Documenting your payments.  (Posted by Arky Girl)

First, go to your post office and get several "certified mail; return receipt requested" stickers. Most of you are already using certified mail anyway. Get twelve of them (one year's worth)and take them home in order to ease this process later.

Fix your envelope (use a small envelope rather than a business-sized envelope) showing your return address and your mortgage servicer as the addressee. Peel the tracking number from the left side of the sticker and place it in the appropriate box on the green card. Put your certified mail stickers on the envelope in the correct area.  Fill out all information on the stub concerning where this piece of mail is going, but leave it attached to the “sticky” portion on the envelope.

Write your check.

Copy the envelope WITH STICKER AFFIXED (fold the stub out with it still attached and the servicer's name and address visible) AND your check onto one sheet of paper.

Mail your payment. The stub you receive at the Post Office will be dated...HANG ON TO IT AT ALL COSTS. This stub has your tracking number and proves mailing date. Put your stub with your copy (use a paperclip) and wait.

When you receive your signature card from the addressee in your mailbox, copy everything onto one sheet of paper. It is tight, but can be done if you have used the small envelope and don't have
business-size checks.

Now you have one sheet of paper that shows your check and the date it was written, the envelope proving that the article was truly mailed
to your servicer (the tracking numbers will match), a stub proving mailing date, and proof that the servicer received it.

Have it notarized. Most banks do this free as a courtesy to their customers.

Take this notarized sheet of paper to your courthouse and tell the court clerks that you want to enter it as an affidavit into public
record. There is usually a nominal per page fee (that is why you want to keep it on one page if at all possible). Ask for a copy of this after it has been stamped by the clerk and take it home with you.

Now you can do one of two things, depending on your situation.

If your servicer is doing a lousy job of recordkeeping (ha,ha) and hassling you night and day and you know that those payments are made, here is what to do.

Make a copy of your sheet showing all this info WITH the court clerk’s stamp and mail this copy to your servicer with a letter of explanation. Tell them since they cannot seem to keep good records that you are going to help them out by having these payments recorded every month at the courthouse as public record.

Try to do this civilly (gag) as you do not want to antagonize them. You only want to make them aware of what you are doing.

Tell them if they have questions about your loan payment from now on that the information will be available from the courthouse. Give them the mailing address of the courthouse and a telephone number for the clerk's office and ask that they direct any future questions to the court clerks.

As always, keep copies of all correspondence, but this does not have to be mailed certified mail. Do this the first two or three months and then skip it thereafter. They should know by this point that you are serious. If they continue to
call you, keep referring them to the court clerk's office. That way the servicer can verify that your payment record is truly entered.

If you are not being tormented but still feel you need to protect yourself "just in case", simply keep your copy and skip the letter to the sevicer.

Put these copies into a notebook or folder of some sort and keep it current. Attach your cancelled check to your sheet of paper when you
get it (or a copy of your bank statement showing the check has cleared).

If your servicer begins returning payments, carefully open their envelope, read the letter, and return the letter and the returned check to the envelope. Mark this envelope “#1” (assuming this is the first time this has happened). On the sheet of paper corresponding to the info about the mailing of that check, put “#1” and a brief explanation of why the servicer returned your payment.

If it happens again, do the same thing, but mark it “#2” and again match it with the correct mailing info and so on. This keeps everything correlated and in order. Make sure you leave both the letter and the returned check in the envelope. This also goes into your folder or notebook. ALWAYS keep the envelopes from servicer's mailings; sometimes dates are exremely important!

If the servicer tries to pull one of those sneak-attack foreclosures, you are armed and dangerous because your information was public record before theirs. If they are claiming that your payment six months ago was late or never received and you recorded that it was six months ago, well, gee, they will be embarrassed in court. Judges have to pay attention to public record.

If the servicer files any kind of legal proceedings, these affidavits will be the first thing to jump up and bite them because they are public record already.

This folder is also a powerful tool should you have to run to court to get an emergency injunction to stop a foreclosure. You will not have to dither about looking for records. It will all be there; proof of check number, proof of mailing date, proof of receipt. And anything
returned by the servicer for whatever BS reason they have for returning it.

You will have enough organized proof for any judge to be able to make a quick assessment and decision that you have indeed been mailing your mortgage payments. You will undoubtedly get your injunction.

Cancelled checks alone are no good as the servicer will simply claim that you did not mail it until the day your payment was due (or
after). They certainly will never admit that they "aged" the check in order to create bogus past due fees!

Anyone can write any date on a check, after all, and you need rock-solid evidence. Half the battle is to have clear, chronological records that prove beyond a doubt that you have made every effort in good faith to live up to your contract.

Then you cannot be held responsible for the servicer "aging" your payment and all that other nonsense they pull. Once you have mailed
your remittance in good time it is up to the servicer to get its work done in a timely manner.

Servicers are notorious for sending out BS letters claiming that you did not do this or that with "funny" dates on them. That is why they are so aware that dates can be fiddled with. If you are entering this information monthly, they will not have a leg to stand on in court. Your proof has already been filed.

Then there is the insurance scam that they like to pull. If this is an issue in your case, enter a copy of your private policy into public record as well to prove that you have always had insurance. It is a good idea to get a printout of some sort showing the history of your policy from your agent in order to show that you have been covered all along. Then just enter it twice a year or so to stay fairly current.

The servicer counts on making the borrower into a nervous wreck by pulling fast ones at the last minute. By doing this you should have all the ammunition necessary to take them on and win!

Since you have covered your bases already the servicer will then be forced to explain to the court how they bungled things up so badly. You have prepared a kick-butt offense, which will force THEM into the defensive posture instead of you being there. It is always better to be on the offensive in legal matters.

After following this procedure for two or three months you will get the feel for the flow of it and it will not seem so difficult. Once you find out the fee for entering the affidavit into the record, ask the clerks if you can mail it in monthly with the fee and a self-addressed stamped envelope for your copy to be sent back to you if getting to the courthouse is a problem.

If every soul being held in captivity by these servicers would do this, I do not think it would not be too long before a noticeable drop in
foreclosure rates would be noticed.

Judges tend to believe whatever these servicing companies say. Perhaps they cannot comprehend the lies and deceit these companies will engage in once you have been targeted. Perhaps they feel that large companies keep better records. Perhaps they buy into that "all our borrowers are deadbeats" mantra. Who knows.

After catching the servicers in a few attempts at fraud and perjury, this particular judge will now make them double prove everything! Nothing makes a judge more irate than being played for a fool in his/her own courtroom.

Eventually the judges, YOUR most powerful ally, will see that the “deadbeat” label the servicers glue on their borrowers is not always fact. We need to shift the entire judiciary’s thinking processes; it will be slow, long and tedious, but enough people following this method can help bring that about.

I hope this helps some of you.

Believe me, this is the absolute best way of protecting yourself if you should become a target. The servicers will gnash their teeth if you are doing this and you will feel much more secure.

I am still looking into what constitutes a target. It seems to be a combination of ethnic issues and the desirability of your property for various types of development. Since no one yet knows, there is no way to predict who might become a target at this time. So, be prepared.

Even if you never have a problem, you will sleep better at night for the entire life of your mortgage!

Good luck!!

A classic story of how you can get scammed.  (Posted by Mark)

Fairbanks acquired servicing rights from Ocwen.  When the rights transferred, Fairbanks wouldn't accept a payment for their first month.  They claimed they couldn't accept payment for thirty days after they notified me of the change.  I tried to pay Ocwen.  They wouldn't accept payment either, saying they no longer even had me in their computers.

As instructed, I waited the thirty days Fairbanks, then tried to pay again.  Now Fairbanks said: “I didn't need to pay, my account was current.”  I was dumb in those days, and thought they would come screaming for a payment when they found their mistake.

Three months later, Fairbanks started claiming I had bounced payment checks.  Of course, I can prove I didn't bounce checks.  Their real ace in the hole when we get in court will be the payment I didn't make.  Just to be complete, and try to discover why Fairbanks reps told me my account was current when it was a month behind, I asked Ocwen for a copy of my payment history.  Well, they stalled and tried to fake me out and a bunch of other stuff, but I finally found someone there who didn't know I wasn't supposed to get a payment history, and they faxed me one.  Ocwen falsified my payment history for two months after Fairbanks took over.  Of course, this was part of the plan.

Now, when we get to court, Fairbanks can blame everything on Ocwen, and back and forth.  It is a mess.  I need to prove they cooperated. 

Another part of our problem.  (By Clyde Knight Jr.)

I was misled into bankruptcy by my previous attorney Ed Pontiex of the Virginia Beach base legal clinic Berg and Associates.  The lawyer and the mortgage company worked in tandem.  Mortgage Company then filed false claim with Veterans Administration and USBC for failure to make payments.  Mortgage Company then placed ads in newspaper with auction date for my home in preparation for sale.  I was forced to relocate my entire family - Wife, kids and our dog.

The US Bankruptcy Court held a Hearing.  Judge ruled after it was proven that payments were in fact withdrawn from my bank account by Mortgage Company, and requested the Mortgage Company and I come to some type of settlement that would allow me to move my family back home to Virginia.

USBC VA Trustee Frank Santoro and USBC VA Judge admonished previous attorney for inaction and failure to properly represent client.  Veterans Administration then stated that said foreclosure was removed.  Mortgage Company is Homeside Lending, a.k.a. Washington Mutual Bank.  USBC Trustee VA and USBC VA and their Accountant are recorded in court transcripts and are witnesses to Homeside Lending's Predatory servicing practices. 

Mediation Attorney Robert Roussos is also a witness to Homeside Lending’s Predatory Business Practices and is willing to testify to that fact.  Witnesses don't understand Homeside Lending's refusal to settle case.  

Since 2000, Homeside Lending has made it increasingly difficult for us to make our payment.  And even when we did make our payments, they falsely claimed that we did not.  Judge Adams referred to above, advised us to seek a Litigation Attorney.  HLS continues to use their unlimited resources to drag this case out.  I attempted to mediate, but HSL made offer that did not reflect our court ordered mediation session.  Their offer was just another attempt to take possession of our home by predatory servicing practices.  I then refused said offer.

With all the different Attorney Generals in different states around the Nation that are suing HSL on behalf of their constituents, I don't understand how HSL is getting away this type of behavior.  I am a NYC Police Officer.  I purchased the home to retire to in a few years and I moved my family from NYC to Virginia with this intent back in 1998.

To date, it seems that no attorney wants to touch this case because of the unlimited resources of the mortgage company and the complexity of the circumstances.

We are still homeless.

From stoplittonloannow@yahoogroups.com, "Dusty Pilot" wrote:

Problems start when loan transfers to Litton Loan.

I had a loan with Ameriquest.  I missed one payment November of 2002.  I talked with them and they set up a plan that I would pay $200 more each month, in addition to my regular payment, for 8 months which would bring everything up to date.  I could afford to do that, and we agreed to the plan.  Then, BEFORE the first payment was due, I received a notice from Ameriquest that they sold the loan to Litton.  I received papers from Litton along with temporary coupons

They said they would send a payment book later) for payments.

I made my first payment to Litton on time, and then the next month's payment on time.  Then they contacted me with a threat of foreclosure because they said I wasn't making my payments.  They were starting foreclosure proceeding, so they said.  I contacted my bank for proof the checks had been cashed by Litton.  When Litton was contacted with the proof, they said they would look into it.  I received a call back and they said: "We did find the money--but it wasn't posted to your account."  They said the only remedy was forbearance, and I had to pay $1200 for quite a few months to cover their court costs, attorney's fees, etc.  This is when more problems started.

I was served papers from a law firm in Twinsburg Ohio, and the following day I called them, but the attorney that had sent the forbearance letter was no longer with the firm -- they would get back to me which they never did.

I tried reaching people at Litton but could never reach a real person.  Left many messages, with no response.  In the meantime, they had a man come out to photograph my house, but before I could get to him and ask what he was doing, he jumped in his car and took off.

This is when I turned the mess over to my attorney.  It took him almost a month to find out what was going on because he had the same problems I had -- everyone he talked to at Litton didn't have an answer other than we'll get back to you, but never did.  The same was true with the law firm they hired.

After all the problems began, I was hospitalized three times due to anxiety over this situation.  I also suffered a minor stroke.

My attorney filed a lawsuit against Litton, which turned out to be Deutsch Bank National Company.  Then he started getting somewhere.  We now have a pretrial set for the 15th of January 2004.

Several weeks ago Litton, or Deutsch (hard to tell who you are dealing with) changed counsel -- now another attorney is involved.

I have found many web sites on Litton, filled with complaints very much the same as mine.  The first complaint I found was at http://www.selegal.org/litton_loan_servicing.htm.  As I read the story, as with many other stories about Litton since then, I felt like they were describing my story to a "t".

Dusty Pilot

  Tery’s Story

We bought our home 3 years ago while I was pregnant with my daughter.  It was a fixer upper and we have put everything we had into fixing it.  Our money and our hearts.  We are just about done.  I am now pregnant again and we are in the process of redoing the nursery.  This has nothing to do with my story it is just explaining why I am so desperate to keep my home.

My story is much like everyone else.  Soon after we bought the house, our loan was sold to Fairbanks Capital.  We never received any notification of this, so we sent our regular payment to the old company.  It was sent back stating they were no longer our mortgage company.  It took us forever to figure out who was, and then when we did -- they would not send us a statement or an address to mail the payment to.  We were still arguing with them trying to get the information when we got a notice that our payment was late.

Fairbanks fixed that for us by allowing us to pay over the phone with a $15.00 fee.  We tried to set up automatic payments from our bank, but they told us that was not an option.  We went about the next year or so making payments.  Every once in a while our payment would show as "late" again, and we would have to go through the late fee pay by phone thing again.  My husband and I were starting fighting because I thought he was not mailing the payments.  I took over sending the payments myself, but almost every month the payments were again showing up as late.  Fairbanks were always willing to let me pay over the phone and only pay $15 to not incur more fees.

We also kept getting letters about the forced insurance although our insurance agent continued to send faxes to prove we had insurance.

In Feb 02, my husband was hurt in an accident at work, which eventually resulted in him losing his job.  He was drawing worker’s compensation and when that ran out, he went on unemployment until he recently found a new job.

During the time he was off work and before the worker’s comp started, we got behind by one payment.  We called Fairbanks and tried to explain our situation. We had heard there were companies who would either let you pay the interest or work out a different payment plan.  Fairbanks stated they did not offer these options and we needed to be 3 months behind in order for them to make us a deal.  We were advised to put that money in the bank, wait the 3 months, get behind, and then they would make us a deal.

That sounds incredibly stupid now, but we are young and this is our first experience with anything like this.  So, we did it.  The 3 months were up and it was time to make our deal.  

When we called to make our deal, we were told there was no deal -- and that after fees and attorney’s, we owed them almost 4 thousand dollars!

While we were trying to come up with this money and figure something out, we continued to make payments to them.  What we did not realize was they were not crediting our payments, but putting them into escrow.

In Sept 03, our basement wall caved in.  Our insurance company was going to cover it, so we hired a contractor.  In October, the repairs were finished, the insurance company sent our checks and we thought everything was OK.  We received two checks.  One written to us for our belongings.  We signed our check over to Fairbanks in order to make our account current.  They verified this would make our account current and we could go about making our payments.  We were told our payments would be adjusted to add in the extra fees we still owed.  They told us to wait and they would send us a statement.

They still had our other insurance check.  We thought everything was fine with the house and our payments and we went about trying to get the insurance check.  The work was finished in Oct.  The check was sent from the insurance company in Oct.

We did what we were supposed to do.  The check was also made out to Fairbanks because they have the loan on our home.  Made perfect sense.  They were supposed to get an inspector out here and then release the contractor’s check.

After almost a month, we called them to see what was going on.  They said they didn't have the right paperwork and we needed to send it again, so we did.  Our contractor and insurance company also sent their paperwork again.  Still a month later and nothing.  We called them again and were told they had to have an original estimate from the insurance.  We tried explaining that there wasn't one because at first the insurance company wasn't going to cover it.  We were told they had to have it, but they would settle for a letter from the contractor and one from the insurance.

We sent all of that and waited some more.  Again no check.  We contacted them yet again and were told they still needed an original estimate.  This is when the insurance company and their lawyers got involved.  Then the contractor and his lawyer got involved.

Fairbanks said if the contractor would just send some more forms, they would get the inspector out.  So, he did all of that and still nothing.  When we tried to confront them again, we were told they were only in the office on certain days at certain times.  We were hung up on and never allowed to speak to a manager.  When I asked for a name, we were accidentally disconnected.

Finally, they told us they were setting up an appointment with an inspector.  He came a few weeks ago, signed off and everything was fine.  We called Fairbanks and were told we would receive the check before 1-12-03.

Nope still didn't get it.  This was on a Monday.  I figured it was the mail and gave them until Tuesday.  I still had not received it.  Now my contractor is threatening a lawsuit.  He is out of pocket money and he came out on Sunday and helped us when no one else would.  So on Tuesday, I started calling again.  I was told I could only talk to one-person because no one else knew anything and that person was not there for the rest of the week.

On Thursday 1-15-04, our local paper came out and the foreclosure notice was in it.  It said the house would sell on 1-30-04.  It wasn't until the next day that we received the letter from Fairbanks.  Actually, it wasn't a letter of explanation, but a copy of the foreclosure notice that appeared in the paper.

I still did not realize Fairbanks were crooks.  I thought my husband and I was just young and stupid or just crazy.  Everyone I knew thought I was lying and I guess they thought I kept the contractor’s money for myself too.  No one believed me and thought I was too stupid to not have proof that my bills were paid.

We called Fairbanks again and were told that the almost $4,000.00 (Four Thousand Dollars) that we gave them, had been put in escrow.  They said it could not be put toward the account until the account was made current.  We tried to explain that that is what the money was for.  We were told that we would need to talk to someone else who would not be in the office until Tuesday 1-20. This would only give us 10 days to stop the foreclosure.  We were also told if we were to make the account current we would get our $4,000.00 back with interest.

We were also told that the contractor’s check for around $15,000.00 would not be released until the loan is made current.  I could not understand this because so many times we were told it was in the mail.

So we waited thinking there was nothing we could do until Tuesday.  I decided to get online and do some research on Fairbanks.  That is when I found all of the information about what kind of company they are and all of the lawsuits against them.  In a way, it made me feel better because I knew I was not crazy or lying, but in a way, my heart sank.  Almost every story I read was exactly like mine.

Before we found all of this info on Fairbanks, my father offered to pay the money that it would take to stop the foreclosure.  He wanted it in writing that this would stop the foreclosure and release the money for the contractor.  We figured that this would also release the money we gave them  -- we would pay my dad back and go about making our regular payments.  We are also trying to refinance the house and I think this is when it all started.  From what I have read of others stories, when you try to refinance is when they foreclose.

Now I am worried.  I don't know if I should let my dad pay and risk that they are lying again, take his money and still foreclose.  I just don't know what to do.  I will do anything to keep my home.  I can't explain to my daughter why she cannot go home.

I am sorry this is so long and probably confusing but I appreciate you reading it.  It is nice to know that I am not alone.

Tery

A Feel Good Story In The Making.  (posted by bill)

In an earlier post, I wrote about one of Homeside Lending’s pending foreclosures in Illinois. The homeowner is on active duty in Iraq and cannot be reached. The foreclosure would put the homeowner’s elderly and legally-blind Mother on the street.

Well guess what… she is getting help as I write this post!

I would like to thank Eric Schuller, with the Lt. Governor’s Office in Illinois. Eric requested all the information so he can take it to the Illinois Attorney General. He wants this issue dealt with ASAP! Eric has shown what it is to protect the people of his state and I think more will stand up and follow.

To me, this is a huge victory for us all. We need to stand up and give this woman a round of applause because she is the strangest person I have ever heard of. It all starts with one person. Lets keep the snowball rolling. It doesn’t matter who the fight is against or who we are fighting. All that matters is that we stand united, no matter who our servicer is.

This case is about Homeside and mine is Fairbanks – same scam – different faces. If what worked in this case, who is to say it won’t work for other cases or lead a path of light for someone else. There is power in numbers and we need to show our numbers.

A long time ago, I said we need to look for solutions outside the box and that is how this issue was resolved.

I didn’t know how to get the court to stop the foreclosure, so I started looking for people to help her if she was kicked out on the street. I called the USO to see if they could find her a new place to live. After talking to Lisa Moeller, Assistant Director of the USO, she contacted the Lt. Governor’s office and it snowballed from there.

It just goes to show that maybe we are looking in the wrong places for help. We need to look at the whole picture, even the back of it, and go with a road that makes sense but isn’t traveled as much, or isn’t subjected by political influence.

Let’s keep the war going and see who we can help next.

Thanks to Dee, for making me look at things in a different way. And to Moose, there is a grim reality in what you say, and for some reason it works to make things look clearer, so I thank you for your insight.

Greg Collins should be looked at as a Superman. He lived in his car for two weeks, 1500 miles from home to help Linda. To me, the man should be recommended for Sainthood!

Lets take the fight to them instead of waiting until the last minute. We can do this! We just have to work as a group, no matter what are differences are.

Late payments

The credit reporting industry is designed and operated to manufacture as many sub-prime opportunities for their customers (lenders) as possible.

The supposed answer for consumers is to always pay on time, but if that isn't good enough to allow a growing target customer base for the higher interest rates, it is necessary to allow the data in the credit system to become, and remain, contaminated with enough erroneous information to keep the lenders buying what the credit bureaus have to sell - more prospects with "damaged" credit histories who have to pay more whether they really should or not.

If and when paying on time doesn't create a slow-pay, low-score history for you with a predatory servicer, and you fall into their target window, they step over the line and deliberately create more negative data to keep you from obtaining better financing.

The key point I keep making is that the system is designed this way to allow those who can afford it (the majority of relatively more well off who will sign up for larger purchases on credit) to keep the economy moving by being able to buy things with low-interest credit, while making up the losses by having a very large number of lower-income people paying higher interest rates that are concocted through bogus credit data.

Until the credit data industry is brought to heel and data reporting companies actually pay real penalties for propagating the scheme, it isn't going to change.

Moose

Beware of Investors/Lenders  (posted by Saturn)

I don't suppose they are ALL like this but here's an article I found on a foreclosure mediation site:

Foreclosure is a very serious matter. You're now receiving all sorts of letters in the mail from different companies, all telling you that they can help you. They can be very confusing. If you've noticed, they want you to do one of the following. So let's go over each of them, one at a time.

Private Investors/Lenders:
They will tell you that they will bring your mortgage current and payoff all back fees to save your home, and they will, for a price of coarse.

In order for them to do that you must "Quick Deed" (sign over your home to them in their name). In turn they will lease your home back to you with 15-20% higher payments for 1, 2 or 3 years until they have made their investment back. Then they will agree to sign your home back to you. Sounds good so far, right? But here's the trick.

In the contract that you sign, somewhere in the fine print, it will say if the lessee (you) are 24 hours late with your monthly payment within the duration of your contract, then the lessee (you) must evacuate the premises. Usually within 5 - 7 days. Over 90% of homeowners that fall for this trick end up losing their homes. These investors all know that you've had payment problems in the past. That's why they prey on homeowners in your situation. Next thing you know your family is out on the street with no home or hope and the investor just tricked you out of your $150,000 home that cost them only $4,000 to $5,000. So PLEASE BEWARE. Don't do it.

 OCWEN (Posted on Rip-Off Reports by Kweku Hanson)

I have sat on the sidelines and read the never-ending stories of fraud and frustration which have become the legacy of American homeowners. It was this brazen piracy which compelled me to find my lawyer to file a federal nationwide class action lawsuit against Ocwen, Moss Codilis and Litton. And I thought, naively as it turns out, that what the regulatory agencies and state courts had somehow missed---naked stealing of our mortgage monies by Ocwen and its co-conspirators---would be quickly identified and halted by the federal courts.

Boy, oh boy was I wrong about the "quickly" part. Federal court litigation is a time-consuming process, even when Ocwen's own workers are submitting sworn statements about the fraud that occurs deep inside the bowels of Ocwen. Even when Moss Codilis workers state under oath that Moss Codilis is engaged in outrageous and criminal behavior that in an upside-up world would get these lawyers hauled before lawyer discipline agencies and get prosecutors hot on their tail.

While the Hanson v. Ocwen class action lawsuit is still alive and well in Connecticut, and while on March 23rd my lawyer (but not me---I have a criminal trial in Hartford) will be traveling to Jacksonville, FL to present oral argument to the MDL Panel about the pros and cons of combining all the Ocwen class action cases in one federal district court, I want to say that Marlene's suggestion sits very well with me.

While the Hanson class action has been pending, Ocwen has been taking people's homes. I know this because hundreds of you fellow victims have sent me sworn statements, canceled checks, emails by the thousands, and crazy monthly mortgage and/or collection statements by Ocwen and/or Moss and/or Litton where one month the amount owed is $85,000 and the next month the amount owed is $101,000. Huh????? Yep!!!!!

We still await a hearing on our July 2002 motion for a preliminary injunction to stop this thuggery. Meantime, folk, it's self-help and sel-preservation. The federal courts are taxpayer institutions which every American has a right of recourse to (it's guaranteed by the Constitution).

I personally do not care (I do not know how my lawyer feels, because I do not know if he has time to read this website every week like I and my enemies do religiously) if every victim of any predatory servicer in the country decides to take my lawyer's class action complaint (or the Fairbanks class action complaint and use it as a template to file their own FEDERAL CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against any servicer who is abusing them. My lawyer's complaint must have been worth something because despite the passage of twenty (20) months, our lawsuit is still like a monkey on Ocwen's back, and indeed has spawned a few more.

Yes, the Hanson v. Ocwen complaint (available at the CBS News website and elsewhere on the internet in PDF format) accuses Ocwen of fraud, racketeering [RICO], violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; the Fair Credit Reporting Act; Negligence; Misrepresentation; Breach of Contract; et cetera, et cetera. And it is perfectly legal, as Marlene has indicated, for any victim to "do it yourself" and use the complaint in that lawsuit as a template for that victim's own lawsuit in that victim's own federal district court.

I gain nothing if 1,000 people frustrated by the pace of my nationwide class action case take matters into their own hands and sue Ocwen. By the same token, I lose nothing. If there are 1,000 class actions, it will make for a merrier MDL process, especially if the majority are by pro se litigants [victims who cannot or chose not to hire lawyers].

So, while I will not publicly advocate everyone rushing into their federal court to sue Ocwen using our lawsuit or the Fairbanks complaint as a model, I have no business discouraging anyone from doing so either. If you have to file for bankruptcy or sign a horrible forbearance agreement or file a copy cat federal class action lawsuit to buy yourself another 6 to 8 months against a fraudulent foreclosure, it's your choice. I have no vote in the matter, since the Hanson complaint is freely available online.

Meantime, as long as the Lord God Almighty enables me, I shall get up every day, and replenish my strength, and call my lawyer, and strategize with him, and continue to spend whatever money and time it takes to save my own home in the process get a nationwide class action certified. When even supervisory employees of these entities are swearing under penalty of perjury that our funds are being misappropriated, and when my own cancelled checks prove empirically to my 9th grader kid that I was NEVER in default, and when Ocwen continues to lie, cheat and deceive [selectively submitting emails from its own employees to try to show that somehow the information they sent of their own volition was coaxed out of them by me, but then fails to submit other emails from those same employees saying how much fraud is going on inside Ocwen's walls, you better believe that I am not going to go quietly away into the night. Ditto for every victim out there of every predatory servicer.

We will turn from being the hunted to becoming the hunters; we will go from being prey to pursuing the predators. We will watch to see if the AGs, the FBI, the SEC, the FTC, HUD, OTS, and other alphabet soup law enforcement agencies which are funded by our taxes indict, investigate, charge, arrest, and ultimately imprison some of these industry "leaders." We will take matters into our hands within the bound of existing law and fight like mad to save our homes from fraudulent foreclosures.

We will give these guys a run for their money, because all the corporate defense lawyers in America cannot defeat a people united in their determination to stop piracy in its tracks, spend what they may. The Hanson class action is already a living example of that adage. And if we lose, the same appellate courts utilized by the big guys are available to the little guys (viz., you and me)! Thank God!

And if any predator is foolish enough to run into court to try to get an injunction stopping me from posting online, I shall use that court occasion to argue our long-sought preliminary injunction, and I know hundreds of you have already pledged to come up in a show of support for that day. Periodically during the past year, several of you at random have received evidence of fraud and so forth dispersed by me to prevent anyone moth from breaking in and devouring the proofs before we all have our day in court. The whole country cannot be silenced. Like the millions of Spaniards [Marlene, I now know where your courage comes from] who marched against terrorists last weekend, we are also marching in unison against this tragedy that has gone on for far too long. And despite the fact that Al Qaeda could have tried another bombing attack on the millions of marchers, they were not intimidated, and neither shall we even if some of us are picked off literally or figuratively.

Plus, as a lawyer myself, I shall use every legal mechanism to ensure that my first amendment rights are not squashed by any thugs.

You better believe that Marlene, Dale, Bob, Jo, Brad, Alice, Maureen, Gina, Angela, Pearlie, Shirley, Jon, Diana, Tina, Cynthia, Dave, Stephen, ED, Diana, Ann, Maureen, Jenice, and hundreds of others [my fingers are tired now] too numerous to mention by name.

Kweku Hanson
487 Main Street, Suite Two
Hartford, CT 06103-3007
LEAGLTEK@MINDSPRING.COM

Kweku - Hartford, Connecticut
U.S.A.

Mortgage v. Note (posted by HGosh)

A mortgage and a note are two different documents. The note is the pledge that you will pay back the money you "borrowed" to purchase your house. The mortgage is the instrument used to establish your house as collateral. In the event you do not comply with the provisions of your note, the mortgage is the instrument used to establish the right to foreclose. The note dictates what terms and conditions fees, late charges, etc. can be imposed. The note dictates when a "default" can be declared. The note dictates when a mortgage can be accelerated. The note dictates when foreclosure proceedings can commence. The note dictates if the money must be applied to P&I first, or fees first. You must start understanding these terms if you are going to fight. Use the wrong word and you will lose your case.  Remember, ignorance of the law is no excuse.  Research Saturn, read, read, and read some more.  Follow the money trail, and most importantly, find out who owns your note!! They or it is the boss that calls the shot - i.e., Donald Trump - he decides who gets fired, or in this case, who gets foreclosed on!!
   

This, of course, is not legal advice, just my humble opinion.  You must consult an attorney for legal advice.

Notice of Sale (posted by Fed up with FB)

 Michigan is a "foreclosure by posting" state.  You have no way to file a "response" such as in judicial foreclosure states.  (Why Michigan was so STUPID and passed this is beyond me!)

Contact those legal aides I gave you yesterday - NOW.

Even if they will not let you put up flyers at the condo association - what's wrong with the intersections, the groceries, Rite-Aid usually has bulletin boards.  Get the word out.

Same thing happened with me with FB.  They were negotiating with me, my attorney and the Michigan Attorney General to "settle" to "work it out" - behind my back however they foreclosed by posting.  As in your case the attorney handling the foreclosure said: "you don't belong in foreclosure" - FB insisted on proceeding (enter RICO here! when an attorney proceeds in a manner directed by his client that he KNOWS to be an unlawful action).

See the counsel of those legal aides, they will tell you what an injunction is.  However, they may also try to persuade you into a Chapter 13 - a Chapter 7 is easier for an attorney to file, but more often than not the mortgage company will file a motion for relief from stay, in which case the bankruptcy was all for naught and you will lose your home. Chapter 13 would be the way I would go, if forced to that point.
  

I interviewed at least 10 attorneys in Michigan to get an injunction filed.  I found 1 (one) and he wanted $4,000 just to do that.  The predatory servicing lawsuit was extra at $275 an hour!
 

Now you keep saying you are in a panic - you have NO time to panic.  You have been at these boards as well as the e-groups for a while now and have gotten a very good education.  Time to put what you have learned into practice.  Let NO grass grow underneath your feet if you want to keep your place.
  

Do not be afraid to ask questions, or for emotional support in times of crisis.
 

NOW GO GET 'EM!!!
 

Note that I am NOT an attorney and do not give legal advice, just been around the block with the servicers a time or two. The above is posted solely for entertainment purposes :-) (and CYA)

The Errors Are Usually Intentional. (posted by mnjones)

The errors are usually intentional; an effort to confuse the homeowner and cause them to make a mistake. Ocwen doctored the books when they sold the rights to my mortgage to Fairbanks.  Fairbanks' letter telling me when I needed to make my first payment to them was very confusing (and late).  When I called Fairbanks to ask them if I needed to make a payment for the current month, the rep said "no."  This was because Ocwen had given me a phony payment, so it looked to the rep like I was current.  After a couple of months, Ocwen reversed the phony payment.  Fairbanks then started accusing me of bouncing my payments.  They never said a word about the missed payment for the first month they serviced the loan.  Because I was so busy trying to prove that I hadn't bounced payments, I never even thought about that first payment.  I filed suit before they got me in foreclosure court, but the plan was to let me prove I hadn't bounced payments, then say, "and what about the first payment."  Because I thought I really didn't need to pay it, I would have been unprepared to defend myself and they would have taken my home.  My lawyer and I discovered all this while investigating in preparation for court.  He is filing a suit against Ocwen this next week for falsifying the account history.  So, I am suing both Fairbanks and Ocwen.  Also, I am working on going after Equifax and Experian.  I have sent both copies of my canceled (paid by the bank) checks for the months Fairbanks claims I am late, yet they continue their fraudulent reports.  Does anyone know anything about going after the credit agencies?

Recording your Phone Calls.  (posted by Dee)

I support making recordings of phone calls made to me, and I make one phone call to the servicer when I have a complaint.

I also support Moose's position that making phone calls is worthless to you in most cases.

Don't ever forget you are speaking to a collection agency.  I had some trouble getting that through my thick skull because this isn't my first mortgage and I've never had any problems with "Lack of Ethics" issues before.

I would add, if you have a phone conversation, follow it up with a letter memorializing the content of the phone conversation.

I used to do that as a matter of routine business procedure.

That accomplishes two things, you put the other party on notice "paper trail" of the agreements you made. The company has agreed to: whatever they are supposed to do and I agreed to: whatever I am supposed to do. Include a time limit like within 14 days.

I have presented a ton of evidence to judges and not once has my adversary or I submitted tape recordings of phone conversations in 30 years of work.

I'm not convinced a judge will sit and listen to bunch of tapes.

If I were going to use that strategy, I would have one tape per call and transcribe the conversation, keep a log that details the date and content or significant statement made.  One long boring tape of all calls made would probably be largely ignored.

Remember, judges want to be spoon fed information and don't want to be bothered sorting out what is relevant and what is not to the point being made. In other words, don't waste their time.

If the other party denies any particular phone call and or it's content, that would be the ideal time to have a recording. It settles the dispute.
That's when it might be useful. That would be devastating rebuttal evidence.

I'm not sure that there is any difference between a debt collector and a collection agency, but there may be something different in a legal definition between the two that I haven't seen.

If you manage to be lucky enough to get a sub prime loan, you are in a war right from the get go. You must be pro active in protecting yourself.  Jump with both feet every single time there is a mistake like it is the end of the world.

The days of trusting your mortgage company to deal fairly, ethically and responsibly are over.
Your 30-year mortgage is being managed by a collection agency. You are not their client.
They don't serve you but rather themselves and the loan originator and or subsequent owners of your mortgage.

Your equity is at risk. Your home is at risk.

Consider yourself as someone to be robbed of something valuable by con artists.

Dee

To see if recording phone calls is legal in your state, click here.

 Recorded for “Quality Assurance.” (posted by Ann Holden)

I have a wonderful little story on this very subject ;-)

Last week, I received a call from a company who stated to me that the conversation would be recorded for, "Quality Assurance." While this statement did not bother me, I came back with this statement to the person on the other end of the telephone...
"Thank you SO much for recording this conversation for Quality Assurance. I would like to inform you that I am also recording this conversation for, Quality Assurance."

The person on the other end became flustered by my statement. He then told me that he did not, "Authorize" me to record him. He then hung up on me, and I have not heard from him again.

Learn something EVERYDAY people.
We DO still have some rights!

Ann’s Webpage

How to check the interest rate on your Adjustable Rate Mortgage – A.R.M. (by H.Gosh)

OK, three easy steps. Please note that this will not be a "qualified audit" but will put you into the neighborhood where your monthly payment should be:

1. Look at your note. Find the section about your ARM adjustment. Note whether you are adjusted according to the FANNIE MAE or Wall Street Journal LIBOR listing (there may be a time mentioned, i.e. 11:00 AM).

 
2. Go to the following link and find the latest LIBOR (you can also look at the historical rates to make sure your ARM has been adjusted correctly in the past), then add in the additional percentage as listed in your note (i.e., LIBOR plus 5%, rounded to the nearest .125%
http://www.bba.org.uk/public/libor

3. Go to the following link, enter your principal (as it stands on the day you want to calculate your new payment) and just enter the new interest rate, hit calculate. If you want, you can have an amortization schedule displayed so you can see how principal and interest SHOULD be applied to your loan. http://www.bankrate.com/overkeyword/mortgage-calculator.asp

Now look at what interest they are charging you - is it correct? Let us know how you make out!

Reasons For Not Accepting Payments.  (Posted by Moose)

When you're on the one of the fast-tracks to foreclosure, accepting a payment can imply that the servicer agrees you aren't delinquent. It's legal advice vs. positive cash flow. Guess which way they lean? Even among those who accept it, they will apply it to one of the mysterious and invisible "suspense" accounts and not to the principal or interest.

Typically, a payment is returned because it does not include additional fees or charges that may or may not have been appropriate for the loan.

In more egregious levels of the scam, it is returned to add another month's late fees and interest, and in particular, they will be returned in the third month which opens the door to acceleration and even more fees, including legal fees to one of the foreclosure mills and reinstatement charges under a forbearance agreement.

These kinds of cases are not errors or simple mistakes. It is a well-thought out, carefully calculated and very systematic scheme. There are behavior forecasting models applied to loan portfolios that they claim can accurately predict which borrowers are supposedly more likely than others to default and which among those are less likely to be able to put up a fight.

You're a loan officer - look at the tools the industry offers for judging risk in originating and underwriting loans. The same kinds of analytical tools have been developed by and for the special servicers for them to maximize their return on investment. Put it this way, they wouldn't buy problem loans if they thought they might lose money on them.

They stand behind the phony shield of the "sub-prime" borrower, such that any action they take is justified because the hapless consumer is nothing more than a deadbeat that is trying to live in a house without paying for it.

When it's the borrower's word against theirs, the vast majority of victims are instantly discounted, and a very simplistic view of the world such as yours, dominates the discussion. "Companies wouldn't do that," is the most common view, followed quickly by "that would be illegal," along with, "if you made your payment on time you wouldn't have a problem."

None of those immediate conclusions is true when it comes to a victim of a scheme such as predatory servicing.

Speeding is illegal but almost everyone does it because the chances of being caught are very slim if you're familiar with the roads you're driving on. The laws that penalize speeders haven't stopped people from speeding, nor have the laws against driving while intoxicated stopped people from drinking and driving.

We live in a society that is apparently willing to put up with a certain amount of illegal behavior.

No matter what you ask them on the phone, it doesn't matter; they don't have to answer honestly. No one is getting criminally prosecuted for outright lying or misleading a borrower, despite what the laws say. Here and there a few civil suits get filed and then settled in private, and in at least one case an actual (albeit miniscule) penalty was assessed against Fairbanks, but it is still simply to profitable and too easy to stand back and say this is what you get when you have sub-prime borrowers.

They paid the speeding fine because they were unlucky enough to have been caught.

So first, take off the blinders and realize not everyone in the lending industry behaves in the way you expect. They have other motives that you may still not accept as real.

Moose

Rules & Regulations. (Posted by E. Turner)

As each of us here knows all too well, there is certainly no shortage of rules and regulations out there. They are all filled with things like "must" & "shall", just like the terms and provisions of the contracts, and the licenses of the entities, they supposedly regulate.
 

Again, as we have all witnessed to one extent or another, most of these are little more than dead letters, parchment barriers.
 

 In one respect, you can write all the prescriptive and proscriptive language you want into law. However, its all meaningless if it doesn't have teeth. Unless there is a corresponding Authority that specifically spells out what the penalties are for doing or not doing a particular thing, its all pretty much meaningless. You end up with something akin to police officers swearing a general Oath to protect the Public, while there is no resulting penalty for not doing exactly that. Except only in a small set of circumstances where a special relationship is clearly established beforehand. (As far as accountability is concerned, some of the very worst examples of utterly hollow 'rules' can be found right in the Public School System.)

In another respect, the ambiguity and lack of consequence only strengthens the corporate veil. In the situation(s) we are in, the laws and the contracts themselves should state clearly which corporate employees are to do or not do which things and that they, as well as the corporation itself, will be held accountable for it to what degree. Its simply not enough to say that the corporation must do, or not do, this or that, obviously.
 

Then you have the Authority itself. As long as any set of regulations goes un-enforced, they might as well not exist at all. In our situation(s) the very fact that the rules aren't followed, operates as a fraud on us all. When we sign a contract, we are expected to know the law and to have entered into it with knowingly intelligent acts. We have a reasonable expectation that what we plainly read in the law and the contract has full force and effect, 100% of the time. And not just the parts that spell out our responsibilities and the penalties for not fulfilling them. Its not enough that Agency "X" spends so much a year on it, or catches a given number of violators. The law draws no such distinctions. HUD doesn't publish odds. We have a reasonable expectation that the referees will be paying attention to every move in our game too.
 

The mortgagees/servicers have and exploit an unfair advantage in this regard. They have a good grasp of what the Authority will and will not pay any attention to. Whereas we are led to believe that the corporations 'must' do this and 'shall' do that, and for our trust we get blatantly cheated. There again however is the same situation with the local police officer. The Regulatory Authorities are not themselves made fully accountable for enforcing the very rules they promulgate, the very excuse for their existence.
 

No corporation, or GSE, should be allowed to engage in any contracts over and above what it can demonstrate competence to follow the letter of the law on. By the same token, no Regulatory Authority should be allowed to claim jurisdiction over any more transactions than it can effectively oversee. A great many, if not all, of our problems here come directly from policies that allow corporations to over-reach, and the Authorities to overextend themselves. Its reckless, and easy to foresee that many people will be injured as a direct result.
 

That’s my opinion.

Inside Information on how you may get scammed.  (posted by Nye)

Ok, here is something new I have learned from an inside source.  Many loans WHILE perfectly good with no problems, have been discovered to have KNOWN FRAUD in the file during a quality control audit or due diligence. This FRAUD could be the loan broker, prior servicer or someone OTHER THAN you and then gets classified as a loan that has been repurchased from the investor and goes technically back to the originator.

These loans are then packaged and sold to the Crooks at EMC, Ocwen, Litton, Fairbanks etc., which are known as the "toxic waste" dumps in the industry.

The key is to foreclose on them or FORCE a repayment or NEW LOAN MODIFICATION so that the original fraudulent loan is now void and a new loan takes place. Now the fraud is concealed.

These crooks intentionally put you into foreclosure or an inability to pay, to FORCLOSE on you to reduce the LARGE exposure to them and their fellow crooks.

That’s it in a nutshell; and a new motive that we have discovered with the help of some insiders.

Fannie now refuses to answer ANY of my questions since they say that regulators are investigating my complaints.  As a stockholder I want answers!

Second, they won't even agree to make their servicer’s disclose this to you if they are an investor or force their servicer’s to give you a complete title chain report and open MERS up to review and many other very SIMPLE things I requested as your right to obtain the master loan servicing record to get your loan properly audited.

This is from the highest levels of Fannie including their CEO and outside directors. What is Fannie hiding?

Members of press and media have told me that Fannie and Freddie may be behind many of your problems.  I will be suggesting new strategies in days to come.

Ex-Ameriquest Mortgage Employee  (copied from Rip-Off Reports)

Ameriquest Mortgage

Address: 150 Second Avenue North,

Suite 750

Saint Petersburg Florida 33569

U.S.A.

Phone Number: 813-801-9883

    I never knew what I was getting myself into.

Folks, this company is the WORST thing that has ever hit home loans. I worked in the St Petersburg office under Ryan Huckstep, aka the "golden boy" of Ameriquest Mortgage.

How much money a year does Ameriquest pay its employees?

 $200,000 for account executives

 $700,000 Branch Managers

 $1,300,000 Area Managers (like Adam Rothman)

 $2,000,000+ Regional Managers (Mariano based in Miramar FL)

How can they afford to pay them so much? Because Ameriquest screws over every single borrower they can.  For instance, people with poor credit who need help. Ameriquest puts these people into a 2 year fixed / 28 year adjustable mortgage. The loan has a 3-year prepay penalty, and on the 3rd year, your rate will JUMP 3 points! Meaning if you close the loan at a 8%, in 24 months you will jump your rate to 11%!!! And you have to pay that for an entire year until your prepay goes away!

 Do you know that Ameriquest only uses appraisers who are on their "preferred list"? Meaning they will ONLY use appraisers who will exaggerate your home's value by tens of thousands of dollars, to ensure that you are STUCK in your home, and you CANNOT refinance with another company! Either you pay the super high interest rate, or you give them your HOUSE!!!! They put people upside down in their homes every single day! 

Did you know that Ameriquest forces people to use their OWN title companies? Did you know that these title companies will shortcut recording mortgages to pocket the extra money? Meaning, if your mortgage was $200,000, they record it at $60,000 in the courthouse, so you pay the tax on the $200,000, but they keep the difference, this can be an extra $1,000 a loan in the title companies pocket!!! 

 AMERIQUEST DOES NOT LET YOU USE YOUR OWN TITLE COMPANY!!! YOU MUST USE THEIRS!!!

Did you know that Ameriquest Mortgage closes loans WITHOUT an appraisal? That’s why they have a 7-day rescission period, it's because they have signed your loan without anything in it! 

Did you know that many borrowers are NOT told that their previous mortgage had a prepay on it? Most loan officers are taught to trick the borrowers into thinking they are getting a "refund check" from their old mortgage company from the overpay, which of course never comes. If they list on your HUD that you are paying $130,000 to your old mortgage company, but you think you only owe them $125,000, they know you actually owe 129,000. Not only are you paying their horrible fees, but the prepay on your old mortgage as well!!

I've seen the Adam Rothman, the area manager laugh at borrowers behind their backs because they just paid over $16,000 in closing costs on a $100,000 loan! $6,000 prepayment penalty from their old mortgage, plus $10,000 in Ameriquest fees!!! $16,000 in equity GONE!

Do you know that Ameriquest Mortgage REFUSES to send someone a Good Faith Estimate of closing costs and rate when they ask? This is a company policy!

Did you know that Ameriquest designed a way to dodge the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA) by closing loans BEFORE the proper disclosures are mailed out. Basically, Ameriquest has found a way to trick the RESPA law. They slam the loan so fast that the borrower never receives the proper warning in the mail via a Good Faith Estimate, and Truth in Lending!

Did you know that Ameriquest also refuses to give people copies of their appraisal, because of fear of lawsuits? They will HIDE the appraisal and many times delete and shred it so the borrower doesn’t see it.

Did you know that the Branch Managers and Area Managers get kickbacks for double charging appraisals? They force borrowers to pay the appraisal at the door, and then they CHARGE them again in the closing costs for the same appraisal. Every time they do that, the branch managers and area managers get a kickback from the appraisal company, or sometimes get a title company issued check!! Appraisals can cost over $350! The borrower gets charges $700, and the branch manager (like Ryan Greene in Tampa) gets the $350 in his pocket!

Did you know that 90% of borrowers do NOT know there is a prepayment penalty on the loan Ameriquest gives them until they come in to close? Do you know that Ameriquest charges someone 6 times the mortgage payment as a penalty if they pay it off within 3 years?

Did you know that Ameriquest has a internal division called Portfolio Retention, whose job is to sucker punch the same borrowers again? After a minimum of 4 months, Portfolio Retention will refinance the same borrower, with usually MUCH higher closing costs than the first transaction, plus charge them the prepayment penalty!!!!!

Did you know that Ameriquest was tricking their investors by making purchases look like refinances? They were cheating the state out of tax money, and they were typing up their own titles, calling Equifax Mortgage Services and Chase Credit Research and putting FAKE mortgages on people's credit reports? 

Did you know that Ameriquest does what’s called an "AVM", which is a guessed property value on your home when you call in. If it comes in at $40,000 higher than what your home is actually worth, they wont do a real appraisal, they'll close it based on the guessed amount, putting you upside down in your home. 

Did you know that Ameriquest commonly refers to African Americans, and minorities as "SCUM!" and "DIRTBAGS!"? Anytime someone of a different ethnicity other than white calls in and asks for a loan, you will hear the AE yell out "SCUMBAG!" or "DIRTBAGS!" after they hang up the phone!  Did you know that Ameriquest preyed on the elderly? Did you know that they would put elderly into loans much higher than they could afford? Into Adjustable rate mortgage that will sky rocket so they can take the house? Did you know that Ameriquest also puts them into a prepayment penalty so they can’t sell it?    

Did you know that AE's would LIE about borrower's ages and make them younger on the application to sock them with the highest rate and closing costs possible to make the most money? Did you know that the TOP AE in Ft Myers (Jason Rios) was SUED and FIRED not more than 2 months ago for lying about age on applications and preying on elderly people?

Did you know that because of Jason Rios getting fired, Ameriquest now practices AGE DISCRIMINATION to elderly people, basically they wont talk to elderly people because they cant sock them with super high rates, adjustable rate mortgages and prepayment penalties or they lose their job. So instead of giving them a good program, they wont even talk to them.

Did you know that Ameriquest holds HUGE contests for employees where they give away hundreds of thousands of dollars in exotic cars, vacations to Maui and Las Vegas, as a reward for screwing borrowers over? At the latest "Big Spin", which is where Ameriquest takes the top 400 employees for binge fest in Las Vegas, they gave away 10 automobiles and THOUSANDS of dollars in prizes, all from the poor homeowners who trusted them! A Chrysler Crossfire, Volkswagen Beetle, Hummer, Mercedes, Porsche, A new Harley Davidson, all for screwing borrowers over.

Did you know that in Florida, that many of the TOP MANAGERS in the company have recently been fired for fraud and lawsuits! Orlando, Maitland, St Petersburg, Tampa, Miramar, have all had not only the managers fired, but many of the employees as well! Welcome to Ameriquest, the biggest fraudulent company that has ever walked the face of the earth. Watch the movie BOILER ROOM, that's this company.         

                                                                                 http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff105466.htm

RG

Tampa, Florida

Even more reason to stay off the phone.

For as long as I've been around here, I've always strongly suggested you never communicate with your lender/servicer over the phone. (See Owl Hunting guide on the msfraud.org site.)

Aside from the fact that the people you talk to are trained to expedite their plan, not yours. I have consistently indicated they would use the notes they make about what you say against you if and when you end up in any legal battle.

I've also pointed out that the process of targeting loans for acceleration and foreclosure is not at all random nor is it something they just wait for. What the industry calls "predictive modeling" I call "equity theft targeting." Their position is, of course, that the only driving factor in the whole process is the behavior (or lack thereof) on the part of the borrower.

Now back to the reason to stay off the phone - there is a software product available to the collections and servicing industry that will analyze the notes made by agents in their systems. Specifically, the things you say to them. This tool provides them better "predictability" as to the whether or not the loan will go into default, or as I see it, identifies opportunities to move loans into the sausage grinder faster.

So again, at the risk of being redundant - STAY OFF THE DAMN PHONE!

How Does It Happen? (posted by Moose)

This isn't legal advice, but in my opinion and experience, the only way the foreclosure sale can be halted is through a judge issuing an order. IN some cases someone may tell you they're not going to foreclose, but I would never take anyone's word for that. In fact, if they put it in writing that they weren't going to I would still not believe it.

To get to the stage of halting the foreclosure, you have to have an attorney file suit in the appropriate court (or file for bankruptcy, which is only a temporary fix). In that suit would be a motion to stay the foreclosure sale pending the outcome of the case.

It also depends on what state you live in and there are local court rules that have to be followed.

But just filing a civil suit in and of itself won't stop the sale. Your attorney will have to specifically seek an immediate hearing to show why the sale should be halted while the case moves forward. The defendants (the servier/trustee attorneys) will probably be prepared to make a motion for summary judgment and it will get very creative from that point.

Just showing a judge your records will probably not happen - it's not like "The People's Court." You don't get to that point without having gone through all kinds of legal maneuvers designed to keep the issue from ever getting to a public trial.

Typical cases like these last anywhere from a few months to several years and are almost always settled prior to an actual trial. That's why you need a really seriously aggressive attorney who knows not only the intricacies of the various consumer laws, but an iron will and the stomach to put up with seeing these criminals negotiate themselves out of being publicly exposed in court.

Again, not legal advice, just my thoughts.

What would you think of my case?  (Posted by Dee)

Not one late payment for the life of the loan.  Not only did I make my monthly payment on time each month, I sent $1,000 in extra principal payment each month.

I had in 12 out 14 months mistakes made by the servicer.

I paid my 10-year mortgage off in 4 1/2 years.

I spent inordinate amounts of time trying to get the servicer to correct their own mistakes.

I made phone calls, I wrote letters. They couldn't correctly process a payment of mine no matter how I sent the payment.

I fulfilled my contractual obligation. No questions.

They did not fulfill their duties as a servicer who gets paid to collect my check and credit my account properly.

In fact, they had me one step from default because of their bookkeeping errors (cough)

Late fee assessments for on time payments, placed on the auto-dialer for collection agency type calls, discussions with customer service representatives who had no authority to make the necessary changes to my record. There's no way to get off the auto-dialer until the servicer's high priest says it is okay to remove me.

How would you like to be hounded for payment by cretins whose job it is apparently to try to intimidate borrowers into paying fees that have been incorrectly processed?

Not one or two times but 12 out of 14 months.

I'd be sitting there looking at their web site of my account looking at the screw-ups while talking to them.

This wasn't my first mortgage and I have never encountered such nearly perfect incompetence by any company.

2 payments out of 14 were competently processed.

Excuses: We are not set up to process extra principal payments. You are one of two people making extra principal payments. This was told to me by a Senior Vice President of the company.

What b.s. As a borrower, do you really think I care whether you are set up to process extra principal payments? My mortgage contract allows for extra principal payments of any amount that I want after the first two years.

If you are selected to collect my payments, YOU, the servicer, will just have to figure out how to do that. It's not my problem.

Why can't your company process a mortgage payment and apply it to principal and interest as I direct it?

This same V.P. told me, the computer decides how the borrower MOST LIKELY would like the payments attributed.

Hmmmm, so you ignore the payment coupon where I designate how the payment is to be applied, the notation on my check and the cover letter I send along with my check detailing how the money is to be applied?

Oh, yes, we don't pay any attention to that.

I give them an F grade for servicing.

What I'd like to know is how the hell they are still in business?

Why haven't these servicers been shut down if they can't perform the simplest duty of collecting your check, timely posting it, correctly attributing it?

I side with the borrower first because of the way I was treated having never made a late payment, never bounced a check, paid my own taxes and insurance and still they could not get the processing of my checks straightened out.

The people that have been improperly assessed late fees and other dubious fees for non-existent services should be made whole.

They should not be getting back 10 cents on the dollar that they paid.

I'd like to see you or anyone else maintain a current balance on a loan riddled with these
disgusting charges and only have 10% of what you pay attributed to your principal and interest.

You couldn't do it and neither could I or would I.

Just because you have a mortgage doesn't give the servicer a right to steal from you.

If you believe that it is possible to stay in business or that these were merely mistakes 12 out 14 months, I hear the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale, swampland in Florida, or you have found a Ponze scheme that is apparently legal.

I don't understand why somebody isn't in jail. If they can't return 100% of the money that was collected erroneously, somebody needs to go to jail for fraud or outright theft.

To be honest, even though I ended up paying off my loan, I probably spent as much time doing it as a Fairbanks employee did working.

I feel I should be awarded punitive damages for wasting my time and energy to thwart their efforts to take unearned fees from me.



Dee

 Focusing on the TRUTH.  (Posted by Moose)

The supposedly normal cycle of making your payment on time and having it credited is only one facet of this issue.
 

Yes, one shouldn't confuse "reasons" with "excuses" that some borrowers come up with. Having said that, one shouldn't also confuse "simple mistakes" with "deliberate actions" on the part of predatory servicers.  The convenience of the broad-brush label "sub-prime" lends to the attitude that the borrower is at fault. It, like most prejudices, conveniently ignores the details and relies on the label to rest one's case on.
 

A large part of the problem stems from companies "making mistakes" and then deliberately refusing to correct them because they know, in the end, when challenged by someone without significant resources to mount a legal fight, they really don't have to. When the opportunity to strip significant equity from the "deadbeat" exists, there will be no admission of error right up to the point of public argument before a jury. Then there will be an offer a judge inevitably thinks is reasonable (they just can't believe a company would do such things to people and they share in the sub-prime prejudice) and the matter will be sealed.
 

Just because some people do run into financial trouble doesn't mean all of the people in the financial services industry are honorable and trustworthy. If only the Justice Department were as diligent in investigating and prosecuting the predators as they are in the scam artists who afflict the financial industry.
 

"Refusing to accept the fact that there are victims is a major reason they continue to be in business."
 

Moose