Unlawful Foreclosure

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AMcVey

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We recently fell behind on our mortgage loan payments. Foreclosure proceedings were started in December 2007. At that time we owed payments for August 2007 to current. I wrote a personal check for the August 2007 payment on December 28, 2007 and I was planning on sending the remaining payments due in the next couple of days or so when the additional money became available. I then wrote another personal check on January 1, 2008. This would have been the September, October, November and December 2007 payments plus late fees. At that point we would have been current and only owed any legal fees from the started foreclosure proceedings plus the January 2008 payment, which was in a grace period until January 16, 2008.

I called the lending company customer service on January 2, 2008 to let customer service know that I had made two personal check payments and that the foreclosure proceedings should stop as we have an interest to stay in the property and the payments have been sent. I was told on the phone that the personal checks would not be able to be accepted and they needed either a Western Union instant transfer, or a cashier's check. I told her that both of these checks had already been mailed. She was adamant that these two personal checks would be returned to me and that I was required to remit the total payment of $6,000.00+ (the two personal checks above combined into one) by Western Union the same day or in the form of a cashier's check. I told her that I could only do this if the personal check payments already sent in would be sent back to me as to get a cashier's check would withdraw the money and would cause the checks to bounce since I was taking that same money out to send in a different form. She assured me the personal checks would be sent back to me.

She also stopped the foreclosure and put us on a payment plan for the remainder of the year to cover the regular mortgage payment plus any legal fees up to that point. She said the next payment would be due no later than February 16, 2008. I obtained a cashier's check in the amount of the two personal check payments the same day. This was received by the lender on January 4, 2008.

I was able to pluck the second personal check out of the mail since it was sent January 1, 2008 and the mail did not run that day. However, I was now awaiting the return of my first personal check sent December 28, 2008.

On January 8, 2008 I checked my online banking statement. I saw that the personal check was attempted to be cashed at my bank by the lender on January 4, 2008. That customer service rep that I spoke to on January 2, 2008 ASSURED ME that the personal check would be sent back to me and could not be processed. I was very clear that the $6,065.00 cashier's check I was about to send INCLUDED the amounts from the personal checks. Either she lied to me on the telephone or the payment processor did not do their job. This lender error cost me $25 bounced check fee at my bank.

I immediately called the lender's customer service back on the morning of January 8, 2008. He told me that he did show that the rep I spoke with on the 2nd did indeed tell me that the personal checks would not be processed but that there had been an error of some sort and at this point there was no way to stop the check from continuing to attempt to be cashed. He said the lender would automatically attempt to cash the check a total of three times. That would be another $50 in bounced check fees for something that was not my fault! He told me the best solution would be to place a stop payment on the check to assure it did not continue to bounce. He also acknowledged that the cashier's check for $6,065.00 had been received.

Out of the blue almost a month later on February 4, 2008 we received additional foreclosure paperwork from the courts in the mail plus a separate mailing with a check from the lender, dated January 30, 2008, in the amount of $2,859.56. I immediately called customer service once again. She said that the payment plan had been deleted and that we were again in active foreclosure because of the stop payment that was placed on the personal check after I was advised by the lender to do! She was able to verify everything I told her from system notations and acknowledged there had clearly been more errors on the lender's part. She attempted to contact the processor for our foreclosure. She was out of the office that day so she sent her an email explaining the situation as well as attempted to contact someone else in that department for some help with no success. She said someone would call me within 2 business days and two days later I heard nothing from the lender.

I called back again February 6, 2008. She said that she sees everything I am speaking of but that the processor still has not responded to the inquiry and she sent another email to the processor. She also attempted to reach someone in that department with no success. She gave me the number to that actual department and told me to try myself again later.

No responses so I called again today, February 11, and I was told that the processor isn't responding because she only processes the foreclosure and cannot fix the errors.

While I acknowledge that we got ourselves into this original mess by falling behind on our payments we have also done everything that we were advised to do by lender to get out of the foreclosure and someone over there has us in the mess we are now. We should not be in active foreclosure as we made the payments required over a month ago and I don't want to be held responsible for legal fees (over $8,000 they have claimed we owe in legal fees at this point for just filing) and I was told that they are still piling in the foreclosure legal fees as of today & counting.

What in the world can we do at this point? We have poured all of our remaining resources into sending them the payments to get caught up, we don't have money to consult and hire an attorney.
 
Legal fees seem very high. I would contact the agency in your state that regulates mortgage lending, usually the Dept. of Banking or Consumer Protection Dept. I would also contact the Consumer Division of the Offfice of the State Attorney General. Good luck
 
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