This is a must read. There is no end to this mess. ENJOY!
American Banker-
Many of the country’s largest banks received $6 billion in kickbacks from mortgage insurers over the course of a decade, according to a previously undisclosed investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The allegations, since referred to the Department of Justice, stem from lenders’ demand that insurers cut them in on the lucrative business of insuring the mortgages they produced during the housing boom.
In exchange for the their business, companies such as Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, SunTrust Banks Inc. and Countrywide allegedly required reinsurance partnerships on generous terms that violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, a 1974 law prohibiting abusive home sales practices.
© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
We called Citi in July of 2009. (we were current on our mortgage and had not missed any payments) My husband was going to be getting a paycut and we were trying to be proactive on what we could do before that happened. We asked Citi what we needed to do to stop escrowing. (Our yearly bonuses more than paid for homeowners insurance and property taxes), could we prepay a year, could we just pay the invoices ourselves, etc. Citi told us that it was a WI state law and that we had to escrow. (untrue, but did not know that)
Citi told us that what we wanted was a loan modification and they would put us in that and that was the help we were looking for (sure, right) Of course, I had no idea what pandora?s box we had just opened. (no other options were ever presented or discussed with us.)
Again, as they say hindsight is always 20/20, we had no idea what a modification was, but why would our mortgage company advise us to do something that could do harm to us or them?
Citi told us the first trial payment would be in 2 months. So we should just pay the normal payments for 2 months and then the following month pay the trial payment we asked? Citi told us, no payments until the first trial payment. Again, why would we think our mortgage company would advise us to do something that would harm us? Wow – were we blind.
We made about 9 TRIAL payments!!
May of 2010 we were denied HAMP. BUT, we were told that was good news, we were actually back to Citi for a traditional modification. Again, no other options were mentioned or discussed with us. This is is what we wanted we were told.
The next month we get a letter to call and make arrangements before foreclosure would start. Of course I called hysterical and was told as long as I was making monthly payments and in the modification process, Citi would not foreclose (haha). That is just a letter the computer sent out. We were not being foreclosed on. Same thing in May, June, and July, received letter, made phone call, we are still being considered for modification and we are not being foreclosed on.
August 2010, Citi mysteriously loses my automatic monthly payment information, does not take my August payment and files foreclosure. What? But we are in the modification process? Now remember, this according to Citi and law, we are now 90 days passed due because we were instructed to not pay for 2 months which puts us automatically 60 days passed due. Now of course, we see what their true intentions are.
We get served papers and file an answer. 2 weeks later we get offered a modification, my attorney calls their litigation department, and their local attorney (calls were not returned). Modification offer gets closed. (WHAT!)
Another court date is scheduled for foreclosure. I finally got the contact in the ERU dept. Executive Response Unit at Citi and they rush and we get approved for another modification (But worse terms, only lowers interest .6% instead of 2% like previous offer (all income and bills were the same) we sign offer to get foreclosure case dismissed. (Not even going to mention the fees, interest, delinquency charges that were added to the principle of our loan)
After 4 months of on time payments with the perm. modification, we get a letter from Freddie Mac that they do not approve of the modification?! and a letter from Citi to call to workout arrangements instead of foreclose (short sale, etc)
So confused and no idea what is going to happen next. Just when you think everything is going to work out and you can breathe, it all comes crashing down again.
Oh, and the week they filed foreclosure I had talked to Citi four times because they called me for more documents for our modification and never once mentioned the status of our account!!!