Suits: Banks Didn’t Keep Loan Promise
Families in Mass. say BofA, Wells Fargo not helping enough with mortgages
Palm Coast, FL – February 26, 2010
By Stella M. Hopkins – Charlotte Observer.com
More frustrated homeowners turned to federal court this week for help with their mortgages, saying Bank of America and Wells Fargo failed to provide promised payment modifications.
The two cases, filed Tuesday in Massachusetts, seek class action status.
Three specific families are identified, one with a loan serviced by Bank of America and two by Wells Fargo – the nation’s two largest mortgage servicers. They were granted trial modifications, according to court documents, but haven’t received long-term modifications despite having submitted all required documents and made timely payments for more than three months.
The claims are simple, the two filings say: "When a large financial institution promises to modify an eligible loan to prevent foreclosure, homeowners who live up to their end of the bargain expect that promise to be kept."
The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is the main federal plan for reducing mortgage payments, part of a $75 billion plan to stem the national foreclosure crisis. HAMP calls for a three-month trial period, intended to give time for the homeowner to demonstrate an ability to keep up with the lower payments. However, there are growing reports of homeowners in trial plans ultimately being rejected for modifications despite making their trial payments or even being foreclosed on during the process.
Toby’s Commentary: I’ve heard from so many readers that banks, especially the large banks, are doing a terrible job communicating with their mortgage holders. A common complaint is that the banks keep changing personel, requiring the borrower to start the process over again.
Old trick
I have a great credit score now, but years ago my wife and I were in an accident and couldn’t work for almost 3 months. It didn’t take long to get behind in our bills. We would, have a series of conversations with the bill collectors. And finally make a plan to catch up our payments. A few payments on the bills we would find the companies weren’t keeping their end of the bargain. We would call and they couldn’t find who made the bargain with us and would want us to start negotiations with someone else. It is an old trick to pretend they are negotiating with you in good faith, to keep you on the hook trying to squeeze the most out you. We finally gave up, filled bankruptcy, best thing we could have done, was just sorry we wasted so much time trying to play fair.
loan mods
There are so many different departments with conflicting letters come from all of them and all from different addresses in different states.
I have one customer that called me yesterday that was told by the person on the phone "BOA doesn’t do loan modifications" He called me to list as a short sale. Primary home, hardship, and wanting to stay… I told him, no, we’re going to call again and go through the process before I list you up.
You can’t tell me that person was new and didn’t know. They either have their own agenda (which is quite possible) or they were instructed to tell people that.
Banks Didn’t Keep Loan Promise
Bank of America has been one of the worst
Banks to work with in regard to Short Sales. They have every excuse in the book for not handling Short Sale Contracts in a timely matter. The Bank
seems to have its own rules and regulations despite Government efforts
to streamline the system. There is a total lack of customer service and the
customer is the one who suffers the most.
banks not writing mortgages
Once the banks stopped asking for prior years tax returns, and proof of income, many people lied. They also used their houses as ATM machines to pay off credit card debt and car loans. Now that housing values have plummeted, and people have to show proof of income like it was always done they can’t qualify. I’ve had 4 mortgages and each one asked for peoof of income.