
Mary of Urbandale, IA on Dec. 8, 2010
We bought our home in April 2003 and since then the mortgage has been transferred or sold to other agencies multiple times, sometimes having paid the payment to one company and then being told we were late because the new company that we didn't even know had never got the payment. Eventually ending up with US Bank.
I was working in mortgage at the time and had a very good income, we were updating the home with new windows and had a major structural issue arise with the home during this process. The seller had never disclosed a termite infestation with the home and the pest control company lied on the inspection reports stating there had been no activity since 1988. The damage was so great that we had to take a second mortgage out to make the home livable and not have it condemned by the city. The costs kept mounting to repair the home and bring it back to a state that we could live there safely and still have it be worth something.
In March 2005, just after our only child was born, we ran into serious problems. Our child was born with some medical problems and during my maternity leave, my job was eliminated. I got to go back to work at half the salary I had before my leave and was placed in a position that was slated to also be eliminated in less than a year. We still had some repairs left to be done on the home and we ended up having to refinance the 2nd mortgage we had through our credit union to complete the repairs to the home. We were solicited by Ditech.com. They had us do the entire refinance over the phone. My husband and I never saw any of the paperwork the loan processor had and never knew what they actually put down for our qualification information.
During the refinance process, my job was again eliminated and I found a new position in an entirely new field at even less than I was making previously. I was so thankful to be employed, I didn't really care if it was less. I told the LO this and he asked a bunch of questions about what I did in mortgage before and what I was doing in the insurance field now. I answered them and he said "Well, we'll adjust your title from mortgage to the same thing you are doing now. Otherwise, you won't qualify for the loan." I let him know it was a lie and he said not to worry about it, he would make it work. After several calls back and forth, I finally got a call from him in June 2005 and he said we were ready to close and gave me the stats on the loan.
I let him know that it was not at all what we spoke about and wanted to know why it had changed. He said we had to refinance at 125% or we would not qualify because of our DTI and my new job. I said then we don't want the loan. He argued with me for quite some time and then had his supervisor call me back. This man was of course much more tactful in reasoning out why I should convince my husband this was a good thing to do and how much it would benefit our child. Call it what you will, but when they started bringing my sick child into this, I caved and we signed for the loan.
The next 3 years were a terrible struggle for us. I lost several more jobs due to having to miss time to care for our child and there were very few jobs I qualified for and at this point, it looked to employers that I was job hopping, and when I said no and there was an explanation for it, they would not hire me as soon as they found out I had an ill child and would need more time off occasionally. During this time we used our savings and had been helped by our relatives to keep the bills paid. We began cutting out anything we didn't need and managed along until June 2008.
I was let go from yet another job and this time could not find one at all. By now the market had turned and we had used every last penny we had in savings. We fell behind on both mortgages and car payments. We called everyone and let them know what we were going through and asked for help in keeping our home. By October of 2008, Ditech came up with a mortgage modification and said if we paid them a certain amount for the next 3 months solid then we would pay that amount from that time forward. They said we would have to call the payment in and I could only speak to 1 person, Martin **, and they gave me the phone number for him. I gave them the payment for 10/2008 that day and tried to call Mr. ** weekly from there on out to make sure everything was okay.
We had never gotten any documentation from them and had not heard from them at all since we agreed to this. Each and every time I would call, I got a message that the mailbox I had reached was full and to try again later. I called the customer service line and they took the payments but said they weren't really supposed to since I had to deal with the foreclosure department only. This was the first time I had ever heard anyone say that. I told them who I was dealing with and they said they didn't know who he was or how to reach him but they still accepted my payments. I made each one from 10/2008 to 12/2008 without fail and kept trying to reach Mr. **. I never heard back from them from that time since. To this day we have had no contact with them at all.
US Bank took very little action to this with the exception of incessant calling and harassment by phone from their bankruptcy department. I have been subjected to swearing at me from their representatives, calling me names, calling me up to 32 times in 1 day, their representative telling me I should not feed my child so much because he knows "nothing but ** live in Iowa anyway" and "if he had such bad medical problems, I probably shouldn't be trying to stuff food in him he doesn't need." I was then told I should instead take the food money and pay them the money. The list goes on, I quit answering my phone at all and ended up having to change my phone number so they can't keep doing this to me.
We had to file bankruptcy in May 2009 and included US Bank and Ditech.com. The judge advised us on the day of the hearing that Ditech.com had never responded to the petition and when contacted by our attorney, Ditech.com advised they had no record of us being customers with them. US Bank had responded and advised we would not be allowed to keep the home because they were going to seek foreclosure. The judge advised we should seek a loan modification if we wanted to keep it. In July 2009, I secured a new job and have been steadily employed there and I love it, it's less money than my mortgage position but more than my last insurance job I had. I am lucky to have a position at all, and I love what I do.
We began the process of trying to get a loan modification, we contacted Iowa Loan Help line and got an initial meeting and then never heard from them again, I called for several months and got no call back. I went to the office and was told I needed an appointment to speak to anyone that I couldn't just show up. The person took my information down and said I would be called back, to date I have never heard back from anyone.
We found 2 other companies that seemed to be willing to work with us and help us with the loan modification and each of them took large sums of money and then disappeared as well. I had to close my bank account of 11 years while trying to save our home because of the companies trying to take money out of our account but not doing any work on our case. My husband took a loan out on his 401K account to help us get by and secure a new place to live. We had no choice in this because in January 2010 locks were put on our home and we don't know by whom.
We contacted a local company to see if a short sale was possible and they took all our information and advised they would start making contacts at US Bank, but because there was no record of Ditech.com, they could only work with US Bank. We have been fighting this for over a year, we have learned that US Bank will not respond to the short sale company at all. The company has lost 3 offers on the house because they refuse to return calls, respond to letters or emails. But yet until Oct. 2010 when I was forced to change my phone number, they were still calling me up to 32 times a day.
We have never been served with foreclosure papers by anyone, but we have received a letter from an attorney for US Bank. He claims to not know where we live but yet was somehow able to send us this letter of intent to foreclose. I have called him to see if he can intervene and ask his client to call the short sale company back. I've also let him know there have been 3 lost deals on the home because of his client's refusal to listen to reason. His only comment was "Why should my client take money from anyone other than you, it's your debt not someone else." While this may be true, the debt was discharged in a bankruptcy court and it would be no different if we were selling the home ourselves. But because we don't have a clear title on it, we can't sell it at all. The only way is a short sale, but they will not hear any reason at all.
We don't want to keep the home, we just want to be done with this. My husband has attempted suicide over this, we have had to enter family counseling because my son witnessed it. We lost our home, had to face the humiliation of bankruptcy and job losses. But we are still here, still trying to do whatever we can to pay the bills we have and make a stable life for our family. Having been turned away from every avenue of help and had every door shut in front of us, we have no desire to keep this home at all. I have to explain to my son quite often why he no longer has a yard to play in and have to dry tears that a parent should never have to dry.
I do it the best way I know how and I don't teach him malice or hate towards anyone for it. I teach him we screwed up and now have to pay for it. But he should not have to see his mommy cry every time I took a call from these people that broke every law possible and want nothing more than to break our spirit. Several people having to deal with US Bank have said this is like they are seeking a vendetta against us, it's no longer business it's become personal and I don't understand why.
What we are seeking is an answer, nothing more. We just want them to not be able to report this to our credit in any way. All we want is for both US Bank and Ditech to have to remove any negative reporting and simply state "settled" with the date of the bankruptcy discharge. Nothing more, nothing less. So simply put, how do we get that done and maybe help others to avoid ever having to be treated like this.