Mortgage Companies Break The Law And Their Own Promises To Homeowners

[xchrom]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/21/3440289/foreclosure-survey-california/



Mortgage companies in California continue to routinely violate foreclosure laws and go back on promises they made in legal settlements, according to housing counselors and advocates, despite new federal rules designed to stamp out lingering problems in the mortgage servicing industry.

Homeowner advocates “continue to report frustration with poor servicer responsiveness” in response to a survey by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC). Mortgage servicers fail to provide a consistent contact person for caseworkers and homeowners, lose documents, ignore the timelines they are supposed to follow for responding to inquiries, and fail to process paperwork properly when a homeowner’s loan gets transferred from one company to another.

The survey is meant to capture the impact of new rules for mortgage servicers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), but most respondents say it’s too soon to tell how the new requirements are working. The CRC report says its respondents have seen a “moderate improvement in servicer practices,” but the counselors quoted in the report emphasize that new rules can only do so much without authorities following through with strict oversight of how the industry is responding. “Servicers have not changed their practices and will not unless there is auditing and enforcement,” one respondent to the CRC survey wrote.

The report also features nearly a dozen separate homeowner horror stories. Gemma and Cornelio Jaochico of Castro Valley followed every instruction they got from Wells Fargo in hopes of winning a loan modification after Gemma lost her job and their mortgage became untenable. The bank told the Jaochicos it would postpone the sale of their home while reviewing the modification request, but then sold the house out from under them and filed an eviction notice. The bank refused to revisit the modification application and even rejected the couple’s attempt to repay the full overdue amount after scraping funds together from family members. The Jaochicos ultimately lost their home in February of this year. Other foreclosure victims like Josefina Duenas held onto their homes, but only after years of stonewalling and paperwork deceptions drew homeowner advocates to file official complaints against the servicers.

[Sunlei]

1. Wells Fargo holds my mortgage today after it was sold about 15 times to different banks.

Was a 30 year mortgage I got about 13 years ago during the bonanza days of the mortgage scammers.

I didn't have much of a credit history, no credit cards, no debt. I wanted this property and house and knew I had to accept a bank mortgage, actually 2 mortgages in order to get this property. scammer rates, 9% !!! on the 30 year from a bank and another 2nd mortgage for part of the percentage down the bank wanted for the 30 year mortgage.

The 2nd was also at 9% plus a balloon payment on balance after 6 months!!.

The bankers were poised for years until today even hoping to repossess, you know in those contracts even 2 late payments would start-up foreclosure. No home insurance also could start-up foreclosure. I think the banks are in collusion with state farm insurance (kick-back cash?), I have had to pay about 1.2k a year for home insurance and never had a claim, even with hurricanes around here.
Not meeting the balloon payment on the 2nd would mean foreclosure.

In the original contract the banks even wanted a no early principal payments allowed, which was the only thing on the advice of a very good real estate lawyer, thank GOD was struck from the original contracts. On that persons advice I started paying an extra 200. directly toward principle every month.

Banks never would make a refinance deal without a really high, ridiculous points/fees payment.

Anyway to make a long story short, Wells Fargo holds my mortgage now, it's still 9.1% but I have paid off principle so that mortgage will be done/paid this year. 15+ years early. Even Wells Fargo, last year wanted thousands of dollars in fees to refinance to a more decent rate. The phone service person even tried to tell me once I couldn't pay principle early.

The banks handed out mortgages like mine because they fully intended to foreclose and make billions off of the interest payments. They intended by their contracts to not allow early principle payments in the fine print to assure they would earn massive interest earnings. And then when they foreclose they get the house back to mortgage/screw to another person.