fellow behind the wobbling stack, I looked him square in the eye, interrupting his conversation saying …
“Yanno, that stuff is falling from the sky for free … right now.”
It was raining outside.
Immediately, behind me, an older gentleman burst out laughing. He knew what I meant.
The fellow pressing on the stack immediately took on that deer-in-the-headlights stunned face, and whatever reply he might have been able to muster was choked off by the stark reality of my uncontrolled comment.
The point is … don’t automatically, blindly believe things people tell you, like you really need this water in a bottle.
Believe what you KNOW, by knowing it. Believe what you SEE … simply look at it for what it is … in Reality.
If they can convince us to pay for something that falls free from the sky, we’ll let them convince us of ANYTHING … which includes the illusion they have the “right” to take our homes.
If the banks had their way, they’d have all of us believing THEY are the victims here … and we should be decent enough to simply move out.
Don’t think it hasn’t happened.
It’ll be interesting to watch when a few evictees backtrack their paperwork and file suit.
Take a look at BofA’s mention in Section D in the first two paragraphs of page 18 here:
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/11/17/highlights-from-the-testimony-of-adam-j-levintin-before-the-senate-banking-housing-committee/
Heads up!!!!
HR 3808 is being debated on the house floor right now on CPAN!!!!!
. . .and it looks like the House Democrats do not like it.
They are voting on HR 3808 at this time > 5:15 eastern. I is a
five minute vote.
As the verdict is: It did not pass. There is no override of Obama’s veto.
Tony,
I could not access it via the internet and I don’t have regular TV. Fill us in.
Not much to report on…Democratic congressman John Conyer’s spoke and was against overriding Obama’s veto due to the foreclosure, robo signing scandal…republican congressman Robert Aderholt, the one brought HR 3808 was claiming how not passing the bill would hurt interstate commerce between businesses from different states due to contract agreements or something like that…he didn’t once bring up how the bill would affect foreclosures or how the bill makes it harder for borrowers to sue the banks by using the “show me the note”.
What I got out of this was Aderholt and others are trying to sway public opinion and those of his co-hearts in congress by making the bill sound like it will hurt businesses…
Isn’t this what they always claim? We must keep an eye on this, I don’t believe the issue is dead yet.
FYI:
I have in my possession, documents from a friend proving that Fannie Mae recently modified her existing loan. The important issue is that my friend, did not solicit Fannie Mae/Chase for a modification. She was in fact solicited by Fannie Mae directly, and the new note and deed of trust circumvented Chase, her servicer.
So I asked myself how could this be, knowing millions of folks are losing their homes to foreclosure and not getting a modification.
After perusing her NEW & OLD documents, I saw that Mers is on the Deed of Trust of the original loan. The NEW loan shows no sign of MERS anywhere.
My friend is very financially secure and I got to thinking that Fannie Mae lowered her payment, which initiated new loan docs, that can not be challenged in a court of law. Therefore shoring up that crumbling foundation, with new loan docs that can not be challenged and are also signed “by very secure borrowers”.
Comments anyone?
Lauren …
My first reaction was “Ha!”
It’s called “ass covering.”
100% conjecture … but it’s not difficult to assume that Fannie and Freddie are scrambling to examine MERS mortgages to minimize damage by the flawed, fraudulent system … probably in droves.
It’s also easy to assume that they’re only choosing “prime” mortgages, likely with other “profiling” picking people who won’t argue and “appreciate” the so-called gesture.
It’s likely not a gesture at all, since the MERS documentation probably invalidated the entire mortgage agreement. If they hadn’t signed, investigated through discovery/suit or a RESPA/TILA letter, they may have found they could have owned their house outright in the end.
This paperwork could actually be used against Fannie/Freddie in other suits … since comparing them could prove Fannie/Freddie recognize that MERS is SO flawed as to be fraudulent … or … could prove it to be outright fraudulent … and conned/misrepresented their intent in the unsolicited modification.
A grade school student, much less a law student, would immediately ask “Why bother?” … unless there was something seriously underlying the issue.
It may well be that they’re not “fixing” anything … including the economy … but preventing huge JUSTIFIABLE and provable fraud losses they don’t want to become real.
I’d love to know how many they’ve “fixed” … AND … if they are technically, legally covering up fraud in the process.
Wouldn’t that fall under RICO?
Considering the fact that The United States Government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in September of 2008, wouldn’t it mean that the Federal government is potentially in violation of RICO?
I don’t mean to take up the forum’s space, but I have to anticipate
the question “What is RICO?” … and I can’t help but post THIS …
RICO stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. § 1961), a law that increases the severity of penalties for crimes performed in conjunction with organized crime. The law states that any person or group who commits any two out of a list of 35 crimes (known as racketeering activity in the U.S. Code) within a decade and can be determined to have committed them with similar results or similar intentions can be charged with racketeering.
The maximum penalties for racketeering include a fine of up to $25,000 and up to 20 years in prison in addition to the forfeiture of all business interests and gains gleaned from the criminal activity. In addition, the case can be re-tried in civil court; plaintiffs are allowed to sue for triple damages. The law covers crimes such as bribery, extortion, money laundering, counterfeiting, gambling, murder, arson, robbery, kidnapping, harboring certain illegal aliens, obstruction of justice, slavery and others.
[Note: Obstruction of justice – “Coerced” home loan modifications intended to cover fraud. Wouldn’t a reduction be a bribe inducing the homeowner to sign? Not much of a stretch in my mind.]
In order to prosecute a RICO case, investigators need to establish evidence of the existence of a criminal organization. U.S. Attorneys General who pursue RICO charges can opt to seek an injunction or restraining order before trial that prevents the assets in question from being transferred and requires the defendant to put up a performance bond. This usually serves to push the defendant to plead guilty to the charges before an indictment (a formal accusation against the defendant).
RICO laws are especially effective in prosecuting those who retaliate against victims, whistleblowers or witnesses of crimes when those parties cooperate with law enforcement or an ongoing investigation. In addition, anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws can be applied in order to stop corporations or individuals from abusing the legal system by filing retaliatory lawsuits against whistleblowers or crime victims.
I know the banks are listening … is Law Enforcement?
They are trying to eliminate their errors. And I’m sure that all future modifications they process will eliminate mers. They haven’t seem to have won over EVERYONE in Congress yet.
Anyone from Michigan who is willing to fight, I have found a lawyer that is interested in talking with you. Please e-mail me at locklinlane@yahoo.com
Interesting article about Bank of America. I think they are feeling the pressure.
finance.yahoo.com/news/Voices-of-Foreclosure-Speak-nytimes-2988695134.html?x=0
If you ask me that article is just a PR move on behalf of the criminal. They are still giving everyone the runaround. You can’t get a straight answer even from management. The left hand still doesn’t know what the right hand is doing…I don’t even think they are connected to the body at this point. It’s just another smoke screen. Trying to ease people’s minds. I don’t think many people will ever trust or believe in them. Too many people have suffered from their ignorance and many more have yet to be victimized by them.
“Right on!” Lu …
And I would only make one slight addition …
When it comes to these two things … “The left hand still doesn’t know what the right hand is doing …” and “ignorance” … neither of those actually exist … since it was planned and orchestrated.
Along those lines … please … all posters/bloggers … please prepare your timelines and logged experiences for filing with our “affidavit archive.”
Courts need to SEE … not just hear us “claim” that this is a nationwide “systemic” problem … that it was planned, implemented and orchestrated.
There’s one thing you’ll need to understand about participating in this “repository” …
You’ll have to be identified …
… with your name, address and connection to which/whatever bank.
You can’t be anonymous … sorry … it won’t work otherwise. The court has to have the option of contacting you to verify your statements.
But my affidavit can be used in your case, as your affidavit can be used in mine … and the more the better.
Also … these are “merely” notarized statements, not court monitored “depositions.” There’s a difference (in the courts’ eyes). But at least we’ll be able to show statements of multiple victims DIRECTLY and not through “claims” or references to the news.
PLEASE consider participating.
We’ll have details on where to upload your notarized statements and suggestions on how to prepare them in a couple days.
It will be EASY … and critical to any court filings you might make … INCLUDING a class action you may join. Your attorney(s) can have access to the files to help your case.
Access will be invite only.
You DO have the option of contacting your local/superior court to make your statements “depositions” if you care to go to the trouble and expense. A deposition carries more weight with a court.
I have my timeline (all 13 pages and counting) with names , phone numbers and all conversations that I have had with Bank of America ready to send as soon as I know the details. I have sent letters to 60 minutes, the white house, the Attorney General, and received a letter that my complaint was forwarded to the OCC. I received an answer from my congressman who contacted Bank of America. They called me from the Presidents Office ( Im not too impressed) since I have been in contact with them numerous times before. They fed me more of the same BS of how I didn’t submit the necessary paperwork even though I have copies of fax confirmations, my modification was denied, even though they didn’t send anything in writing advising me of this, and also they cant tell me why I wasn’t approved etc. I dont feel any hope in the fact that the “presidents office” is in contact with me, and have appointed a negotiator for my case. I have been down this road many times. At this point I don’t care if anything comes out of this as far as a modification for me. They have ruined my credit, I can’t even go anywhere to refinance. Even though I don’t hold any hope that they will come through with their promises, I will continue to read these blogs and I will be part of whatever needs to be done to make sure that Bank of America gets what is coming to them.
“…Ms. Desoer also plans to apologize for shortcomings in the foreclosure process, while reiterating her defense that no foreclosure or eviction was pursued by mistake.”
Still, the reality hasn’t slapped the pockmark on her head she has earned. She’s not apologizing for the fraud on the courts or borrowers, she’s just apologizing that they find their proceedures to foreclose were faulty.
In case you missed it, here it is again in other words…“We, and those who work with us in connection with foreclosure proceedings, also have an obligation to do our best to protect the integrity of those proceedings….”
And to whom does that obligation lie? Certainly, from witness of experience, not with the borrowers or courts.
“When and where that has not happened, we accept responsibility for it, and we deeply regret it…,..”
Yeah, right…if an individual marches into one of their branches with so much as a fake $5 bill there’s time behind bars for that.
Get Ms. Desoer to explain what would happen to any one of their employees if they only once get caught putting a Federal Reserve Note of any denomination on a photocopy machine to copy it. It’s grounds for immediate dismissal, yet they helped keep a fraudulent docs mill in business.
Where have we heard this statement before?
“They’re not sorry they did it. They’re just sorry they got caught.”
I am in Oregon. I just figured out I am in this same mess. Lost docs, changing stories, intent to accelerate Etc. Nobody at b of a will call me. They will only let me call the 800# and beg for action. They always say a supervisor will call and they dont. Any Oregonians out there???
Joe …
Not to bring up a potential sore point, but you realize the historical implications of your name … right?
*smile*
I know this is a repeat post, but it kind-of says it all …
I don’t mean to complicate your life, but I don’t have much choice. Neither do you.
Please click on the “Previous Comments” at the top or bottom of this column TWICE, to go back two pages.
Not far from the top of that page is a note of mine to Randy. It may help orient you to this situation.
Also, please see the 17 point list at the bottom of that page. They are things you may find helpful to move your situation along.
There are few law suits to simply sign up for, and none here. This is merely a forum/blog where we can exchange information to fight this war … and yes, you’ve found yourself in the middle of a war. It can only be won using and applying the law with procedures and the courts, forcing the banks to do what the law expects.
There are no heros. You have to be your own hero. Please learn what you’re up against by researching and reading through this blog/forum. Holler with questions, there’s plenty of folks willing to share what they know, including others from Oregon. I’d suggest you scan back through posts using Search to find Oregonians.
Joe McCarthy,
Email me at: yepekyadeo@yahoo.com
I live in Oregon and can give you some help. When you email me please give me your phone number so I can call you.
Lauren
Don’t know if anyone has seen this article before but it kind of tells us what we already are finding out:
Treasury Admits Mortgage Modification Programs Are Really Designed To Help Banks
http://www.alabamaconsumerlawblog.com/2010/09/treasury_admits_mortgage_modification_programs_are_really_designed_to_help_banks.html
Lets NOT FORGET that the Govt. already gave them BILLIONS of dollars already.
So the picture is:
Mr. Govt. sent you BILLIONS
Mr. GOVT. is closing a blind eye to you the BANKS, stealing the homes of 155 MILLION homeowners. You get that asset as well because the treasury Dept. “SET” it up for you that way.
HUMMMM……….
The PEOPLE ZERO
The BANKS MONEY & PROPERTY
A word to the wise:
You need to not only fight for your property, you also need to assist others in their fight.
So How do we do that?
I have written a personal letter, that is being sent out to the 301 foklks on the RECON TRUST “for Sale” list in my County.
I am asking for others in the same situation, to go to court with me and I will do the same for them. Basically I am starting a grassroots movement to amass a large group of people, to fill the courtrooms (with MEDIA present) so these uneducated judges don’t give away the FARM, so to speak.
People get it going and unite against this unlawful seizure of our homes. It only cost postage and some time, to get others on your side and help the cause!
I will post the letter I am speaking of in the next couple of days.
Affidavits and lots of people showing up WILL put the judicial system on notice that we do know that fraud has been committed and we want JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE!!!!
Here is the letter I am sending out.
(Your Name)
(Address)
(Phone)
(Email)
(The following pertains to me, so just put your own words into this section. )
Hello my name is Lauren and I am in Foreclosure. I am sending you this letter in hopes that you want to save your home from foreclosure. I am listed on (add your trustee’s website here ) on sale date (your sale date).
I have been working with (add your loan servicer), for a modification since, (when you started trying to get a modification) . I just submitted documents for the 10th time last week! (add your servicer) has broken the law, and is committing fraud in an attempt to unlawfully take my property away from me. I have not been able to find a State official or Attorney to hold them accountable.
I need YOUR HELP, and you in turn can get HELP from me. I believe if we come together, “WE THE PEOPLE” may be able to put a halt on the lawbreaking entities that are stealing our homes.
My husband lost his ability to earn adequate income, when Wall Street and the Banks pulled this charade off. We are General Contractors and the housing crash affected our ability to earn money. I REFUSE to participate in the BANKS pointing a “sham finger” at me, telling all of us it’s our own fault for over spending, and over extending ourselves in debt. We had a “40 YEAR” PERFECT credit history, that was taken away in one swoop by these outlaws.
I am now forming a grassroots group to fight against these predator banks. If you have a desire to join up and help save your property, please contact me at the above address, email or phone number.
I am extremely busy organizing this coalition, so please leave me a message, in the event that I cannot get to the phone. I will call you back.
There is another grassroots organization that is growing to other states as well. I suggest you go check out their web site at:
goodgriefamerica.ning.com
Thanks for listening!
(Your name)
301 of these will hit the post office next week. (AND MORE AFTER THAT) I have a vision to contact each and everyone in this state.
My Husband and I have tryed and tryed to get a modifacation on our home and they say yes and then no and then my car was stolen out of our drive way and then they tryed to us that as a excuse why they could not give us a modifacation which made no sense what so ever.
We only had our home about a year it was thru Taylor Bean and Whitker and they was closed by the goverment and Bank of America took over our loan and it has been one nightmare after another and now we are almost 4 months behind and in danger to lose our home we are about ready to give up we need help we want to keep our home but not like this feeling threatened at every turn.
Our home is in Daytona Beach Florida is there a place to join the lawsuit there?
David and Vanessa …
Please read my notes above to Jennifer (about the middle of the column) or James (near the top) and please follow the suggestions.
Your first post is nearly duplicated to many dozens I’ve read and responded to since I first came here in August … scared, disillusioned, confused and, yes, threatened.
As Keith points out in his “Treasury Admits” post above, the banks never intended for you to get a modification, and neither did the United States of America through the Treasury Department. Their only intent was to allow the banks to take homes and “infuse” the equity of our homes into the economy.
Banks have run with the ball … to the point of outright, blatant fraud … (all “allegedly,” of course … ha!)
Yes, the institutions that for many decades have been literally legislated to be ethical have thrown ethics out the window for the sake of profit … and intentionally, from your personal misery.
Their perspective has [not virtually, but literally] become, “You have some nerve continuing to live in OUR house. Just leave so we can profit from its sale.”
Pleasant voices and a string of “Have-a-Nice-Days” mean nothing when the end goal is you out and money in their bank …
… but that’s where we find ourselves.
Please read, learn, and most of all consider becoming “warriors” to save your home. Less won’t likely save it.
TO ALL WHO CONSIDER FILING MOTIONS PRO SE
nced.uscourts.gov/html/forms.htm
Go to this website of FORMS and under the heading of “Case Opening” you will see “Pro Se Complaint Package”. This package has all the necessary forms, you just fill in the info.
I suggest bookmarking the page and printing all the forms, filling them out as completely as possible and then returning to the online forms to complete them.
Notice as well, if you’re from another district, you can select the district court which has jurisdiction over your case.
Hope this helps – it certainly is aiding me!!!
Terrific find Keith …
In following your lead, I Goggled “superior court forms pennsylvania” and found this page for anyone in PA …
aopc.org/Forms/Default.htm
Naturally, it’s a generic forms site and you have to pick through to find what you need, even if it’s as a basic template for what you’re filing.
For folks in other States, simply use the Google I did, substituting your State’s name and see what you get.
Whatever you’re filing, I can’t emphasize the following point enough …
Include case CITATIONS that apply to your filing. Here’s where the real work begins. Search and find actual cases that have the same (or similar) nature to your filing. Naturally, be careful NOT to included cases that were either neutral or ruled against your expectations. Just because it’s the same subject matter, doesn’t mean it’ll help the judge understand your case or decide in your favor. That’s how this legal game is played.
This is how the “Affidavit Repository” we’re building can help your case, with statement of homeowners in situations similar to yours.
All of this “pro se” stuff can be aided by an attorney … wording and processes … yet you file yourself.
Remember, too, that you might have to research and understand the “court procedure” itself, if judges or lawyers exhibit behavior that contradicts it, which has been reported. You may have to file against THEM to get “due process” and hold them accountable for the process you’re entitled to.
hi contacted occ with complaint and excecutive office(BOA) has been calling any advice.pls call me 704-674-7279.my house was forclosed on.wanted to know about proof of original note.As in who owns
Hi Deleon …
Sorry to hear about your “escalated” problems.
On the fly at the moment trying to earn the bank’s money, but …
The way you can get information about your note and who owns it is with the RESPA/TILA letter we’ve talked about in here.
There’s some “cautions” about it though, that I have to mention.
You send the letter to the bank (as well as the copy recipients in the list of 17 Getting Started items – now 18, including the Affidavit Repository) … BUT … you’ll need a SPECIFIC name or names to send it to , to make sure it gets into their system. More than one name is best. I sent to both my “negotiator” and “customer advocate.”
They will also fight you, virtually refusing the information, even lying that you’re not entitled to it. YOU ARE entitled to it by law … and you have to fight back INSISTING that you are, reminding them that they are required BY LAW to hand it over … and EVERY DETAIL you request.
You also have to remind them … likely over and over … that they are being WATCHED by the politicians and regulatory agencies you’ve complained to (or sent copies of your letter to).
Banks have no choice … by law … to provide you with any information you request through the RESPA/TILA Qualified Written Request (QWR).
The banks are getting NASTY about this, since they cannot afford the details of our mortgages to be released … but they have NO CHOICE.
You might end up filing in your State’s Superior Court to force them to comply, but they MUST comply.
You have to get NASTY back … and be completely intolerant of their refusals and lies.
This information is your right under the law … period.
Another caution …
If you even APPEAR wishy-washy in either a RESPA letter or a phone conversation or any other contact, they will try and squash you like a bug. It’s simply how they’re dealing with this. They don’t care. They’ve clearly shown that the law doesn’t matter to them and they’ll do whatever it takes to get you to give up and move out.
I’d highly recommend the BIG letter I’ve talked about. It’s not “wishy-washy.” I have a copy and will happily send it. Just email me … donsweet@verizon.net.
Other than that, you could sue and the “discovery” process would bring the information out. Try the letter and bitching LOUDLY first.
Been trying to deal with Bank Of America since Nov. 2009 for Home Modification Loan. It’s unbelievable how many people my wife and I spoke to and each time and got a different answer. Finally someone told us (from BAC dept.)to fill out outline form for modification loan. We would have never known about this outline form unless the manager at the bank (where they don’t deal with mortgages mind you) helped us out because every single employee in the BAC dept. is uneducated. We did this in June and STILL no response. I called yesterday, 11-18-2010, and they said it’s still being reviewed. Feel like we’ve been getting the run around and this whole thing has caused much stress for my wife and I. BOA’s negligence is not helping either one of us….wondering if we’ll have a roof over our heads. We have been most cooperative with them but it’s a never ending battle. I have never in my life dealt with anything like this. Bank Of America told us on the phone back in June of this year that we were qualified for the loan…still no resolution. Now we are in foreclosure due to numerous errors on their end.
John …
Please read my notes above to David and Vanessa, Jennifer (about the middle of the column) or James (near the top) and please follow the suggestions.
My comments to David and Vanessa begin with …
“Your first post is nearly duplicated to many dozens …”
This is not a time to poo-poo “conspiracy theories.” It’s a time to start learning about them.
HI! I just caught up with your comments after being with my computer for a week! Working on finalizing my complaint. I will not be posting here or my blog, but am happy to share details with those who are legit. I know that the B of A crew is reading this…as well as my blog.
The latest is on savvygal.tumblr.com/
My favorite B of A moment last week? When they asked me what gives me the right to file a legal clim. I mentioned a small document called the Constitution;unfortunately, I don’t think anyone at B of A has read it.
Another eye opening and very sad article in Rollingstone magazine by Matt Taibbi, about the housing scam and the foreclosure cases he observed while in Jacksonville, Florida.
Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/232611
Tony …
Here’s the MSNBC with Matt Taibbi …
youtube.com/watch?v=I3e71oxkp74
FOR ALL READERS of this blog, here’s another video NOT to be missed …
youtube.com/watch?v=9yhZBgi5NOg
Keep informing your friends, family and coworkers. Keep holding your politicians responsible. Put the pressure on courts protect the public interest.
It’s hard, but never quit.
Anyone know if this lawsuit is in AZ. I got SCREWED by BofA. They told me if I made trial payments I would get a modification with a lower interest rate. This was all arranged by Chris Daughtery in the home retention depatment. I get my mod and its a higher payment and BofA would not help or listen. My wife had to resign from her job because of a difficult pregnency. BofA is taking our house from us and all I get from them is a buch of “we are comitted to keeping our customers in their homes”. So anyone know if I can get on this thing in AZ?? I HAVE DOCUMENTS!!
Rob …
Please read my notes above to David and Vanessa, Jennifer (about the middle of the column) or James (near the top) and please follow the suggestions.
You’ll need to go back a couple of pages to read the posts, but hopefully, they’ll give you an idea of how to proceed.
I can hear in your post that you’re fighting mad. That’s a good thing. Now it’s time to learn HOW to fight.
Holler with questions. There’s plenty of folks here with mileage and information.
p.s. Don’t fool yourself with fancy titles like “Home Retention Department” … or even “Office of the CEO and President.” The only thing those people are assigned to do is get as much money out of you or your home as possible. They are collections departments and nothing more.
So true Don! After being assigned to the “Office of the CEO and President” I foolishly thought that progress would be made….
I’m sure within 60 days, we will learn that my mom was either denied or paperwork is again missing.
She was assigned a new negotiator at the end of October, inthe negotiators own notes in my moms file she said she would update us weekly on my moms MHA application. This of course hasn’t happened since her original call four weeks ago.
She also gave us her a direct number and extension to get a hold of her but just as in the past, it doesn’t. We get the same voice response that this person is unavailable and we get transferred to the next available rep…or leave a voice mail with the hopes we will hear from her.
Same old sh*t, just different names, lies and days.
I hate to say this but perhaps the terrorists attacked the wrong buildings. I wonder if our military could wage war on the financial terrorists we have here in our own country?
I read all these posts and I’m more and more angry with our so-called government.
Here’s my story – I own a little mom and pop business in upstate New York. We took a huge financial hit the summer of 2009 because New York State decided (through Obama funding) to rip up and repave the road in front of our business. The one month project took 4 months. People waiting in traffic for 40 minutes to get through the project. I lost thousands of dollars. I knew it would stay tough because my business normally drops off in the winter. I saw the media attention given to loan modifications and wondered if it would be worth the call. Now first and foremost let me tell you – the mortgage is in my husband’s name. I call, they tell me all the criteria, etc. They send paperwork which gives 3 month trial payments which are now over $500 more a month than we pay. Husband is like “what the hell?” They kept sending us this crap. I finally typed up a letter in March for my husband which stated he was not interested in a modification and sent it back in their Fed EX package. I have been paying our NORMAL monthly payment every month faithfully. The loan agreement (original one) is that he pays the taxes and homeowners and we fax them copies of the paid stuff. Unbeknownst to us until I went to pay them, but they paid our town and county taxes. This followed in June by the paying the homeowners. I’ve got a document from them that says the loan was put back to “normal servicing” One of their employees read from the loan notes that on May 25th they reverted the loan to “normal servicing.” Sept 3 we get a letter of intent to accelerate for being behind in the mortgage. After calling and calling and calling an no supervisors calling back I get one who finally does and investigates. She tells me they took my monthly payments and were applying them to an escrow account they established for a mortgage modification we DO NOT HAVE! Said we were 3 months behind, I’m like WTF????? Said get this crap straightened out. She mumbled escrow. I sent them in the full balance of the escrow to the escrow dept. Told her I’d call her as soon as check cleared the bank. Been calling for this supervisor for 3 days. Get – “I don’t know that extension number”, “she’s not in this department” to “the investor won’t take the escrow off this account” ” I don’t know who this Leslie is” to have this guy who knew Leslie transfer me from their offices in Texas to the Buffalo call center who, after I asked to be transferred to her extension, told me he couldn’t and hung up on me. The creeps (I’m trying to be polite) are trying to collect $5,000 in late charges, interest in the last offering of a modification to us. Again what modification?????
The absolute kicker is this crap is the loan is in my husband’s name and they will not talk to me unless he gets on the phone and gives his permission. So why then did you assholes take an inquiry from me that started you on a loan modification that my husband did not call you about. They also took two loan payments out of our checking account back in January that each time I tried to get it straightened out I had to put him on the phone to be able to speak with them??? Then in February they’re calling me telling me the February payment is late. I said where the hell is my $1,222 you have SOME FRICKIN PLACE! After 3 phone calls they finally applied it to the February payment. Two days ago I got another letter of intent to accelerate with all the same dollar amounts on it. Where the hell is the $2,300 we just sent you????
I filed a complaint with the OCC today. Does anyone think I have a prayer with this route or can you recommend a lawyer who is licensed in New York? I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since September. These people are trying to take my husband’s family homestead away from him and we don’t owe them jack shit. Is it really worth my while to write our useless state senator and the other two useless US senators? Money is worse than tight as well would a lawyer sue to help us and recoup the lawyer’s fees?
The amazing thing is that in September they sent us loan paperwork that reduced the interest rate by 2%. Great yes – but they were tacking on the $5,000 in late fees and interest that we don’t owe them. They added escrow, but I could understand that being part of the offering.
what is this country coming to………..
Kathy, sorry to hear about your nightmare. It sounds like the very same crap the rest of us are going through. Shocker!
I cannot help you with any info about lawyers but I will tell you this. In order for you to talk to BOA in place of your husband, he must write a statement authorizing you to talk with BOA about his account with them.
Contact BOA and get and tell them what you are doing and want to send your husbands statement of authorization to them. Get a fax number and a name from them to put attention to and tell them to scan the statement in their alleged imagining department so that they statement can be added to your information in their system. Include the name of the BOA rep, the department and your husbands acct # on the fax cover sheet.
It will still be a pain in the @## until they do this but once it is done you should only have to verify the account #, address and the last four digits of your husbands social security number along with your name.
As for the escrow account…No answers yet as my mom is also going through this with them. They paid four months of her homeowners insurance without initially telling her.
Allegedly this is part of the “rules” when applying for a MHA application. We spoke with a rep from BOA’s insurance department and were told the escrow on the homeowners insurance will end in January 2011….we shall see.
I may be wrong but it sure seems to me that this whole escrow account is just another way of tacking money onto a mortgage that people already having problems paying.
Any payments they make towards homeowners insurance or property taxes will be added on to the monthly mortgage payment, increasing it. My mom’s mortgage only increased by $4.54 a month after BOA paid for roughly five months ($260.00) of her homeowners insurance.
If you have questions about them paying your homeowners insurance for the escrow account, contact your insurance agent and have them do a conference call with you and BOA’s insurance department.
If you have also been paying your homeowners insurance during the same period, it is a double payment and you should be receiving a refund check from your insurance department.
I hope this helps a little. Good luck! And NEVER trust what BOA tells you and write everything down when you talk to them!
Correction:
If you have also been paying your homeowners insurance during the same period, it is a double payment and you should be receiving a refund check from your insurance company.
As for your OCC complaint. They will only be a mediator between you and the bank. They can’t do anything legally for you or help you collect any monetary losses on your part as far as I know.
Once you send the OCC a complaint you should receive a response from them in 2-4 weeks. You will then have to wait up to 60 days for a response by BOA to address your complaint.
If they fail to address your complaint or questions you will have to contact the OCC again. The document you receive from the OCC will include your case #, their website and a number to contact them.
The very FIRST and foremost thing I have to say it this
I called BOA to INQUIRE about this loan modification thing I saw on the news. I AM NOT a co-borrower on this loan it is in my husband’s name. They DID NOT ask me to put him on the phone to get permission to speak with me about the loan. They started a loan modification on just this inquiring phone call. Am I not right in saying they committed FRAUD?????
We have experience the same trouble for the past 18 months with Bank of America. Where can we get more information with regard to the the class action suit
Kathy and Susan …
Below I’m reposting two items for your benefit, and for anyone else who might be new to this forum. The first is an introductory post will hopefully “orient” you to the situation you’ve found yourselves in. Where you are may not be what it seems or what you thought.
The second is an 18 point “Getting Started” list with things that may help you save your homes.
They are several things people have spoken about on this forum who are also going through this. You should also know that I’m just like you, another homeowner in this war. Yes, you find yourselves in the middle of a war.
I have no connection to this forum/blog other than as just another participant, but I’m passionate about getting others headed in the right direction and learning about where we are and where we need to go.
For Kathy … Tony gave you some good information, as many of us here are happy to do. Just ask anytime … you too Susan. But Kathy, I can hear the anger and frustration in your post and need to say …
You’ll need to consider turning all that “anger energy” into “warrior energy” so you can fight this thing effectively. I know one disillusioning thing I suffered early on was the “betrayal” that these people were supposed to be ethical and honest in the first place. They are preying off of that. Not only does Statutory Law MANDATE that they are ethical, as well as agencies [supposedly] looking over their shoulders to make sure, historically, many people have simple trusted that banks will do the right thing.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Nationwide, there is ever increasing news about how the banks have literally become criminal enterprises, booting anyone and everyone out of their homes strictly for the sake of profit. Your experience is the same as ours, simply over the fact that they PLANNED it that way. They’ve never had any intention to work this out with you (all “allegedly, of course … HA!).
You can’t trust a single word they utter or a single penny they charge.
Neither can you believe a single word about their so-called right to foreclose. A huge number of mortgages … in the tens of millions … now have broken titles of ownership from the fraudulent shenanigans of the “MERS” system, and that’s in addition to the fraud of the banks themselves.
Fight this thing. Trust nothing they say. Learn and apply what others have learned to call them, regulatory agencies, courts, and politicians into account. Use every means you can to shine a spotlight on their illegality, including public pressure and the press. Tell everyone you know. Educate THEM, too. Awareness in the broadest sense is essential.
Holler with questions. There’s plenty of help here.
My posts are below.
The following is intended as a “First Day Orientation” for folks new to the forum/blog, and how you might fight this thing. Sorry if this is going to be a little long-winded, but it’s simply where we find ourselves.
It’s a complicated situation.
First off, if you haven’t been able to tell, for the most part we’re all homeowners just like yourself, trapped and going in circles in this “alleged” modification program.
The first thing to clarify is that there aren’t many lawyers here. There isn’t a parade of anxious attorneys staring at their computer screens waiting with baited-breath to become our rescuers. In this situation there are no heros. We have to be our own heros. Besides, when an attorney does post, it’s likely their bar associations don’t like it much, which makes them very brave souls, risking their careers.
The next thing you have to recognize is the fact that you are being victimized. Now, it’s necessary to add the word “allegedly” since legally the banks haven’t been “proven” in a court of law to be guilty … although cases are emerging. In any case, most of us (if not all) originally trusted the bank to perform professionally and ethically, and to know what they were doing. After all, they’re LEGISLATED (by law) to BE ethical.
For the most part, we arrived here because we came to understand we were being screwed.
So your first real hurdle is to get over the idea the bank can be trusted … in any way. Many of us cling to the idea that “we-just-want-our-modification-and-to-get-on-with-our-lives.”
It’s not that easy.
It’s pretty much become the consensus of the folks on this blog/forum/board … AND in the news … that the banks never intended for us to get a modification at all, and were merely priming us for foreclosure and repossession to PROFIT from our homes, regardless of whether or not it was legal. After all, that’s what their stockholders and boards of directors demand, profit, profit, profit. It appears as though it’s evolved into “profit at any cost,” whether ethical or even legal.
Many of us believe their appearance of “incompetence” isn’t incompetence at all, but planned and implemented as precisely as a military battle plan. If you ask a lawyer how to “get away with something,” it’s likely the lawyer will say, “You can’t look malicious to a court, but you CAN look stupid. A court will forgive stupidity, but it’s required to punish malice.”
Some people have started this modification process with pristine credit, merely INQUIRING about a renegotiation/modification, and got sucked into the black hole of this [alleged] scheme, with their credit ruined and their house in or facing foreclosure. There have even been people state that they never even asked to be in the “program,” but found themselves caught in it. Most simply believed they could negotiate a modification through TARP (earlier government program) or HAMP, so they enrolled.
The TARP program no longer applies to anything you do with Bank of America since they paid back every last penny of their $45 Billion “stimulus package.” The assumption is the bank wanted to get out from under TARP rules. Since then, the “hook” to snare you has been the HAMP program from Mister Obama, where he’ll pay the bank $1,000 to talk to you about a modification.
That’s a very important sentence.
The banks are ONLY obligated to TALK to you, not ACTUALLY give you a modification. They’re paid whether they modify or not. And modifying under HAMP makes them lose money. Actually, modifying AT ALL makes them lose money, so they do what they can to wiggle out of it. If they can, they find some excuse not to modify under HAMP (often by letting Fannie or Freddie deny it for them), and if they HAVE to modify, they do it privately, outside the program, only reducing payments by about half that of a modification under HAMP.
Yes, this is complicated. That’s the way they like it. They want you to become frustrated, confused, exasperated, and would actually prefer you just gave up and simply moved out, so they can profit from your property …
… all “allegedly” of course.
What many people don’t realize is that the homeowner has Rights … and lots of them … far more than we think. Suing, even in a class action, is only ONE of them. In fact, it’s been pointed out (by an attorney, much to the frowns of his bar association, I’m sure) that class actions can actually be LESS effective or beneficial to a homeowner. MANY individual lawsuits will tie up the banks’ legal departments AND homeowners will get more individualized attention by the courts.
It’s also been pointed out that filing YOURSELF, without an attorney (it’s called “pro se”), can also have benefits. It’s not easy and courts don’t like it one bit, but you have options in court a lawyer wouldn’t DARE use, because they depend on the court to make their living … we don’t.
Essentially, when it comes right down to it, you PERSONALLY have a decision to make … or several, actually. A) Do you simply want your modification and to get on with your life? B) Do you want to sue, meaning go to all the time and effort it takes to get a court to FORCE the bank to do something? C) And if you sue, do you want to individually, or with a group?
If you want to work towards a modification, there’s an 18 point “getting started” below. Examine that on how you might proceed.
Whether you want your modification or to sue, the fact remains that your education has only just begun. An ignorant homeowner is precisely what the banks want, so the best way for you to protect yourself is to learn how this game is played. Unfortunately, this IS a game to them. It’s called “How to Profit from Homes at Any Cost,” and that relies on you not knowing your Rights.
If you want to sue, it’s not going to be easy to find a lawyer, but they are out there and class actions are forming, as well as people learning and preparing to file individually or even without a lawyer … pro se.
Sue or not, you should still look though the 18 point list. You’re not alone in this. Much of defending yourself is taking personal responsibility AND holding others responsible, not only the banks, but the courts, politicians, branches of law enforcement and agencies responsible for overseeing the banks.
I know it’s a lot to ask, but read as much of this forum as you have time for. Lots of people have had very valuable things to say, and you can benefit from their knowledge, research and experience. Learn to Google the subject matter and learn the meaning of terms and words.
Holler with questions. There’s lots of folks here willing to help. Some arrived ready to fight. Some had no idea they had to, and learned there’s really no choice.
Besides, in the end, it might actually end up being … well … “fun” … as some of us are beginning to see it.
A Getting Started Defending Your Home List
18 items that may help —
The list below was accumulated from the experiences of a variety of people going through the same pain and similar circumstances as the stories being told here including myself. Unfortunately, these stories are emerging in the thousands, coast-to-coast. We all have to learn what’s happening and learn how to deal with it, a sometimes painful, but revealing process.
You DO have rights. For the most part, this is NOT your fault. Hopefully, you’ll find this list informative and it will help you turn the tables.
If you want to keep your home, you have to fight for it … but ALSO, you’ll have to learn how this game is played. Unfortunately, this IS a game to them. It’s how they can manipulate things to get as much money as possible. After all, that’s what their stockholders DEMAND … profit, profit, profit. That means getting money (your home equity) from YOU.
Please try and read ALL of this, and research for additional information. Google is your friend. So is Wikipedia. Whenever you see legal terms you don’t understand, look them up so you know what they mean.
1) If you haven’t made a journal/diary of your mortgage modification experience start NOW. Record every instance every time it happens in detail. This is critical for a court case, but can also be helpful for Attorneys General and Agency complaints and for your politicians, should they get involved.
2) Sit down and write out as complete a timeline as you can from the beginning of your experience with as much detail as you can recall. Take time to do a thorough job. Equally valuable as “1)”.
3) Call your State and Federal representatives, Congressman/woman, State Assemblyman/woman and inform them of your situation. Calling is preferred over emailing. It puts a human element into the contact. Ask for help. Don’t hesitate. It’s their job to oversee your community and the goings-on in it. It’s why you elected them. INSIST that they help you if they try to wiggle out of it. Mine were VERY cooperative and helpful.
4) Get any attorney you can find to advise you from church, synagog, friends, family, neighbors. Retain one if you can afford it or call legal aid if you can’t. These are “contractual negotiations” that involve Statutory Law and a lawyer will navigate that best. Tempt them with the possibility of getting a piece of a class action suit. You can also use an attorney as an advisor when you file “pro se,” meaning without a lawyer (see below).
5) Call the Hope Hotline 877-300-5454 or Money Management International direct 888-881-7558. Use MMI (or a similar NON-profit) literally EVERY TIME you call the bank. A representative will be with you through your calls and the nightmares on hold. They will also keep a record (although it can’t be released without a subpoena from a court). But if it goes to court, you can get it that way. It’s also better to have the BOA people hear you’re not alone on the phone.
6) Call and call and call and call until you get results and cooperation. If you’re using MMI, they’ll ask for supervisors. If you’re not, YOU ask for them. I know from a full year of this garbage how much it cuts into your personal (or even work) time and how traumatic it is, but big corporations BANK on you getting frustrated and giving up. DON’T GIVE UP. Hold their feet to the fire. Get first and last name identification on everyone you talk to, plus main number and extension, for our log/timeline.
7) Keep up your payments as close to on time as you can. This is ALL about the MONEY. It’s a contract and your end is feeding this behemoth monster your hard earned cash. You agreed to it when you signed the mortgage. Courts (and negotiators) will want to see your willingness to pay, as will your politicians and regulatory agencies. It’s your “good will” that you’re willing to work it out.
8 ) Find as many people as you can in your State that are going through this AND keep in contact with forums like this or others. The ONLY power any of us have over this monster is NUMBERS. It is literally “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” One-by-one they can take us down, but as both national and State groups, they’ll have a hard time of it.
9) Once you’ve contacted your politicians and they’ve started to help you, tell all your friends, family, co-workers and anyone else who knows you to write to them and THANK them for helping you get through this difficult time. DO NOT have them criticize, complain or tell stories. Just a short thank you will make it clear to your politicians that people are watching their performance. No need to get into detail. They’ll KNOW they’re being watched just through a simple thank you.
10) File a complaint with your State Attorney General and the OCC (http://www.occ.treas.gov/customer.htm). Research your State and complain to any applicable agency. Be sure not to “rant” and provide information in the form and with the content they request.
11) Contact your telephone company and request call records to and from BofA, or get all your calls and highlight them. Add that to your package of evidence.
12) Compose a letter asking news agencies to look into this problem. Describe your situation BRIEFLY, then forward it to every news program and news agency you can think of. There are lists of contacts throughout this blog. Key Point: News people are a bit “legalistic” in covering stories and require documentation and facts. Although they respond to emotional pleas, they will likely ignore incoherent rants, finger-pointing and unproven accusations. Be factual in your letters. The emotions will come across even if you try not to.
13) Learn about, compose and send a RESPA/TILA (Truth in Lending Act) qualified letter, or “Written Qualified Request” (QWR) to the bank and other regulatory agencies, and include anyone (politicians) who might be monitoring your case (see below). The Federal government REQUIRES banks to provide you with DETAILED information on your mortgage.
The banks are proving particularly stubborn with RESPA letters. They are literally willing to lie and state to you that you are not entitled to this information … YOU ARE. Do not allow the banks to make you believe you are not. Specific citations of the law are available. Simply ask in the forum, or use the long RESPA mentioned letter below, which contains them.
RESPA is explained on these two government sites –
hud.gov/offices/hsg/rmra/res/reslettr.cfm ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/homes/rea10.shtm
Samples of letters can be seen (copied) here –
http://www.nololawlibrary.com/foreclosure/7-2d.shtml
foreclosureindustry.com/2009/08/qualified-written-requests-respa-and-mortgage-servicing/
This version is HIGHLY recommended. Shorter versions are being “dismissed” or ignored by the banks —
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11903044/Respa-Letter
Also available in TXT and DOC file formats from donsweet@verizon.net.
Insert your personal information, rewrite the opening paragraph(s) to describe your personal concerns, and customize the “demands” to your own case, preferably with the help of a lawyer.
DO NOT send via email, and use the Postal Service, certified mail, return receipt requested. Copy all related people/parties the same way.
See below for a suggested list of Carbon Copy (CC) recipients to a REASPA/TILA letters.
14) Also … and this is tricky … this is ALL about contract law, which is called “Statutory Law.” It literally has NOTHING to do with Right and Wrong, but what contract law expressly states. This is NOT “Common Law” that talks about the rights of a human being. This is about your “fictitious corporate self” that’s a party to the contract … NOT YOU as a human being. Statutory Law only sees the “contractee,” not the human being. Statutory Law couldn’t care less whether you live in that house or not … just whether the contract is fulfilled.
READ your mortgage and READ your restructuring agreement. Everything that’s happening to you is based on THOSE, not Right or Wrong … or have someone who understands legal language read them and explain what they mean.
Contract violations are what Class Action Law Suits are based on … contractual violations, and that’s all a court will listen to. And remember, any filing you make with a court, including suits, you’ll need to give the court EVERY DETAIL of you situation. The records mentioned above are CRITICAL to courts, as well as information acquired through a RESPA letter. You may even have to file against a bank to force them to provide RESPA information.
Remember, this is a nation (now, anyway) of laws, courts and parties to contracts … NOT common decency or even Common Sense. Work to save your home. Complaining gets you no where. Working hard and learning “the game” they play is the only thing that works.
15) One other thing has emerged … try to get over any embarrassment. For most people, this is not your fault. You have no control over the financial environment and you are merely exercising your rights. In fact, you should be BOLD about exercising them. Don’t let anyone convince you that “you were just asking for it.”
16) Consider stretching your budget to file an INDIVIDUAL lawsuit, rather than being lumped in with a class action. Jamming up a bank’s legal department with multiple suits is far more effective than allowing them to combat one class action. A class action puts you in a barrel with all the other fish.
It’s also been suggested that you can file yourself, without an attorney. It’s called “pro se.” When you sue personally, you can name names. You’re not held to the same standards as a lawyer. You can sue everybody, including the “negotiator” or “customer advocate” or even the court itself if they contradict the law, by filing criminal charges against even the judge. You can name anyone on any paper that relates to your mortgage. You can even file criminal charges against judges for ignoring proper court procedure or any other violation you may catch them in, something an attorney would never DARE do. Their careers depend on the court, but yours doesn’t.
But if you can’t file individually, keep in touch with people in your State. You can’t simply “put-your-name-on-a-list”. It’s not that easy. You have to work to FORM a class action suit. For the moment, no Federal class action exists and they MUST be State-by-State. Band together and hunt hard for an attorney who will take it on.
17) There’s also been the suggestion that you file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a complicated and often expensive process, and not everyone qualifies … as described here …
http://www.uscourts.gov/FederalCourts/Bankruptcy/BankruptcyBasics/Chapter13.aspx
It can be a difficult decision, time consuming and possibly expensive, seriously affecting your credit for years, but a solution none-the-less.
18) An IMPORTANT use for items 1) and 2), the journal/diary and timeline, has developed. You should have these timelines and journals notarized, scanned, and placed in the “repository” or online data base we are developing so anyone suing or filing against the bank(s) can access the statements when filing a suit.
You need to have written evidence (affidavits) of a widespread pattern of behavior by the banks for the courts to accept or listen to your accusations. You can’t just “claim” widespread, systematic abuse without documentation. You have to PROVE it with affidavits. A data base has been created and the details are being worked out. More news and details later as they develop.
____________________________
Suggested recipients to RESPA/TILA (Truth in Lending Act) Written Qualified Request letters –
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC. 20580
Office of RESPA and Interstate Land Sales
Room 9146, Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street SW,
Washington, DC 20410
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
Steve A. Linick – Inspector General
1700 G Street, NW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20552
Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
Administrator of National Banks
250 E St SW
Washington, DC 20219
Larry L. Hattix, Ombudsman, Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
Office of the Ombudsman
250 E. Street, SW, MS 9-3
Washington, DC 20219
Fannie Mae (if they are listed on your paperwork)
Mortgage Fraud Program
3900 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
For Freddie Mac (if they are listed in your paperwork, rather than Fannie Mae) see …
http://www.freddiemac.com/corporate/about/contactus.htm
U.S. Department of Justice
Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Both Federal Senators (Google)
Federal Congressperson of your District (Google)
Both State Senators, or the State Senator responsible for your district (Google)
Your State Assemblyperson (Google)
Your Attorney, even if they aren’t retained yet
Your State Attorney General (Google)
Your District Attorney’s office
Check for specialized lawyers under the DA (Google)
The Sheriff’s Office of your County or Parish (Google and name the Sheriff)
Your County Commissioners
Any media people who will listen
Thank you Don for your information. I learned some things I did not know. I hope your information helps everyone.
Keith …
Please email me at donsweet@verizon.net.
Thanks!
Folks …
When you post, please add your State after your name so others in your area can locate you and stay in touch to share local information.
Thanks!
The banks are getting sneakier…to avoid customers calling with a third party on the line, certain customer service reps NEVER pick up the phone. Even those I used to be able to reach with (relative) ease. I wonder what will happen when I file my case on december 1st…
Meanwhile, through my research I have found a few attorneys that have been quite successful getting permanent mods. I also know another who has filed a Mass Joinder case. I still think the best option is to file Pro Se; but, if you are looking for an attorney, I can lead you in the right direction. http://savvygal.tumblr.com/
This is a bit dry (unexciting) to view, but contains a very clear picture of what we’re up against …
outube.com/watch?v=Iv-ZCj1_HHI
It’s also long … 22 parts at 10 minutes each … but worth sifting through (and watching in bits and pieces) to understand what’s going on.
Educate yourself!
Folks …
Having gotten through this video up to Part 14, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of viewing it. Even if you only view one or two parts a day, once with your morning coffee and once before bed, you REALLY need to stick it out and get the real history of where this all comes from.
One thing to keep in mind … these folks used DOCUMENTED FACTS … not “conspiracy theories” … to put this together. It is finally a real, complete picture of what’s actually going on.
It’s no “action thriller,” but a real eye-opener.
I have the same or similar stories of all of you. I just filed a report to Attorney General Alabama. They have always helped me in the past with the business world taking advantage of me. Just go online Attorney General of your state and you fill out simple form and state and state how BOA has done you. They get in touch with them–I don;t think they can get by with what their doing to people if State Attorney General contacts them, then you back and will resolve the casel.Try that. Is there a class action suit in the State of Alabama–if you know–please let me know who to call or what to do. Thanks EJ
Edna …
Please read through my “First Day Orientation” and “18 Point Getting Started List” above.
How can I add my name to the class action law suit? I have been trying to get my loan modified since December 2009. My home was foreclosure, without let me know. The house was never sale and was send to REO(real estate own) a department at BOA. What I can do?
Adilia …
I know … as well as anyone … that this situation can be overwhelming, since I’m going through this, too.
I have to be a bit blunt with something. Sorry, but it’s just the situation we find ourselves in.
There is NO class action lawsuit here to simply sign up for.
This is a complicated mess, and unfortunately, we have to be our own heros. There are none lurking around their computers waiting to save us.
It’s going to be up to you to save your own home, although there’s plenty of folks here with some mileage with the same circumstances that can help.
Not too far up on this column of posts, I’ve put up both a “First Day Orientation” and an “18 Point Getting Started List.” Please consider reading through them to understand where you find yourself. You will need to learn AND you will need to learn how to fight.
Yes, I know 18 is a lot … but many are learning how to fight this thing. You can, too. In fact, if you don’t learn and just depend on others, you have little chance. That’s the way the banks like it. The less you know, the easier it will be for them to take your home.
There’s one thing I can see you’ll need to get over REALLY fast. Even the news media is now saying the banks never intended to give us modifications in the first place. Mister Obama’s HAMP plan was to ONLY pay banks $1,000 each to JUST TALK to us … NOT give us modifications … so the banks are getting paid even when they foreclose … and they profit MORE from foreclosure.
We’ve all learned this the hard way.
Please read above. Holler with questions. There’s lots of folks just like you here willing to help.
Try and have a nice Thanksgiving regardless … but afterwards, get to work to save your home.
Laraine, I have received my modification also and BOA is still reporting me late each month even though their own online history shows they have received my payments. I have proof I have made the payments. I too am getting forclosure threats. (over one payment) I have filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission (who has not responded). I have just written a letter to my Congressman, John Boehner. I wrote letters to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also. BOA replies to all my RESPA qualified certified letters, always responding to things I never asked about and never about the misposting of my payments. I am trying legal aid after the holiday. Not sure if that will work either. It appears Bank of America’s responses are deliberate to kill time hoping I will give up. No way in HE%#! I have recovered from a job loss and not being able to make my payments and now I am making my payments every month and on time. What a way to treat their customers. I think it is only a matter of time before they also go under like Countrywide did. (I used to be a Countrywide customer)
A Positive Thanksgiving Message
What We are Told Versus What is Real
Thanksgiving is the one, true universal American holiday. It crosses all boundaries of ethnicity, race, religion and social and financial classes making it possible for more than three hundred million people to come together with a single thought … counting our blessings.
That’s a powerful moment.
When nearly a third of a billion people pause and contemplate a single ideal, it proves we can all come together despite our differences, no matter how extreme.
That’s a good thing. In fact, it may be one of the best things you could imagine since it brings a diverse people together in a unified voice.
We often even give thanks for the day itself, recognizing the gift of the people who brought it to us. After all, it’s important to remember our roots and understand how we got here, able to give thanks.
What could be upside-down or even wrong with that?
One fact that’s emerging and becoming part of the Thanksgiving discussion in some circles is exactly how it DID come about, which isn’t possibly what we were raised to believe. There appears to be a little twist in the story that is actually upside-down.
Now one might say, “So what? It’s a good holiday and it brings people together.”
All that is good. We just need to be careful to properly respect those roots, to recall and respect how it actually came about. If we aren’t being “real” and accurate about the facts, we’ll introduce a “falseness” into our celebration.
As much as we love our childhood images of the buckled black hats and shoes of the Pilgrims, Thanksgiving wasn’t exclusively celebrated by the Pilgrims. Several other colonies and settlements of the day reported the same celebration, independent of each other.
It’s also reported that it was their first successful harvest season, and they were so moved by the experience they needed to pause and give thanks.
What if you were to learn that this was only partially true? What if you were to learn this celebration of thanks had been going on for hundreds of years? How would you react if you found out it wasn’t an “original” idea of either the Pilgrims or any other new settlement of early America?
Would it matter?
To many people, probably not. It is what it is … and it’s a good day. Why cloud it with details?
But once you accept that it was something that sprang up in several original settlements, wouldn’t you have to ask yourself why and how? What made it consistent from one group to another, separated by many years and many hundreds of miles?
The simple fact is, it wasn’t an original idea of the Pilgrims at all, nor the other settlements, but the Indians they reportedly invited to their days of thanks. The simple fact is, Indians, Native Americans, have been celebrating Thanksgiving on this continent for literally hundreds, if not thousands of years. They suggested the days of thanks to the settlers, not the other way around.
Even though you may still say, “What does it matter? It’s a good day, so why cloud it with details?” … there is a very important reason to remember this critical difference between what we’ve been taught and what actually happened.
If we’re willing to simplify such an important celebration into an (incorrect) “sound bite,” what else are we willing to ignore or distort? What other truths are we willing to disregard and what other distortions are we willing to accept? Can we really afford to misunderstand our true origins?
Those “noble savages” invited to the first Thanksgiving were neither savages or invited. They were the originators of Thanksgiving, and were the ones doing the inviting.
This is highly relevant, since this is also true about the Constitution, written more than a hundred and fifty years later.
Let that sink in a moment.
Native Americans helped write the American Constitution.
The majority of our nation’s Constitution was “borrowed” from the Iroquoian “Great Law” through George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, which had been Native practice for at least a thousand years, and essentially universal on the East Coast among many Native Nations.
For skeptics, please research “Senate Concurrent Resolution 76” of the 100th Congress in 1987 where it states —
“Whereas, the original framers of the Constitution, including most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts, principles and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy; and, Whereas, the Confederation of the original thirteen colonies into one Republic was explicitly modeled upon the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself;”
Knowing where you truly come from is to know who you truly are.
When we give thanks, it should also be for Truth and Clarity, as well as Abundance.
All I can say is I share the same story as all of you. I went a year going through this. I sent them everything, and even got my paperwork to an underwriter, and once it got to him he approved it but the paperwork went MIA after that. My mod was stuck “under review”. Then I find out in that the Countrywide takeover many legal documents were destroyed. Legal documents that keep modifications from going through, homes from being sold or foreclosed upon. Here is what I did: I complained to my states attorney general and mailed him copies of all of my loan documents and all documents B of A sent me for my mod. I then complained to the CEO’s office–Corporate Headquarters: 704-386-5972 / 704-386-5681
Operator: 800-900-9000 (press 0 twice)
All correspondance Bank of America sent me I forwarded on to my attorney general. I needed to file for bankruptcy so I waited as long as I could, but when one of my creditors wanted to sue me I needed to file. Then B of A told me I was denied based on high DTI ratio, but no written notification was sent. My AG got involved then B of A wanted to help, but they added 8 grand in principle to my loan, and a little excerpt that stated “Upon signing and notarizing of these loan documents a new promissory note will be made to replace the original one that has been lost, destroyed or otherwise shows incorrect information”. They just admitted they lost the promissory note, which is the binding legal document and contract between me and the bank. I did not sign these documents and I moved out. This is the reason everyone’s mods are not going through–the banks have lost the notes and cannot legally modify the loans. If this is the case many of you can file a quiet title and B of A has 90 days to cough up the note and if they can’t, you can get your title to your house and no more house payments. But you will need a lawyer to do this.
Another way to fight the foreclosure is the whole MERS mess, which is the database that stores all of our mortgages. The courts are siding with borrowers in recognizing that MERS cannot legally foreclose on you because they are not a lending institution, they are a database. Google it and you will find a lot of info on it.
Someone please help me, maybe Don might have some answers. I have been going through the same nightmare as everyone else for almost two years. I finally have received responses from my complaints to my congressman, the Attorney General and the OCC. The OCC assigned a case to me, based on this I received a 3 page letter from Bank of America addressing my concerns, since they have to respond to my complaint and cc the OCC. I have 30 days to respond to their letter in order for the OCC to continue looking into my complaint. On their letter BOA states that I didnt submit the necessary paperwork and that is why my modification was cancelled, of course I never received anything telling me that my modification application was cancelled. Everytime I called, they couldnt tell me anything, or they needed additional paperwork, or they couldnt find my file, etc. They claim that they requested additional correspondence, but I never forwarded it to them by the time requested.
They send the same packets over and over again, and if we dont respond thinking that they are just duplicates, they use this as an excuse to make it seem as if we didnt respond on time. On the letter they also state that it is legal for them if they give you a modification to continue with foreclosure proceedings and to not report your “partial payments” towards your mortgage, although this is the amount that they are telling you to make. They make it seem as if they are doing everything legal in their modification process, and they state that mine is an isolated case. The only reason that I even received this letter is because they have to respond based on instructions given by the OCC.
‘s Customer Assistance Group (CAG). It is so frustrating that BOA justify their actions this way. I was just wondering if anyone has received the same type of letter from BOA?
Ana,
I feel your pain! I’ve been at this since December of last year. I’ve never ever missed a payment in my life. In my situation, I had lost my job earlier in ’09 and took a job in August that was about $35k less than I was making. Even with the pay cut, I was still able to make my mortgage payments and credit card payments. I worked it out that with the savings I had, I could make it through April of 2010, so the HAMP program seemed ideal. Before signing on the dotted line, I had my real estate agent and a mortgage broker friend and they both said it looked legitimate.
I entered the paperwork in December and started making the payments, as instructed, through April. Like you, they kept saying they were missing documents. Like you, they would send me FedEx envelopes back to back, asking for the same documents. I would not only mail, I would also fax their requests as well.
In April, when I made my last trial payment, I asked them what my status was and what should I do regarding payment. They told me that they were backed up and to continue making the HAMP amount NOT the original mortgage amount. I was still receiving requests for more information and I would still send what I what they requested.
Now, fast forward to July. I get a phone call from a human requesting me to send him not only my 08 taxes but also 09. I was pissed. I told him that they had at least 8 copies of my 08 taxes and I’ve sent everything to them via fax and fedex. Well, he told me that when I faxed it, it really wasn’t going to “someone”… he went on to say that most likely it may have sat on a fax machine (Lovely). And what about the FedEx?? No real answer for that. Well in any case, I sent him the information, AGAIN, and hadn’t heard a thing.
Imagine my surprise when I got a foreclosure notice!?!?
Any case, long story short, every time I make a payment, my foreclosure date gets pushed a month. When I made my mortgage payment this month, I had a BofA employee that actually took the time to look at my information and he was thoroughly confused as well. Why?? Because, in my records, it said that I got DENIED on September 2nd but on the 4th of September, I got approved! He ran the request up to a “Supervisor”. I’m still waiting for someone to call me or mail me to let me know what the heck is going on.
I would love to throw money at this problem so it will just go away. But, I have a wedding to pay for and spinal surgery that I had last month to pay off, so I just don’t have an extra $4k just hanging around ready to be spent. Reading this BLOG, makes me think otherwise. I’m going to write a RESPA letter and contact my Attorney General….and go from there.
It pains me that my credit rating is “ruined” by this. Again, I’ve never made a late payment on my mortgage, ever, but because the HAMP folk and BofA folk seem to be two separate entities, here I sit, shaking my head. I was trying to be responsible instead of waiting to GET in trouble….it just bit me in the butt.
Good luck in your fight! And if there is anyone else on this site from South Carolina, contact me! ahaynes122@gmail.com
Folks …
Amber brings up a valuable point, I believe.
Just some minor research dug up this template for Philadelphia County. It makes interesting reading …
http://courts.phila.gov/pdf/forms/fraudulent-conveyance-quiet-title-packet.pdf
For those of you willing to go to the next level (beyond a RESPA letter), it’s something to consider. It even has a Pro Se form (without an attorney) to file “In Forma Pauperis” meaning you lack the funds to file “normal” proceedings, and are asking the judge to waive certain fees. That in itself is worth further investigation.
Obviously, this particular document has no detail and is a fill-in form, but I’m sure I’ll find case examples, and encourage you all too search for them, too.
With bad titles rampant, it may be a straight line to end this nonsense. Certainly something to investigate.
Don–
Can’t open your link per you message.
Sent in email.
If anyone else needs it … donsweet@verizon.net
I am going through the same thing with Bank of America. Went through the trial period for 9 months, made all payments on time and was denied because it was not profitable for them. Now they are demanding the difference between my modification payment and my original payment. If they don’t get it they will foreclose. Also late penelities are applied. i was told nothing of this in the beginning. I have called, but they demand payment not help. I am in Virginia
How can we help you Brenda?
Have you seen either the “First Day Orientation” or the “18 Point Getting Started List” on the bottom of the previous page?
“Once a liar, always a liar.”
Yes, Anna, I’ve seen these same documents.
You have to remember that their entire system is geared for foreclosure and profit, not modification, even if it’s illegal.
But also … they can’t afford to appear malicious, so they’ve set up the system to look stupid.
One of the reasons I’ve called this a “fight” is the fact that there’s NO reasoning through it … you can’t “negotiate.” You have to FORCE them to behave ethically and legally. Not only that, but the moment you begin to question their motives or processes, they get VINDICTIVE and “escalate” to brush you aside.
That’s what makes this a war, not business as usual.
It’s happening because they’re getting away with it. Homeowners in the thousands are signing papers that only LOOK legal, mostly since most homeowners have no idea (or read) what they are signing, or are in such a panic as to sign anything. Either that, or they simply give up and move out.
They continue because they CAN continue.
The only thing that will stop them is the attitude TO stop them, not continue to “negotiate,” which they refuse to do.
That means courts, filings and suits … AND holding courts, oversight agencies and politicians accountable for the oversight.
I had a modification on paper literally IN MY HANDS, but they tacked on over $7,000 in totally unjustifiable (or defined) costs. That’s VINDICTIVE, not a negotiation. Several others have reported precisely the same scenario.
They are focused … in the extreme … on one thing and one thing only … foreclosure and profit, foreclosure and profit, foreclosure and profit.
Period.
Sorry if this sounds blunt, but we’ll all have to get over the idea that they’ll behave ethically or even rationally. It’s simply not designed into their program … to foreclose and profit.
You have to fight with everything you have.
INTOLERANCE and tenacity is the key.
In your case, if I were you, I’d file a Temporary Injunction that is time to demand a full, legal accounting of their very ability to foreclose AT ALL, which is both a full accounting of every penny AND proof of legal title … the wet note AND chain of transfer … through a RESPA letter.
… OR file for “quiet title” which will require them to do the same thing, but could net you clear title to your home.
Let me say this to all people that tried or received a loan modification.
I got my attorney involved with speaking to a BOA rep that handles loan modifications. I recieved paperwork through my attorney staing what type of modification I received. The rate was 24 years with a 5.125%. The first payment was in October 2009. I made payments to BOA certified return reciept through my lawyer for October, November and December 2009. In January 2010, BOA stated they never received the certified mail of the payment. They indicated that it was never recieved at all. In March a letter was sent to BOA asking them to support the evidence of; 1. the payment, 2. A copy of the escrow and three other areas of concern. BOA in accordance to Federal Law had twenty days up to sixty days to answer the letter. BOA, in fact failed to respond to the letter in the time allotted. In June 2010, BOA sent a letter to my attorney indicating that they sent the mortgage payment they lost to my attorney regular mail.
Also, after speaking to a branch manager from BOA from September 2009 thru June 2010, he indicated that BOA had taken the October, November payment 2009 and redirected the payments to September and October 2009 payments. The December 2009 payment was never applied.
There is more of the story if you would like to inquire, but shows proof that BOA is unethical, deliberate and fraudulant with they’re mortgage
modification practices. They have instructed even they’re managers to refuse they’re customer from seeing visual screens on the computers at the bank.
I am trying to find a class action suit or a lawyer that is willing to take the case or apply my situation to a class action suit.
Thanks for listening,
Bill
Bill …
You might consider asking your attorney what would be involved in filing for “Quiet Title” in court. The court will force the bank to perform the same process as the RESPA request, but under the force of a court order. When people win “Quiet Title” the banks have been proven to have committed some fraud, or simply no longer have the legal right to your property, by evidence of the documents the court requires them to produce.
I’d be interested to hear what your lawyer had to say.
I to am looking for a class action suit to file in Bucks County pennsylvania. I received forclosure notice also in the amount of 28,000.00 My modification has been going on since july of 2009. Now im gonna loose my house on christmas eve. Been making mod payment since July of 09 and still in review. Any guidance any one has I;ll take it.
Heather
Heather …
I’m also Bucks County.
Please email me at donsweet@verizon.net … as well as checking out my “First Day Orientation” and “18 point Getting Started List” on the previous page of comments.
It’s also posted at …
piggybankblog.com/2009/11/08/piggybankblog-writer-don-sweet/
Give a holler. There’s things we might be able to coordinate, particularly filing a temporary injunction.
Keep in mind that I’m no attorney, but another homeowner like yourself. But there’s lots of things we can do to fight this thing.
Hello. I am going through the same thing at bank of america. I sent in the three trial payments and they sent the checks back to my parents house, for reasons I have no idea, and said my loan mod didn’t exist. I have spoken with differnt people all over the U.S. and they are all saying the same thing. If you have found someone to take on a class action law suit, I would like to be included if possible.
Keith …
Seems I need to clarify something important about this site and how this works.
There is no lawsuit simply to sign up for … not on this forum, anyway. There are no lawyers hovering over their computer screens ready to jump in and rescue us. Since contract law, Statutory Law, is State-by-State, so will any suit, and only by specific law firms that have the nerve to take on the banks. And there aren’t many of those, either.
The reality is the fact that we have to be our own heros … or warriors … to fight this thing. Banks prey on our ignorance of the law. In fact, I firmly believe they’re engaging in psychological warfare, knowing precisely how far they can push people, wringing them out emotionally and making them cave in, give up and move out of their homes so the banks can profit from foreclosure and sale. That’s their end goal. After all, they LOSE money modifying, but profit from foreclosure, and profit is what their boards of directors and stockholders demand.
You might like to read the “First Day Orientation” and “18 Points for Getting Started” which are now posted at …
piggybankblog.com/2009/11/08/piggybankblog-writer-don-sweet/
It would also be a thought to read my “metaphorical” story about how this all came about at …
piggybankblog.com/2008/11/08/don-sweets-latest-article/
Two more items will be added to the 18 point list …
19 ) Although it’s controversial and you should check your State and local laws before hand, you can record your conversations with the bank WITHOUT telling them. When they say “This call may be monitored or recorded …” they have broken a basic principle of law called the “privacy covenant,” where phone calls have a basic expectation of privacy. Once they say that, you can record to your heart’s content. But again, some attorneys express caution, so check your State’s laws.
20 ) Research is showing that filing for Quiet Title can be tricky and possibly expensive, although not impossible. It’s my opinion that it’s going to be based on a LOT of research before you dive in. Apparently, the courts will be VERY careful to dot every “I” and cross every “T” and several people are suggesting a Quiet Title specialist attorney.
Of course, introduce “attorney” into it and you immediately add $$$. Make that a specialist and I’d imagine you’d easily double it.
That’s probably where the research plays a critical role … including ramming a RESPA/TILA letter down the banks’ throats, as well as hunting down actual paper records of your loan in your county/parish.
It’s not going to be as easy as “the bank did me wrong, so I want my house” and the judge saying “ok.” There’s going to have to be provable fraud or broken “chain of transfer” eliminating their right to your property.
Even before you approach an attorney, you’ll need to know these things AND have accessed the documentation to prove it, or you’re wasting your time. It’s far from impossible, and could even be highly likely given the MERS debacle … well, shall we call a fraud a fraud … but going the Quiet Title route is going to be work, work, work.
I too am seeking a class action lawsuit in Texas against Bank of America. Anyone doing one yet? There are many places to contact to file complaints. See piggybankblog.com for the information.
Jill, please write me if you want info on attorneys in Texas trained as foreclosure defense and willing to fight this battle,
Bloomberg.com did an article about my situation. It was also published in Businessweek, Nov 15th, 2010 issue. I’ve filed complaints with TX Attorney General, OCC, White House, Senators, Freddie Mac, BANK of America and anyone else that will listen. So far, Bank of America is saying they will do a foreclosure rollback but they are waiting on the investors, Freddie Mac. That’s why I filed a complaint with Freddie Mac, to see if they even know about this. This was 2 months ago and no more updates from Bank of America. They auctioned my house 4 days before they started foreclosure. OOOPPSS!
Bill, this is exactly what BOA did with two of my moms mortgage payments. They “misplaced” December 2009’s and January 2010’s monthly mortgage payments.
On July 6th, 2010 my mom received through certified mail, a notice of intent to accelerate letter. BOA claimed that she was in serious default and that foreclosure proceedings could take place if they did not receive $1808.56 by or on July 30th, 2010.
Bear in mind, that my mom applied for a MHA back in June 2009 and has and is current on her mortgage, yet these evil bastards still tried to shake her down.
During the time of the “misplaced” payments my mom started accumulating false late fees. When I looked into it and had sent records of payments to BOA’s “Payment Research Department” one of the reps looked into it and discovered someone had put the two payments into the account as credit.
She moved them out of credit and credited them to April 2010 and May 2010. Now why wouldn’t they have just credited them to December 2009 and January 2010…? Probably because this was a scam to scare her into either coming up with an extra $1808.56 or partake in a lieu of deed, in which she would basically give up her home.
We still haven’t received an answer about the intent letter or where they came up with the mythical $1808.56 figure. Hopefully we will get some answers after filing a complaint with the OCC.
As for the late fees…which came up to $200.00, after many heated phone calls, lies and given the run around, BOA finally waived them and actually emailed a written statement confirming that the late fees were waived.
Still, to me this is what one would call extortion. I talked to a lawyer about this and all the prick said was “Well, no harm was done…”
BREAKING NEWS
For anyone who wants to record telephone conversations with the bank, I have good news.
For several reasons, recording calls is PERFECTLY LEGAL, and can be used as evidence in any court case, or even to submit to regulatory agencies or attorneys general as evidence.
You don’t even have to tell them you’re doing it.
I’ve just confirmed this from “legal sources” and one quote is “Record away!”
If anyone has specific questions about how this can be, please email me at donsweet@verizon.net. I’d rather not broadcast the details to banks, their agents or lawyers monitoring the site. There’s no reason to tell the Japs or Germans what bases we’re going to bomb next, or tell the Viet Cong where our Special Forces are.
Fight the Good Fight …
… and RECORD IT!
In 2006 I refinanced my condo for 202k with Countrywide, my marriage was failing and I took out cash to get a steady footing on my Credit Cards etc. I was completely surprised to receive a check for 20k when I received the loan and promptly returned it the next day. I had never requested a line of credit – but certainly the loan agent made some commission on that. The loan I received was an exotic interest only loan set to balloon in 2011.
I was divorced in 2007 and it was all I could do to keep my head above water as my home cost ratio was sinking me and on my own I had to borrow from my 401k to clear my cc again in 2008.
In October of 2009, I started calling BofA (who took over Countrywide) to see if I could receive paperwork for Obama’s loan modification rework and finally in April of 2010, I received and faxed in all the paperwork. I have a copy with the confirmation of the faxed receipt that day. Finally, in June this year they say BofA acknowledged they received and forwarded my application and the paperwork was all in order. I had been calling weekly but started calling daily in August when I received mail from BofA stating that I would have an answer one way or the other with or without a packet to start a trial loan modification within 30 days. I was calling daily and sometimes twice daily by the end of August till I received my answer via UPS this Black Friday November 26 – after work on my doorstep.
I do not qualify as ” In other words, this means that the loan modification should be in the financial interest of the investor that owns your loan. Based on the NPV results the owner of your loan has not approved a modification”
. My options per BofA now is : Keep paying and maybe there is a different mod program that can help me achieve more affordable payments.
. A forbearance program, which would offer me lower payments or no payments for a limited number of months to give me time to resolve my financial difficulties or give them time to work together with me to find a more permanent solution
. A short sale.
. A deed in lieu of foreclosure – just transfer the deed to BofA in full payment of the outstanding balance on my mortgage
This is dated 11/24 and now they are stating they will contact me within 10 days to let me know what other options are available to me and the next steps I “need” to take. Let see..the other letter I received from them in August stated that I would have an answer within 30 days..and I just got it November 24. So …how long do I have to wait now.
By the way- I have not been delinquent once and it is just overwhelming how difficult this has been. My sister at a small local Credit Union got her modification within 30 days of her letter to the Bank Loan Officer. I live at the crossroads of 3 major thoroughfares in the SF Bay Area and Zillow states my estimate at 234 so..they will benefit if I walk away . Such a tortuous effort to get nothing.
Holly,
Your situation sounds so familiar. I too had applied for a modification in May of 2010 turned in all my requested documentation in a timely manner and then nothing ~~ that is until I got a letter in Sept 2010 stating that my paperwork had been received and that I should hear “one way or the other” in 30 business days. I too called every month, then week, then daily and was told “the documents are in the underwriting dept and I should hear in 10 days”. Then on Black Friday at around 5 pm I get my Fed Ex letter stating that we had been denied because………..wait for it……….we were not currently deliquent on our mortgage and we were not in a financial hardship situation. I guess the fact that my husband has been out of work for over 1 1/2 is not a financial hardship. I promptly called BOA and was transfered about 4 times and finally was told that since my mortgage was late as of today we could re-apply for the modification again and “hope for the best”. This bank should be brought up on Federal Fraud Charges and called to task on their deceatful practices. At this point I have been holding off on paying my other bills (credit cards, cars, etc) just to make my mortgage payment for the last 6 month (the amount of time since I applied for the modification) and now feel as though the only payment I shouldn’t have been making was my mortgage. I too would love to join a class action law suit ( I am in the state of NY). After reading all these posts I am now convienced of what I was thinking ~~ this entire bail out crap was a scam to help out nobody but big banks. I feel totally defeated!
Aimee …
If you apply a few of the “18 points” I mention to Ethel below, it might bolster your defeated feeling … particularly if you get politicians and regulatory agencies filing complaints in your name.
There’s nothing like the feeling of having case numbers assigned to you by things like “The Office of the Comptroller of Currency” or to have a United States Senator open an official Congressional Inquiry under your name.
Remember, all 50 States’ Attorneys General are “hungry” for information at this point since they’re all looking into this thing. Filing with them, too, can only help.
More breaking news …
Try and hold on until early next year. You may have more ammunition coming. This is a “must read” and it’s all over the web …
reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AS68S20101129
cnbc.com/id/40424429
File injunctions … file Quiet Titles … use any delay tactic you can think of. Just hold on until this comes out.
I would like an Attorney to look into the behavior of Indymac/One west.
I applied in August of 2009 and still have not received the modification.
Ethel …
I need to make a clarification about your request.
There are no attorneys on this blog/forum simply waiting for clients to come along. We are [mostly] homeowners just like yourself learning how to fight this thing and are here sharing information.
There are no heros hovering over their computers anxiously waiting for someone to say “Please save me.” We have to save ourselves.
On the top and bottom of this column are the words “Previous Comments” in light blue. On the previous page near the bottom is a “First Day Orientation” post, along with an “18 Point Getting Started List.” Please glance through those to see how you might be able to combat this thing. Lots of folks have converted from “dazed-and-confused” to “Foreclosure Warriors.”
The same orientation and list is now posted on PiggyBankBlog.com …
piggybankblog.com/2009/11/08/piggybankblog-writer-don-sweet/
Shout with questions. Lots of folks here are willing to help. We can beat this thing if we stick together.
Flashback: Wikileaks chief said he has 5GB of secret docs on Bank of America (exclusive)
By Sahil Kapur Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 — 11:13 am
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/flashback-wikileaks-chief-5gb-dirt-bank-america/
“In an interview published Monday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange revealed that his whistleblower website intends to publish a trove of secret documents exposing the corruption of a major American bank.”
Read more at the link…and here…
Keith …
Ya beat me to it. Got this this morning …
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703994904575647180698155858.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
Hello. I am new to this blog, but it’s been 13 mos now that I’ve been “working” with BofA. I read through the posts & I plan on finding my closing docs to check out the MERS thing.. but I am really interested in filing a Quiet Title. I am in Oregon. Can anyone be of assistance on how I was to do this? p.s. I have an excel spreadsheet of every conversation I have had w/ BofA (Countrywide)for 2 years -when I first requested relief. I am at the end of my rope..thank you for any help!
Cheri …
Welcome to the Front Lines.
Research is showing that filing for Quiet Title can be tricky and possibly expensive, although not impossible.
It’s my opinion that it’s going to be based on a LOT of research before you dive in. Apparently, the courts will be VERY careful to dot every “I” and cross every “T” and several people are suggesting a Quiet Title specialist attorney.
Of course, introduce “attorney” into it and you immediately add $$$. Make that a specialist and I’d imagine you’d easily double it.
That’s probably where the research plays a critical role … including ramming a RESPA/TILA letter down the banks’ throats, as well as hunting down actual paper records of your loan in your county/parish.
It’s not going to be as easy as “the bank did me wrong, so I want my house” and the judge saying “ok.” There’s going to have to be provable fraud or broken “chain of transfer” eliminating their right to your property.
Even before you approach an attorney, you’ll need to know these things AND have accessed the documentation to prove it, or you’re wasting your time.
It’s far from impossible, and could even be highly likely given the MERS debacle … well, shall we call a fraud a fraud … but going the Quiet Title route is going to be work, work, work.
And let me be clear about one other possibility …
It may well be that the banks are diving into county records to “fix” what’s been going on. Remember the fact that they’ve proven themselves capable of anything, which could include forgeries. If you do research, make sure you check EVERY detail, including inquiring with county clerks about any recent activity on your mortgage or title. Also remember … I’m sorry to say … that these courts could also be complicit (unconsciously? consciously?) by processing paperwork to acquire fees. Some people have reported sympathetic, cooperative clerks, but others may be self-protective and zip-lipped.
Interesting that we have to become private investigators, almost secret agents, and paralegals just to keep a roof over our heads.
I donno … kinda sounds fun, though, doesn’t it?
Hi Don, your words offer some comfort & great support. Thank you! Thank you for taking the time to review and reply back to all the people on here! Everyone should be very thankful for you! Also, thanks for the warm welcome to the front lines although after 2 years fighting BofA, I should have earned a medal by now. I just don’t know if I have anymore fight in me anymore, it’s taken so much away from me & my family. I read more posts here and I get angrier and angrier which fuels me for a bit longer. Reading over this blog, I realize how much I don’t know and I get more frusterated. I have notes from the beginning, I have your 18 steps, I have a bunch of links and I am overwhelmed. I hate BofA and if you knew me, you would know I don’t hate many things. My story: my husband got transferred to a different city, we have been able to keep our home for almost 3 years without any lates, etc. I called to ask for relief in Dec 2008 and not until Oct 2009 did I get a response w/ a trial payment offer. I was also told from the BofA rep that it WOULD NOT report negatively on our credit report. We needed the relief and they painted such a pretty picture that we took it. Not until a few months into paying the trial payment were we told it would report negatively on our report. The letters from our creditors started coming (they lowered our available limit or closed our accounts – hurting our credit even more). Our payment before starting the trial payment was $2250 on a PayOption ARM…we got the permanent modification paperwork (13 mos after our trial started) and the payment is $2240 on a fixed rate. Hmmm… not sure how they figure a small monthly savings like that is actually going to help us out. Funny thing is they state in the permanent modification documents that the modification started in March 2010, but the permanent mod docs are dated Nov 2010. I don’t see how legally they can change our monthly payment 8 mos ago w/o notice. Not to mention, now the MHA department says they don’t know if they can fix our credit! It’s too much, really is. I try to find a little bit of energy every day to read through this blog, click on links and learn what I can- just not sure what good it will do. Sorry to be so gloom, I didn’t mean for that when I started this reply. You are a good man, thanks for listening, thanks for your time & energy. Cheri
Cheri …
Thanks.
You reflect the feelings of a lot of people, and many I’m sure that haven’t even found this web site.
I have had a suspicion about the techniques used against us for quite some time. It would be interesting if one of them came forward and testified about it.
It’s entirely possible that banks have employed physiologists, psychiatrists and sociologists to structure their programs to “confiscate” homes. After all, these companies are worth multiple B-B-B-Billions of dollars, so why not?
I’d image they’ve questioned these “professionals” about how hard they can push people and what it would take to get them to give up and give in.
Having been in marketing and business management for more than three decades, this is a very easy assumption to make.
The feelings you’ve expressed about being wrung out over this is [likely] precisely their objective, and they would consider their calculated plans a raging success based on your comments. It’s likely there’s monitors of this site that cheer when they read your exasperations.
I’m sure hundreds of thousands of people are proving their plans a success by the number of homes they’ve taken using psychological warfare on people. The amount and degree of human misery they’ve caused in the name of profit is literally staggering … but cannot be forgotten or even feared.
Remember, there is a paper trail to follow … one that is statutorily mandated … and even people who have lost their homes can follow it. Now … whether courts will uphold our basic “tenets” of law is another question.
It would also be interesting to see a court clerk or two come out and testify as to what they’ve seen and heard. After all, the onion is getting peeled back, as evidenced by the law firm in western Pennsylvania admits to passing off its responsibilities to process and file foreclosures to staff … a literal criminal act on the part of so-called “officers of the court.”
There’s smoke rising from western Pennsylvania, and it’s not difficult to imagine fire in the rest of the country.
Tapping into the energy of your anger is a good thing. Let it change to something else … like the fighting spirit.
No one knows more than me how hard it is to go after this day in and day out, but if you love your home, you can learn to love the fight.
The “real picture” of this war is the banks literally using armed men … Sheriffs … to confiscate properties.
That’s the end result.
All they’ve needed to do is trick the system into believing it’s a correct, right and just action. It’s manipulating peoples’ minds to THINK they’re doing the right thing.
Frankly … not to sound off the charts since it’s a actually a reality, not a suspicion … that’s precisely what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s … people being convinced they were doing the right thing.
Since this began for me, I’ve heard over and over, metaphorically, “I’m just doing my job.” That’s virtually … no, literally … the same thing people said while they rounded up, gassed and incinerated 12 million people during the war … “I was just following orders.”
This is not “theory” and this is not “conspiratorialism,” by some paranoid nut-case … this bears itself out through the simple facts of the matter … common, ordinary people “just doing their jobs” are illegally confiscating the very roofs over our heads … from customer service reps to Deputy Sheriffs … at the orders of the people signing their paychecks … making us refugees in the millions in one of the greatest republics the world has ever seen.
This circumstance can be nothing less than planned and implemented precisely like a military offensive … and the motive and opportunity blazingly crystal clear …
… profit.
This has sharply divided the citizens of our [once great nation] into two groups … those that have turned their backs on ethics and morality for the sake of a paycheck … and those who are the victims of the void of morality and ethics.
It’s no more complicated than that.
This may sound bitter as hell and evil but , being that I HAVE lost my home and you guys may very well loose yours ….. (HOPEFULLY NOT !!!!) I think it would be simply delicious if Bank Of America was brought to their knees…lol
Shawnnva …
Of course a lot of us reflect your sentiments …
Try not to forget one thing. You may be out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sue. It doesn’t mean you can’t trace the paper trail and find fraud. In other words, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve lost your house forever.
Remember that California family …
bankruptcysandiegoattorney.com/2010/11/california-family-moves-back-into-foreclosed-house.html
One shock wave rippling across the housing market is the possibility that purchased/foreclosed homes transactions could be invalid since the foreclosure itself could have been fraudulent.
My personal sentiment to anyone who purchased a fraud-based foreclosed home is “tuff beans.”
If you buy a stolen car, or watch, or computer, or TV, you’re as complicit in robbery as the robber.
Just remember that even though you may not be in your home, there’s no fat lady singing. Research could prove you’re only ending the first act of the opera.
“….I think it would be simply delicious if Bank Of America was brought to their knees…”
We’re whittling pretty hard on their shins.
Shawnnva, you’re in the class of former homeowners that has suffered direct loss and I hope you find evidence that fraud was involved so the award you may seek could be substantially larger than the price of the home BofA ended up with.
Were you allowed copies of the documents BofA filed against you in court? You might want to pursue an audit to be assured no forgeries were submitted in the case.
Did BofA have your Note assigned to them from another principle/party after you recieved a notice of default from the bank? Did they file a “lost note” affidavit and was it dated after your notice of default? Did you get to see the assignments and note the dates? A subsequent assignment of that Note dated AFTER the date of the notice of default you received was void at the outset as it violates UCC § 3-302(a)(1&2) and an “illegality affecting the Note” may have been committed under UCC § 3-203(b), which could have rendered BofA without process as a holder in due course and without cause to pursue perfection.
You might want to acquire copies of the documents and speak to an attorney if this is your case.
Please help me someone… I’ve have trying to modify my home for the year now and i haven’t gotten any update from BOA. They tell me to call them everyweek to check on status and that is what i’ve been doing, and still dont have an answer. They hang up the phone on me i get transfer to all different departments and get no answer. A few times they told me they will excalate my file, but still no answer.. I am so frustrated with them i don’t know who to turn too. I have a verbal agreement with BOA to pay partial payment monthly which shows good faith. I am so frustrated due to the fact that i am just being pushed around. I am in the process of hiring a lawyer to help me… I want to remain in my home and not lose it. that is why i am doing the best that i can do to save it.
Please help me. If I am eligible for this law suit please call me.
Beverly …
If I could hold your hand at this very moment, I would.
I have to make something clear, and it may not be easy for you. I will say, however, that many of us have come “full circle” in understanding what’s going on here.
The is no law suit to sign up for … not on this forum/blog, anyway.
This is a complicated situation, and that exactly how the banks like it. If they had their way, they’d prefer you’d simply give up and move out … after all, the only thing they want is profit, and that’s hard to get with you still in the house.
It’s what their stockholders demand, so they’ve come to believe that lying and outright fraud are perfectly ok to get the profit they’re after. That’s what their executives teach their management teams … “take homes” … and virtually at any cost.
I know you’re not comforted by these statements, but it’s simply where we find ourselves, but there are things we can do.
If you look at either the top or bottom of this column you’ll see “Previous Comments” in light blue. Click on that, and please see two posts of mine near the bottom of the previous page’s column of posts.
One is a “First Day Orientation” and the other is an “18 Point Getting Started List” that may help you along.
I know it’s a lot to read and understand, but after all, we’re talking about saving your home. It’s even in the national news that banks couldn’t care less about your feelings, your home, or your money, unless it ends up in their bank.
Try and learn how to fight. YOU will need to be the one doing most of the fighting. We’ve all come through the “crucible” you’ve experienced, with what some have called the largest robbery of property in the history of Mankind.
Learn … and learn to become a warrior … to save your home from this behemoth monster.
I actually do have copies of everything that I need to get the ball rolling. I am in Waynesboro VA ( where my home I was evicted from is) and my job actually had a list of attorney’s for me that they recommended. I work for a HUGE company. I started calling any and every attorney on this list and NO ONE would even think about going against BofA. One of the attorney’s said he was working on 1 case alone like my situation and it was so time consuming and so much paperwork it was unreal and he couldn’t take my case but did refer me to a lawyer in Petersburg VA .The lawyer in Petersburg told me he was talking to other attorney’s in other states and they were trying to consider doing a class action suit. I assured him I could hook him up with lots of business from this site alone. Well, I have called and called and I have not gotten any phone calls back or anything. 4 attorney’s have told me that my case is definitely fraud. That is where my situation stands.
Shawnnva …
Please email me at donsweet@verizon.net.
Well I watched the latest housing/foreclosure congressional hearings last night, don’t recall all of the names on the two panels, the first panel included Phyllis Caldwell of the US Treasury, Sheila Bair, the governor of the New York FED, the head of the OCC and a guy from FHA….
No answers, Caldwell just spewed lots of alleged success numbers in regard to HAMP, all agreed there were problems with servicers but believe having one person assigned to each home owner is the magic fix.
Lots of talk about the foreclosure process, the legality of it but I was under the impression that in all of the tough talk, they still want to proceed with quick foreclosures to recover some of the losses and continue the process while a mortgage is in the HAMP process.
Senator Shelby of Alabama continued playing the dumb guy even though he used to be a real estate agent in his younger years, he couldn’t quite get how this was happening with the MERS/Robo signatures and the original note.
All of the congressional members at the hearing basically bowed to senator Chris Dodd for his….magnificent work on the housing crisis and in the financial regulatory reform bill….REALLY? Made me vomit in my mouth.
Senator Jim Bunning actually played hardball with the first panel, angrily claiming that not one of the panelists has come up with an answer, that he’s hearing the same bull, that he has heard before in past hearings. Bunning went on to say there was a housing crisis looming as early as 2001 and 2002 and nothing was done by any of the panelists (Funny congress didn’t do squat either)
The second panel had some scientist/researcher named Edwards on and he blasted the first panel for not hearing one of them say they needed to get tough with the servicers, perhaps sanction them or have Freddie & Fannie get tough with them….
Out of all of this talk not one…I repeat…NOT ONE congress person who were wondering how all of this happened NEVER brought up the repealing of Glass-Steagall Act and the passing of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 or the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
The whole hearing was political theater in my opinion, meant to show Americans that congress, F&F, the Treasury and the banks are trying to do something….I nearly dropped my jaw to the floor when Sheila Bair said, systemic risk from the foreclosure wouldn’t affect the economy in the near future but down the road it……
It’s affecting the economy now for cripes sake and it’s going to get worse. I foresee government running to bail out the too big to fail banks again in the future….this toxic asset, securitized, bundled loans is going to explode and leave the tax payers holding the bag while our economy and the world economies crumble….perhaps this is what the ruling class wants?
Tony …
Absolutely outstanding blog/report. Thanks SO much for taking the time and sharing your views.
Occasionally I’m reminded of the closing scene of the movie “Animal House” where the ROTC cadet is standing in the middle of the sidewalk screaming “ALL IS WELL!”
Other than the critics you mention, that’s who these people remind me of … although they are being PAID to scream it, including the politicians. Likely verbal and not written … likely only a nod or a touch to the nose … there’s a hell of a lot of “consideration” being exchanged on Capitol Hill at the moment.
Problem is, one of these days, perhaps soon, that gigantic purple and pink ploka-dotted elephant in the room (wearing fringed booties and a neon halter) … fraud … is going to get pointed out … with a spotlight.
Lawsuits, filings, contacts with sympathetic politicians, criticism of unsympathetic ones, alerting regulatory agencies and attorneys general is how that spotlight is going to get a nice, fresh bulb and lots of juice.
Please don’t keep quiet folks … not in any form or fashion. File, write and call … and tell your family, friends, coworkers and community.
I too have already lost my home (redemption period was over June 12, 2010) which was 2 days before I gave birth to a baby. I started the loan modification process with BoA in Sept or Oct of 2008 with the same outcome as everyone else…lost documents, waiting and waiting for an answer that never comes. You all know the story here. Finally in February of 2009 I filed for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and gave the house up in the bankruptcy however BoA still went forward with foreclosure proceedings. What kills me is that no matter how many times I begged them to work with me on a $180,000 mortgage, they wouldn’t then turned around and sold my home in August of 2010 for $83,000! Now why in the world I ask myself over and over again, wouldn’t BoA have worked with me when they turned around and sold it for less than half of what I owed on it?
I am in Michigan and have been in contact with a law firm in Indianapolis, IN who is gearing up for a major class action lawsuit. They are reviewing my mortgage papers and I can only hope and pray there is some kind of settlement for all of us.
Please include me. I have aged 10 years in 1 trying to deal with these crooks.
Lie after lie. No one would believe what we have all been through. The Goverment should have handled the modification process, rather then giving the money to BOA. I managed to save mine, but I recieved a capitalization modification instead. They raised my house payment over $200. per month. I have to take out 60% of each paycheck to pay my morgage. They could have at least lowered my interest rate.
Billie …
Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but there is no class action suit (particularly on this blog/forum) simply to sign up for.
You can’t just be “listed,” and even if you were, you’d probably get little out of it.
This isn’t a “suit listing service,” but is a forum for folks to come together to share information on battling with “these people.” For the most part, there are no lawyers looming over their computer screen looking for victims to save or to fight for our rights. There are few, if any heros.
We have to be our own heros.
If you’ve already signed a modification agreement, that doesn’t mean all is said and done, as you’ve suggested by wanting to join a class action. A class action suit is only ONE way to go after the banks. Although they are few and far between, there are some attorneys and even some firms looking into suing, with a few, a very few, actually suing at this point.
But there’s one critical thing to keep in mind. Although you “can” file Federally, most of these transactions/contracts are State-by-State since contract law is generally regulated by State Statutory Law. If you post again, it might be and idea to add your State after your name so other posters/bloggers will know where you’re from and possibly keep in touch with you, either about a class action or for specific activity in your State.
It’s been suggested by one rather brave attorney here on the forum, that not only should you file individually, either with an attorney or even without one (it’s called “pro se”), you should also keep any filings or suits within the State. Filing Federally may get less attention or consideration by the court. A [superior court] in your State will have judges that are tied to the community and have a greater interest in “the public good,” a key element of the law itself.
Filing pro se has terrific advantages, if you’re willing to put the time and research into your case. One of the best advantages is the fact that you can hold the COURT responsible for its actions in the event you’re treated unfairly. Lawyers wouldn’t DARE file against a judge or another attorney if procedures aren’t followed or there’s prejudice against you exhibited in proceedings … but you CAN as a private citizen. You do not have a career riding on cooperation with the court. A lawyer does.
This is particularly important since HORRIBLE things have been happening with the courts, such as merely passing through [potentially or actually] illegal filings for foreclosure. Every single robo-signed filing … that was NOT legal … passed through a court that ALSO didn’t examine the documents for viability.
But worse, there’s mounting evidence against law firms where lawyers didn’t even bother to make filings themselves, assigning it to their non-attorney staffs, who even SIGNED the documents in the lawyers’ names … as discussed here …
http://4closurefraud.org/2010/12/03/foreclosure-fraud-bombshell-thousands-of-pennsylvania-foreclosures-could-be-void/
… and here …
http://4closurefraud.org/2010/10/02/video-attorney-signatures-the-next-fraud-battle-ground/
Check out the attorney admitting it on camera.
The WHOLE system is broken … not just the banks.
Please click on “Previous Comments” at the top or bottom of this page and view my two posts near the bottom of the page … “First Day Orientation” and “18 Points to Help You Get Started.”
Although you’ve signed a modification, many of those items will help you acquire information you may need to form a lawsuit.
A Caution, however … the banks have been including clauses in modification agreements that allow them to replace “lost” documents, such as your original note (which destroys their connection to your debt), AND clauses that prevent you from filing suit …
… HOWEVER …
If you get wind of ANY fraud in your case, all contracts you signed under such a fraud are INVALID and can be pursued in Civil Court, as well as handed over to law enforcement (your Attorney General) for criminal investigation and possible criminal prosecution.
I know this is a LOT to learn, but the banks COUNT ON our ignorance … they literally bank money on it … YOUR money.
Learn to be a warrior. Fight this thing.
Folks …
A valuable article to read whether you’re getting an attorney or filing pro se …
http://bryllaw.blogspot.com/2010/12/foreclosure-defense-strategies-and.html
To Melissa:
Here are the reasons that they would not modify your mortgage.
Everyones mortgage is federally insured under FDIC. Yes, just like your bank accounts.
When the bank forecloses on you they are paid 80 % of the ORIGINAL loan (not what you owe at the time) by FDIC. So lets say your original loan was $200,00o X’s that by 80 % = $160,000 plus add what they sold your house for $83,000 = $243,000.00
THATS WHAT THEY GOT PLUS THE INTEREST you paid and all the fees they charged for servicing your account.
Do you see why they do not do modifications?
This applies to EVERYONE not just Mellissa
Lauren
Mortgages are NOT federally insured under FDIC. Only Deposits are federally insured. Making stuff up to anger people does nothing to fix the problem. Why do you do that?
Linda …
I believe Lauren likely got a portion of her information from here …
youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer
Note that they thoroughly discuss how OneWest Bank was paid off by the FDIC.
Now, that’s not the only way for banks to be paid. Mortgage insurance covers them for 80% of loans … original loan values … not balances … and then often they will be the foreclosure purchaser, turning around to sell the home … and not all home are “upside-down” so they make a bundle.
The fact is, they make more money foreclosing … and I think that’s all Lauren was trying to say. She wasn’t “making something up.” She simply mixed a fact or two.
Frankly, I’m perfectly happy making people upset … that way they at least TALK about what’s going on. Silence is how we got here. Conversation is how the banks will be brought to justice for their evolution into fraud.
GOD …
I just LOVE this guy …
http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/strategic-defaults-scaring-the-pants-off-the-giants/
Something just came to my mind regarding the latest Housing/Foreclosure congressional hearing that I watched earlier this week.
The second panel of witnesses included a rep from Freddie and a rep from Fannie, like the other panelists before them, they defended their respective organizations, gave the same old song and dance that something needs to be done, but in your gut, as you take all of the statements and rhetoric in, you know that they know the main solution is to play hardball with the servicers but you know that they know that they will do everything but play hardball with the servicers.
Okay sorry for that little personal observation/feeling , now back to the thing that came to me earlier before I rambled on….I believe the representative for Fannie actually stated in one of his ramblings that Fannie would modify loans themselves if the servicer is going to.
Anyone who has a GSE with Fannie Mae should contact them and tell them what this representative said while at the Housing/Foreclosure congressional hearing and tell them you would like to have them work on a modification with them instead of the servicer and see what they say.
I wish I had the Fannie Mae representatives name but I don’t. I’d have to look through C-SPAN’s archives and find the correct video. If I do this I will post the guys name.
It was probably just talk…but hey at this point anything is worth a try. I don’t know what the terms of a modification would be a better deal if it went directly through Fannie Mae and again I don’t know if they’d even do it but….
Which brings up another thing. I remember about a month and a half or so ago I recall talking to a BOA rep from “pick your department”….and I asked why the review takes up to 60 days when we’ve already gone through this process since June of 2009 and the rep said in an offhanded, smart ass kind of way “Why don’t you go ask the invester” on your mortgage…?”
I though to myself “okay you @*#$@%@ #$%@…I will!”
So I called Fannie Mae and asked them and the rep said “Unless the loan is already in trial period with your servicer, we wouldn’t know anything about it.”
Perhaps this would explain why so many homeowners are being dicked around by the servicers with excuse after excuse, lie after lie, request after request for lost documents and the seemingly, perpetual review time?
This is just pure “speculation” on my part but it is quite clear the goal or agenda of the servicers is to keep the homeowner in limbo for as long as they can while they pile up late fees, misplace payments and use all kinds of trickery and deception to try and get the homeowner into foreclosure.
Going by what we have all experienced and by what the Fannie rep said about not knowing anything about the mortgage/MHA process until the homeowner is in the trial period…it would certainly be to the servicers advantage to keep as many homeowners out of the trial period because it keeps Fannie out of the process….(?)
Okay…I seem to have babbled on after rambling on earlier…Sorry. 🙂
Typo correction from above long winded comment….I’m sure there are many others…. :
…I believe the representative for Fannie Mae actually stated in one of his ramblings that Fannie would modify loans themselves if the servicers aren’t going to….
No kidding. Lie after lie and the rules are always changing not in your favor.
Now comes the letter by FEDEx…stating Your loan is not eligible for a Home Loan Modification because we are unable to create an affordable payment equal to 31% of your reported monthly gross income without changing the terms of your loan beyond the requirements of the program. In other words, to create an affordable payment for you, the investor (owner) of your loan would be required to delay collecting too large a portion of your principal balance until the loan pays off, beyond what the Home Affordable Modification Program allows.
Can someone explain how they could come up with this after almost 9 months of BS. Don’t you think they could have figured this out in the first month? I am behind 3 payments now and I am seriously considering bankruptcy. Divorced woman with no family and very little resources left. Any suggestions would be welcomed…Thanks for letting me blab. Barb
Just wanted to say that I am in Washington State…had attempted loan modification contacted all the right people when things got confusing..same story of countless number of faxes of the same documents..told I qualified…told I didn’t qualify..requested info on the original holder of my loan…was denied and told I didn’t have legal right to that…contacted government offices in Seattle..contacted BoA office of the president..was told they would look into it. Not more than 30 days past this is the result. God I wish I would have known this in the beginning I wouldn’t have tried for this lame ass modification. Just shoot me! LOL
Barbara …
Blab away … that’s what this forum is for.
Probably the first thing you’d want to do is check their math. With the rampant fraud permeating this situation, anything is possible.
The next thing to consider is a RESPA/TILA letter demanding every fact, figure and document proving every penny of charges they’ve ever made and requiring them to prove they even own your loan in the first place.
Most short-and-sweet “Qualified Written Requests” (QWR) RESPA/TILA letters have been getting the response … “You do not have the right to the information you request” or something similar … any of which is a blatant lie.
A QWR is a Federally required statutorily mandated process, and is also supported by State laws. They HAVE to tell you how much they’ve charged you AND prove they own your mortgage. Email me at donsweet@verizon.net for a copy (template) of a long, comprehensive letter they can’t say no to.
But there are other things you can do, too.
If you click on “Previous Comments” at the top or bottom of this column, near the bottom of the last page are two posts … a “First Day Orientation” and and “18 Point Getting Started List.” Have a read and think about using some or all of the suggestions to fight this thing.
Like many of us, you may come to realize that the banks never intended to give us modifications, marked us for foreclosure regardless of any statutory duty or even HAMP rules, and simply wish to profit from the sale of our homes.
JUST ASKING for a modification marks you … then the Fraud Machine kicks in.
Catch them in the fraud.
Record your calls (you don’t even have to tell them after they say “This call may be monitored or recorded …”) … contact your politicians, the media, the regulatory agencies, examine your records at the courthouse … but dig in and don’t take it from them. Don’t be quiet, meek or roll over … that’s what they want …
Then sue their asses off.
There’s things you can do.
Barbara …
Neglected to mention the Hagens Berman suit in Washington …
hbsslaw.com/cases-and-investigations/BoA_HomeLoans
It’s a class action, but one thing that’s been pointed out is that filing individually … even “pro se” (without a lawyer) … has advantages … one of which is individual attention by the court. You’re not just another fish in a barrel. Another is tying up the banks’ legal departments, which they despise.
At this point, I’m thrilled, delighted and rather entertained doing things the banks despise.
Folks …
General Announcement
An off-forum email list is growing. To have your name added to the chain and receive information and updates feel free to email me at donsweet@verizon.net, and please include anyone else’s you think should receive information.
Some information is too premature to post publicly … or is legal strategy we’d rather not shove in the banks’ faces here on the forum since we know they’re watching.
And … for any bank “agent” or monitor … if you submit your name for the list, one way or another, sooner or later, you WILL be found out, and that alone will be used against your employers, as well as being exposed yourself.
For readers who think this is simply paranoia on my part, remember that they’re playing “hard ball” and will stop at nothing to acquire the profit they seek.
Money is The Great Equalizer. It can make anybody corrupt.
Don, believe me you are not being paranoid. Bank of America WILL spy on websites and forums. It is a proven fact. John Wright knows that they spy on his website (piggybankblog.com) and is able to see how many times they do it. Bank of America has also hired private investigators to spy on Mr. Wright and ask his neighbors questions about him. Mr. Wright was already told by an ex BofA executive that they would be doing this so he was forewarned. There is also a reporter that was threatened with her life by one of Bank of America’s executives because she was exposing them in her news article. You can also read about this reporter on piggybankblog.com. We cannot divulge all of our strategies on this forum. We cannot give them the “game plan” and let them prepare their defense ahead of time. Bank of America IS a Mafia and will continue to use all of it’s “dirty” resources to fight us. We see the latest victim in Wikileaks. All they had to do is mention secret documents for Bank of America and the crap hit the fan. They found the way to play dirty by exposing his “so-called” secrets and making his life miserable with threats. I admire this guys guts though. Just goes to show that when Bank of America feels threatened, they will pull out their bag of dirty tricks. They will make YOU look like the criminal, not them. That is what the mafia does. If you know their dirty little secrets, they will “take you out”. Bank of America is “Organized Crime” and as such they will be on this forum daily to see what weapons we plan to use against them. As much as I would love to blast my defense against BofA and tell everyone every detail about my future case, I am cautious. Therefore, please add my name to the chain Don. Thanks!
I live in Newyork and i have been asking for help from BOA which they had put me in different program. These people are not doing anything to help homeowners. Govt. should step in to curtail their excesses.
We need help to save us from loosing our homes.
Bola …
As you’re coming to find out, the banks really have no motivation to help us save our homes. They’d really rather you just gave up and moved out … so they can profit.
That’s the unfortunate situation we find ourselves in.
One thing they know … and it’s virtually undisputed … is the fact that WE as homeowners need to help OURSELVES, which few of us know how to do.
They have the majority of defense attorneys running scared. Banks are giant monsters with floors and floors of attorneys, as well as outside law firms hired to bring us down. Few defense attorneys want to look into THAT snarling drooling legal toothy mouth.
YOU have to be the one to take the lead on defending your home. YOU have to be the one gathering evidence, documents and learning about the law. A bank’s “customer service representative” isn’t really that at all, and they openly admit they are a “collection” agency or department, and that’s ALL they’re interested in … collecting as much of your money as they can. They have no intention of doing more than that, so get it right out of your head that they have any motivation to help you, other than blood-suckling your dollars.
Sorry to be blunt.
If you click on “Previous Comments” in light blue at the top or bottom of this column, I’ve posted some information that could help get you started both understanding and fighting this thing … and you MUST fight. We simply have no choice. You must learn to be a warrior for your home.
Near the bottom of the previous page are two posts … one is a “First Day Orientation” and the other is “18 Points for Getting Started.”
As for the government … contact your local, State and Federal politicians, as well as regulatory agencies including the OCC and your Attorney General. Enter complaints and get oversight of your case. FORCE the banks to behave ethically, according to Statutory Law. Get the media involved any way you can. Accumulate as much information as possible, including recording your conversations with bank representatives. It’s perfectly legal to record them WITHOUT telling them once they’ve said “This call may be monitored or recorded …” Even if they don’t, you can ask if it is, and once they say yes, you can hit record without even telling them you are … and it’s perfectly legal and admissible as evidence.
As far as what “the government” has done so far, particularly Mister Obama, they’ve created the HAMP program, which is proving to be a disaster. It merely pays the banks $1,000 each JUST TO TALK to us, not actually modify our loans. They get paid whether they modify or not … and they have NO motivation to modify simply because they’ll lose money. They profit FAR MORE by foreclosing … particularly when they drag things out over months, wearing you down and train-wrecking both your credit and your emotional stamina.
Your help is here, in this forum … but from other homeowners just like you fighting this thing. We’re learning to stand on our own two feet. We don’t have a “Big Brother” or line of heros waiting to save us. You could say that “Big Brother” wants your home, and the last thing on his mind is helping you keep it.
Through HAMP, government didn’t curtail excesses, it ENCOURAGED them.
That’s where we find ourselves.
There’s tons of people on this blog, but only 20 “likes” on facebook…..????
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-BOA-abuse-of-the-Making-Home-Affordable-program/107708519289434?ref=ts
I have wondered the same thing, but have noticed that when I critisized one of the regular posters here, I stopped getting updates and my last posting was blocked, hmmmm
I have wondered the same thing? is it being boycotted by this blog?
Quick thought.. if anyone is looking at entering into a trial payment with BofA, they will notify you that you are “late” even though you pay their trial payment on time & even though they say they won’t report you delinquent on your credit report..but if you file a RESPA letter every month you are in the trial payment period (which could go on for over a year, like me)..according to to the link:
htttp://www.nololawlibrary.com/foreclosure/
It states on this link that while this process is going on, the servicer cannot report to a credit bureau as overdue any payment retaining to your qualified written request. However, foreclosure procedings may still continue. Now, this is just a thought, I haven’t tried it, actually it’s too late for me, but maybe worth a try for someone who’s just starting the trial period. You can find a sample RESPA letter on that link too.
how can i join this law suit they teated us like nobodys
Joseph …
Please see my note to Bola above, or Beverly about in the middle of the page.
Hello Everyone just wanted to touch bases with all of you well I got some news today on my Permanent modification I received my documents Today the 6th but my due date was supposed to be on the 1st of Dec. what should I do? I call the HMA Dept to let them know of there mistake the Rep told me to go ahead and get the paper work Sign and return to them with a certified check . There is only one problem with this why should I if they screw up my modification one time already what would assure me that they dont do it again if the dates are already wrong what do you guys advised me to do?
Thank you in advance for your help….
Cammy, that is just one of Bank of America’s many tactics regarding Loan Modifications. They will lose your paperwork at times and also send you time restricted documents that are past due or that you will not be able to submit on time. It is aesy cash for them because they will get $1,000.00 from the government just for reviewing or consider you for a loan mod. Can you imagine 1,000 bucks times the hundreds of thousands of their borrowers that have applied for a loan modification? That’s hundreds of millions of dollars given to BofA from our tax dollars. Seems like a great business and it is. Extra bonus money for BofA’s big criminals. Heck, their kids are obviously going to the best schools, they drive the best cars, have the best homes while we our losing OUR homes and our minds. It’s all a SCAM, Cammy. I have yet to see a successful loan mod with BofA, it just doesn’t exist. If they do give you a permanent loan mod, believe me they will screw you in the end. They do NOT want to help you or anyone else so please be careful and save all correspondence from them and read carefully everything they send you to sign.
I HATE B OF A !!! SHOULD I SAY MORE ? A YEAR IN LOAN MODIFICATION AND OVER 4 MO IN UNDERWRITING. NOT ONE PHONE CALL OR LETTER TO ME AND NOBODY KNOWS WHATS GOING ON. THEY ARE ALL MORONS WITH LIES THAT THEY TELL YOU. I AM GETTING AN ATTORNY FOR PREDATORY LENDING. I WILL NEVER DO ANOTHER LOAN WITH THEM
We lost our home because BOC did not go through “due process” when they foreclosed on us in June, 2010. We sent in our packet for a loan mod and they said we did not qualify for any help. They said we could no longer afford our home (I was downsized a year before). Our lawyer said that we could afford it and also said that the paperwork looked fishy. He believes that they skipped steps in the process. We are fighting to get our house back and do something about the damage it has caused our family because of the whole process of this foreclosure.
i just received my “response”from bofa stating that they wish me to apply for a HAMP modification. i had financed through countrywide-bofa settled a lawsuit with the attorneys general of 44 states requiring them to modify notes. their message stated that they are not required to modify fixed rate loans-only adjustable rate ones. the settlement clearly states that “low-or-no document loans”-which mine was.
so, i will wait another couple of weeks, then send a note to the AZ atty general, (once again citing the consent decree which they agreed to) telling them to review the application-and see that this was a no-doc loan. and, i will tell them i am only interested in a permanent mod, not a temporary modification.
i only communicate to them by sending certified, return receipt mail-addressed to the ATTY GENERAL. the atty generals’ office then forwards my letters to Bunch of A*******.
Well -well-well….my mom received a phone call from BOA this morning in response to her filing a complaint with the OCC. Has the letter changed anything…….NO!
A Yolanda Summers called and went through the complaints…the ones that were already taken care of. Never talked about the mythical $1808.58 BOA was asking for from the “Notice Of Intent To Accelerate” letter they were asking for.
She told my Mom the following when asked about her MHA application status. Yolanda said that the investor or Fannie wouldn’t likely agree to any modification unless the home owner was 120 days delinquent in their mortgage payments.
She again blamed the investor, Fannie for the hold up and delays, just as another BOA rep did three weeks ago. WHO TO BELIEVE, BOA OR FANNIE?
Then Yolanda mentioned that my mom was in an earlier trial period which my mom said was a lie, that she never received any paperwork or notification written or orally that she was in a 30 day trial period.
This evidently shook Yolanda up because when my mom asked her for the time period for which she was allegedly in a 30 day trial period, Yolanda suddenly couldn’t get that information and said she would have the negotiator contact my mom.
More lies by the liars. Tomorrow I get on the horn with Fannie and seek some phucking answers.
Oh yeah, my mom finally received a response from Obama….a generic response, spouting what the HAMP program is doing, blah-blah-blah…and gave her the same old HOPE hotline, etc, etc.
My mom forwarded the email to me and I ripped off a nasty little letter to Mr. Obama, telling him HAMP is a fraud and he knows nobody in the government is going to help the home owners.
PS: Yolanda admitted to my mom that she goes home and reads all of the BOA blogs that trash BOA. She defended BOA and again was blaming the investors.
May they all burn in the fiery pits of hell!!!
I have gotten a lawyer to sue the Banksters at BOFA, I got her name from the max gardner bootcamp website, http://www.maxbankruptcybootcamp.com/
they list attorneys by the state that have attended, this is great, I am hoping she tears them up!
In my last comment, I just find it interesting that BOA would STILL admit that the best way to qualify for a modification is to be 120 days late on mortgage payments.
Are they suggesting to homeowners who are doing the right thing by paying their mortgage on time, but are struggling to do so, homeowners who are looking for some relief and have applied for a MHA in the hope of getting a reduced monthly mortgage payment, begin to not make their mortgage payments with the false hope that this will somehow quicken the modification process?
We need some real answers from the banksters and Fannie, Freddie, Indy, etc, etc, etc….
By the way, I know by above questions seem rhetorical or naive but I find it hard to believe (not really) that after all of the bad publicity about foreclosures and the banks, that a bank rep would continue to admit that being behind on your mortgage is the best way to get a loan modification, when in fact it is the best way to get your home foreclosed.
I’m finding out that talking to a representative from Fannie Mae is as about as helpful as talking to a representative from BOA. You usually have to leave a message and they will get back to you, most likely to deny anything bad BOA may have said about them and unable or unwilling to help…we shall see.
By the way, in one of my earlier comments about the Senate foreclosure hearings last week, I mentioned that a Fannie rep who was one of the witnesses on the second panel said “If the servicers won’t modify the loans then we will.” His name and title is: Terry Edwards, Executive Vice President Fannie Mae->Credit Portfolio Management.
If Fannie is the investor of your mortgage and are the reason behind all of the delays as BOA claims, perhaps it’s time to hound Fannie Mae and make Terry Edwards eat his own words?
Fannie Mae # 1-800-732-6643
For those interested or who may not have cable or satellite TV here are the C-SPAN links to the videos of both Senate mortgage servicers/foreclosure hearings from December 1st, 2010:
First panel: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/MortgageSer
Second panel: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BankersPa
Tony …
If I had a payroll, I’d hire you.
Another excellent post. I’d missed the broadcasts, and these will be excellent sources and references. I’ve already started viewing, and have decided to type out some of the Senators’ comments to use in a filing … something others should consider doing.
A Senator is a fairly influential figure to a court. Although they aren’t part of the “judiciary,” there are only 100 of them in the country. They are considered to be the “elder statesman/women” of our form of government (not a democracy, but a constitutional republic), and judges should, and likely would, note their comments on the foreclosure matters as they’ve openly discussed them in these hearings.
Even if all you do is listen to their opening remarks, even if it’s simply “political rhetoric” to appease the public, the indictments they make against the banks in those opening statements is remarkable. You should all relate to what they say.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the things they cite as having been said in the hearings, which they’ve expressed “deep concern” over, will ever turn into action we can respect. Our homes are either lost or under attack, and all the talk in all the hearings in Washington hasn’t slowed that down very much … BUT … your Senators have made VERY substantial statements about how poorly people are being treated … so use those statements, by substantial statesmen and women, in COURT where judges can see someone other than a “mere homeowner” saying it, and stimulate them to hold these banks accountable for their actions or inactions.
Remember, too, that INACTIONS can be as serious as negative actions. If they ignore your RESPA/TILA QWR letter, they are breaking statutory law. If they fail to answer all your questions, they are breaking statutory law. If they fail to produce documents you’ve requested, they’re breaking statutory law. If they fail to acknowledge your letter, they’re breaking statutory law. If they fail to answer or acknowledge a second or third or fourth letter, they are breaking statutory law.
Use ALL these things in your filings against them … and file, file, file. Even if you can’t get an attorney to represent you, get one to help you write filings and obtain citations to support your case when you file Pro Se.
For those of you who haven’t seen the article, a 71 year old woman in Florida has been fighting the banks Pro Se for 25 years …
http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/111500/the-25-year-foreclosure-from-hell
She’s seen the corruption for that long and wasn’t sitting still for it, despite not knowing much about the law when she got started. Note in the article that she’s been helped by a retired attorney.
Also note that over and over she’s proven her case … that the mortgage as improperly transferred between banks … much like many of ours were … and she is still in her home. The foreclosure was illegal.
I wonder how the banks would react to several hundred thousand “Foreclosures from Hell.”
I intend to be one of them.
Thanks Don! Just trying to help others like my mom who are in perpetual modification limo land created by Fannie, Freddie, The US Treasury, the FED, the too big to fail banksters, the crooksters on Wall Street and their bought and paid for whores in DC who are enabling and protecting them.
Excellent article Don! Ms Campbell is giving the banksters and fraudsters hell! Her case isn’t much different then millions of other homeowners, she just has educated herself throughout the process, which we should all be doing!
Again a reminder, we must remain vigilante and keep an eye on the goings on with the lame duck session in congress and when the new congress takes over in January.
Why…? I suspect that HR3808 will be brought back in a new form, with a new name by the republican congressman who wrote the bill.
HR3808 was the bill that would make all of the robo-signing legal and make it harder for homeowners to sue the banksters over improper or illegal foreclosure and allowing the banks to create new notes if the original note was lost, destroyed or not in possession of the bank doing the foreclosing.
Again, this bill was written in the guise to help interstate commerce, but the repercussions within the bill against homeowners was exposed by congressman John Conyers at the last hearing, after Obama sent the bill back to the House after the presidential switchboard received thousands of phone calls from angry homeowners.
Please let me know if there is suit in Massachusetts…the last thing BOA told me was to borrow money from a churh…unbelievable !
Please let me know if there is suit in Massachusetts…the last thing BOA told me was to borrow money from a church…unbelievable !
MJ …
Please see my note to Bola above, or Beverly about in the middle of the page.
Folks …
A clarification on my earlier post about recording your conversations with the banks …
It didn’t even occur to me until a conversation earlier this evening …
Record to COLLECT EVIDENCE.
It is not suggested that you record to post on the web or YouTube. Making ANY evidence public prior to court entry is not a good idea.
Thought I’d mention that.
Everyone, if you an a complaint with your bank please report them!!
Have you checked our Get Answers section for information about National Bank regulations and your rights as a bank customer?
Have you tried to resolve your complaint with your financial institution? The OCC recommends that you attempt to resolve your complaint with your financial institution first. Please contact your financial institution to allow them the opportunity to resolve your issue(s).
Check to make sure that your financial institution is a National Bank. Search Financial Institutions. If the bank is not a National Bank, you should contact the appropriate regulator to submit your complaint.
This is a very helpfully link: https://appsec.helpwithmybank.gov/
Lannie …
Interesting post.
Your link didn’t work, however, and I found it here …
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/
In glancing through the site, I find it fairly typical of government sites and “government-speak” language … only minimally helpful for this situation.
I don’t mean to sound negative about your suggestions, and your main point about reporting them is an excellent one, however your question about whether or not we’ve tried to resolve our situation with the banks pretty much shows you haven’t read many entries on this forum.
One of the main reasons many (if not most) of us found this web site and blog in the FIRST place was the fact that we were FED UP with trying to talk to “these people.”
One thing I think you may have missed … which is critical … is the fact …and yes, most of us see it as a FACT … that the banks DO NOT WANT to resolve these “problems” OR give us modifications since foreclosures net them more profit.
THAT is at the core of this situation.
Suggesting that we simply go back to the banks … or shall we say “banksters” … and believe after all these months … some for two years … that we’ll have any hope that they’ll change their tune and miraculously start being ethical and fair is … sorry … simply ridiculous.
The definition of insanity …
“Repeating an action over and over expecting a different result.”
If we’ve spent MONTHS trying to deal with “these people” and gotten nowhere, why would we go back?
If hundreds of thousands of homes have been foreclosed and taken … many already PROVEN to be illegal …
http://4closurefraud.org/2010/12/03/foreclosure-fraud-bombshell-thousands-of-pennsylvania-foreclosures-could-be-void/
http://4closurefraud.org/2010/10/02/video-attorney-signatures-the-next-fraud-battle-ground/
… why would we think their position has changed?
The main reason many of us are posting on a site entitled “Class Action Lawsuit” is the fact that we’re FED UP with the treatment we’ve received and want to SUE.
We’re past the point of attempting to resolve issues through conversation or negotiation and seek LEGAL REMEDIES to force the banks to perform their statutorily regulated duties … which they appear to be unwilling to do.
ANYONE who has been subjected to this process … who has more than five brain cells firing … can easily see that the banks have little interest in negotiating or providing modifications.
It’s more than evident that their interest is “pure business” in that they (almost exclusively) prefer PROFIT above “customer servicing,” which points their motivation with the focus of a laser beam at foreclosure, sale and the acquisition of that profit.
Banks LOSE money on modifications, and for all practical purposes they are ignoring or evading the expectation of modification … despite the fact that the President, Federal and State agencies and statutory contract law CLEARLY states they should be modifying.
I find your post absolutely fascinating … but I’d suggest that the majority of us won’t be willing to shove our heads back into the sand … bent over … while our homes are being taken.
Well isn’t this dandy..I have been involved with the BOA mess since last August..following what they instructed me to do to the letter. Was told I couldn’t have a modification because my house was up for sale. Lost my deed in lieu request once. Finally after resubmissions of my deed in lieu paperwork I was told it was assigned to a negotiator on 11-25. Tried several times to get in touch for the status..always had to leave a message..no call backs. Lo and behold a foreclosure hearing notice was “duct taped” to my glass front door. Interesting note they paperwork says my original loan was with RateStar (never heard of them) but it was Washington Mutual then Countrywide then Bank of America. Does anyone know of any class action suit getting underway in North Carolina?
Hello everyone,
I am working on my lawsuit at this time, but want to give you all an update on some info.
Today I went to the county and obtained ALL the recorded chain of title etc., on my property that is in foreclosure. RUN don’t walk and get it on your property.
First thing I found out was that the “Trustee” has NEVER posted the auction sale in the newspaper, which is required by law to be done 4 weeks in a row, before the sale can commence. Also there are 2, yes I said TWO different “trustee Notice of sale” documents in exsistence with different signatures and dates on them.
The next thing I discovered is that B of A has included my neighbors parcel in the legal description of the property to be auctioned off. Boy is my neighbor PIS_ ED! Her land is owned free and clear and she is going to sue B of A’s pants off!
Of course were not surprised but it does appear that they want ALL the land, even property that they do not have a loan against…………
I will look through all the recorded documents and report further on what I find out. So far I can see nowhere that Fannie Mae is my investor. I’ll give a closer look and get back to you all.
VERY IMPORTANT for you to get all the documents RECORDED against your home/property. You can probably go on line to your county and get them that way. I felt lucky that it only cost me $3.00, to have the gal in the county find and print out all my docs. There was also a $12.50 charge for copies. When I went to pick them up, she also showed me all the docs listed in their computer so we were sure I got ALL of them.
Happy Doc hunting!
Lauren
aFTER GETTING JERKED AROUND FOR 14 MONTHS MAKING TRIAL PAYMENTS ,SENDING DUPLICATE OF PAPERWORK THAT WAS LOST OVER AND OVER.i HAVE A 5 INCH STACK OF CRAP FROM THIS THIEFS.tHEY RUINED MY EXCELLENT CREDIT,MY CREDIT CARDS HAVE SLASHED MY LIMITS TO THE AMOUNT OWED.
SAD PART IS ALL MY BILLS ARE PAID ON TIME EVERY MONTH.I STILL WORK BUT MY PAY WAS REDUCED ,PUTTING ME UNDER THE BUS.
I WISH NOW I NEVER ENTERED THE MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE JOKE OF A PROGRAM.
SEEMS BANK OF AMERICA IS TRYING TO FORCE ME INTO FORCLOSURE.
MY TAXES SAVED THESE ASSHOLES.AND NOW THEY ARE SLOWLY KILLING ME!
Tim,
My story is exactly like yours except that my pay was never reduced so my bills are always paid on time although my credit is for sh– now and my credit cards all slashed my limits. The funny thing about my loan and the reason I did the Making home affordable program was for the last 6 years countrywide and now Bank of America have had me on a sub-prime interest only loan. For the last 6 years I have been paying only interest. My mortgage amount owed is the exact same as it was 6 years ago. 15 months ago I requested a simple modification for a fixed rate regular 30 year loan. If you figure out any relief from this nightmare let me know and I will do the same. The funny thing about this whole scenario is I still have never been late on a payment and now due to paying the modification amount they told me to pay I owe more now then when I started. How do you owe late fees on interest?
Currently being scammed by BofA and dont know what to do but have found comfort in reading this forum! Our story is that by 2009 our income had dropped tremendously and we were worried about the future in keeping everything going. Baby #3 was born in Sept. 2009 and our CPA recommended we apply for the modification program. Pretty picture. Well, we, like many, should never have done it! We would have been fine but instead we went forward, applied and within a few months were approved for the trail period. We started making trial payments and were told that it would not effect our excellent credit, blah, blah, blah! We tried calling often to see what was happening but they would just say call back in 5-7 business days. In April they said they mailed out the final papers via FedEx and we should have received them by now. What? No! Oh, well, Im not sure what happened, call back in 5-7 days….We had been thinking about moving to Bend so we put the house on the market and did not call them for months because we thought for sure we would sell our house. In Oct. 2010 we decided to take our house off the market and called BofA to find out what was going on. Finally after weeks of calling they sent a letter this last week saying we do not qualify even though we qualified over a year ago and have been making trial payments all this time!!!!! What the hell! Now they say our rental income counts as ‘income’ even though we do not get anything from that and it is in its own entity and is not net income. Oh, and our house will go into foreclosure in Jan 2011 if we do not pay the $18,000…..by then!!!! I am SO angry and ready to fight! We are under unique circumstances because we have the money to pay it but I am not so sure we should? We really do not know what to do at this point. If we dont pay it we go into foreclosure. I suppose we could appeal them. I dont know! I certainly do not want to go into foreclosure but I also do not want to give them any more $$$$ Any words of advice would be much appreciated 🙂 Don & everyone, thanks for all your help just in what I have read this last 2 hours has been great! Sad, frustrating but good at the time because we are fighters and something good will come out of this if we march forward!
I believe the earlier comment about the situation with BOA,Fannie Mae and our government is right when referred to the communist movement. I am beginning to believe that these financial institutions and our government should be held accountable for the countless suicides that have resulted from their negligence. . How do these heartless people sleep at night knowing they have done so many people wrong. Carma is due them ten fold and then some!!!
Folks …
There’s a bill pending in the House of Representatives … HR6460 … introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio …
… and for those of you who may not know Ms. Kaptur, or have forgotten, she’s the Congresswoman that’s “suggested” (told) us to SQUAT in our homes, should we be foreclosed …
youtube.com/watch?v=-6uNSDz876s
youtube.com/watch?v=VF_vU7WZpUE
I’ve been reading up on HR6460 and wondered what any of you might think …
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-6460
or
http://networkedblogs.com/bLCVp
Don, to be honest, I got lost in all of the legalese. No doubt Rep Marcy Kaptur is a fighter for the homeowners of this country but this bill will never make it through the House, especially when the republicans take over. One word I would have liked to see in the bills language is retroactive.
“(B) After the expiration of the period under subparagraph (C), MERS shall not be the named mortgagee or mortgagee of record on any mortgage owned, guaranteed, or securitized by the Corporation. Not later than the expiration of such period, the Corporation shall require that all mortgage loans owned, guaranteed, or securitized at such time by the Corporation and on which MERS is the named mortgagee or mortgagee of record shall be assigned to the servicer, holder, or creditor, as defined by the guidelines of the Corporation. The Corporation shall not reimburse the servicer, holder, or creditor for any expense incurred in the carrying out or recording such an assignment.”
My question would then have to be if the servicer or “holder” acquires an assignment, from whom did they acquire it and did they do so legally?
That’s been the biggest hiccup in the whole mess!
Folks …
… or should I say “Legal Warriors” …
Fresh off the press …
“WA STATE Attorney General McKenna calls for mortgage trustees to suspend questionable foreclosures” …
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/12/12/wa-state-attorney-general-mckenna-calls-for-mortgage-trustees-to-suspend-questionable-foreclosures/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ForeclosureFraudByDinsfla+%28FORECLOSURE+FRAUD+%7C+by+DinSFLA%29
There’s a paragraph in the article that should be of particular interest to Washington residents …
“Washington residents facing foreclosure should call the Washington State Homeownership Information Hotline at 1-877-894-HOME (4663) for referral to a free, state-approved housing counselor or legal help. Additional resources are on the Attorney General’s Web site at http://www.atg.wa.gov/foreclosure.aspx.”
Of course, it’s “free help,” and from a governmental agency. but some help is better than no help, and from a State government that seems to actually SEE the problem.
By the way …
A State Attorney General is an “officer of the court,” and there’s a pretty serious statement by Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna in the beginning of the article that is a SERIOUS indictment of the banks that’s ripe for adding to any filing you might have with a court. As an “officer of the court” also, the judge that reads your complaint, whatever it is, would be compelled to listen.
Something to consider.