Bank of America - Modification Paperwork, What Paperwork?

RNollie

New Member
Jurisdiction
Nevada
I am stepping in to this matter to assist a relative who has some functional limitations on her ability to manage some daily living activities because of a condition brought about by a near fatal overdose in a hospital. Money from the malpractice settlement was used for the down payment on the home. She was, however, convinced at some point to refinance her loan into some terrible deal with a much higher rate than she should have had by a predatory lender. She tried to sell her home, but this was shortly before the housing market plummeted and her home had lost most of its value.

She spent the next few years in near foreclosure hell trying to modify the loan. It seemed that every few days she had a new lender or representative handling her case. I lived in another state and was unable to fly out to her rescue at the time. I tried to talk her through the process and depended on her teenage children to assist in making copies or sending faxes and overnighting documents. My sister has files and boxes of documents, including fax cover sheets, certificates of mailing, and Fed Ex receipts showing the multitude of documents she submitted. Many of the documents were submitted multiple times only for her to be told repeatedly that they were never received or they were received too late. Her file was closed time and again. She had to have her case reopened and restarted. Her children lived in fear that they were going to lose their home much of their teen years. Through all of that she also was battling with her ex for custody of the kids, which greatly impacted the children and her health. Her youngest daughter found the auction notice on the door of the house even though my sister was still making payments on her home. The bank admitted it was an error. That didn't stop her ex from using it in the custody case though.

The home was finally successfully refinanced under HAMP or HARP, I am not clear on these programs (I just arrived a couple of weeks ago to attempt to help in several matters). A portion of the principle was written down. But, the interest rate is higher than was agreed to by around 2% and the write down amount is less, which makes her monthly payment several hundred dollars higher than it was supposed to be (I need to find the original documents in the boxes of papers). The reason for this is that my sister had to make the first several payments (I believe 3) on time, which she did. She physically delivered them to Bank of America. But, the branch did not post the third payment the day it was delivered, it was held from Friday until Monday. There was a line and it was near closing. So they offered to take anyone's checks and deposit them and mail receipts rather than require everyone to wait in line. She never received her receipt. She should have known better than to trust Bank of America. By them claiming she missed her third payment deadline they were apparently allowed to raise her rate and keep her principle higher than they had promised.

I love to study law, and am even seriously considering going back to school now that my own child is on her way to med school. But, I would gladly turn this over to an attorney since I do not know the first thing about mortgage law, and this is a convoluted mess.
 
I am stepping in to this matter to assist a relative who has some functional limitations on her ability to manage some daily living activities because of a condition brought about by a near fatal overdose in a hospital. Money from the malpractice settlement was used for the down payment on the home. She was, however, convinced at some point to refinance her loan into some terrible deal with a much higher rate than she should have had by a predatory lender. She tried to sell her home, but this was shortly before the housing market plummeted and her home had lost most of its value.

She spent the next few years in near foreclosure hell trying to modify the loan. It seemed that every few days she had a new lender or representative handling her case. I lived in another state and was unable to fly out to her rescue at the time. I tried to talk her through the process and depended on her teenage children to assist in making copies or sending faxes and overnighting documents. My sister has files and boxes of documents, including fax cover sheets, certificates of mailing, and Fed Ex receipts showing the multitude of documents she submitted. Many of the documents were submitted multiple times only for her to be told repeatedly that they were never received or they were received too late. Her file was closed time and again. She had to have her case reopened and restarted. Her children lived in fear that they were going to lose their home much of their teen years. Through all of that she also was battling with her ex for custody of the kids, which greatly impacted the children and her health. Her youngest daughter found the auction notice on the door of the house even though my sister was still making payments on her home. The bank admitted it was an error. That didn't stop her ex from using it in the custody case though.

The home was finally successfully refinanced under HAMP or HARP, I am not clear on these programs (I just arrived a couple of weeks ago to attempt to help in several matters). A portion of the principle was written down. But, the interest rate is higher than was agreed to by around 2% and the write down amount is less, which makes her monthly payment several hundred dollars higher than it was supposed to be (I need to find the original documents in the boxes of papers). The reason for this is that my sister had to make the first several payments (I believe 3) on time, which she did. She physically delivered them to Bank of America. But, the branch did not post the third payment the day it was delivered, it was held from Friday until Monday. There was a line and it was near closing. So they offered to take anyone's checks and deposit them and mail receipts rather than require everyone to wait in line. She never received her receipt. She should have known better than to trust Bank of America. By them claiming she missed her third payment deadline they were apparently allowed to raise her rate and keep her principle higher than they had promised.

I love to study law, and am even seriously considering going back to school now that my own child is on her way to med school. But, I would gladly turn this over to an attorney since I do not know the first thing about mortgage law, and this is a convoluted mess.


If your relative hasn't been declared mentally incompetent, there's PROBABLY little that can be done legally because she made a bad bargain.

Again, if she chose to allow the bank to take her payment and offer to deposit "sometime in the future", the law won't protect her careless choice.

That said, you remain free to speak to any Nevada licensed lawyer.

There are many good lawyers in your county.
I suggest you discuss the matter with any of them licensed to practice law in Nevada.
We do offer a lawyer referral service, here's the link, if you're curious:

Find a Lawyer in the Attorney Directory | TheLaw.com




Lawyers answer questions, but none solicit clients via this part of the forum, myself included.
 
Lots of unnecessary details but the long and short seems to be that the payment was due on Friday and she waited until the very end of the business day to drop off her deposit which could not be processed until Monday. That is typical. Every bank has a cut off time, after which any transactions will not post until the next business day. Her inexplicable failure to get a receipt or speak with the manager when it was a time sensitive issue has come back to haunt her. I really don't see any recourse and it isn't the fault of the bank. This same issue would have happened at closing time of any bank.
 
That's pretty much how I feel. As the bank is not responsible for understanding her individual circumstances, it is her fault. SHe should have allowed someone to handle the matter on her behalf much sooner, which would have avoided many of the problems.
 
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