The Consumer Warning Network has another stunning video that paints a picture of greed and corruption that explains why we are where we are today with the mortgage and credit crises.
Many borrowers took their complaints to legislators, regulators and Judges -without finding relief -or justice. Many fought incessantly, (and are still fighting) but ultimately, many lost their homes -even though they never missed a mortgage payment.
Borrowers watched others lose their homes as the media, continued to spin the story and point fingers for the debacle at the borrowers! Judges, Legislators and Regulators also turned a blind eye to their countless complaints.
Now look where we are -and then take a moment to look a little deeper to see why. The mortgage servicing industry is not regulated. In fact, the industry has built in financial incentives, designed to bring them greater profits by not working with the consumer -and affording them higher profits by charging late fees -fabricated or not.
(Read Professor Katherine Porter's Report and listen to her stunning interview on SpotLight and CNN in earlier blog).
Borrowers watched others lose their homes as the media, continued to spin the story and point fingers for the debacle at the borrowers! Judges, Legislators and Regulators also turned a blind eye to their countless complaints.
Now look where we are -and then take a moment to look a little deeper to see why. The mortgage servicing industry is not regulated. In fact, the industry has built in financial incentives, designed to bring them greater profits by not working with the consumer -and affording them higher profits by charging late fees -fabricated or not.
(Read Professor Katherine Porter's Report and listen to her stunning interview on SpotLight and CNN in earlier blog).
From the
Consumer Warning Network;
Former
financial giant Bear Stearns and its subsidiary loan servicer EMC have agreed
to pay $28 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges of unlawful loan
servicing.
The FTC
complaint charges Bear Stearns and EMC with unfair and deceptive loan servicing
practices. The companies are accused of misrepresenting the amounts borrowers
owed, charging unauthorized fees like late fees, property inspection fees, and
loan modification fees.
They are
also accused of engaging in unlawful and abusive collection practices. Hundreds
of borrowers have shared their stories of how they say EMC mishandled their
mortgages. Here are some of their
complaints;
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Since 2004 we have fought EMC, Encore and Bear Stearns. Brought this issue to the doorstep of every Local, State and Federal Agency. Late 2008 we finally lost our home through a technical issue not from false claims.
3/2009, we received a $400.00 dollar check from the FTC as part of EMC's settlement. We are not cashing this check because this belongs to a jury when we sue them once more.
My husband and I have gone through the same thing with Homecomings. Do we have a case? We agreed to a loan modification in February of 2008. We were charged all kinds of fees, $5000.00 up front, had to have our home inspected, all because we were late in our payments (due to them raising our interest rate.) Went from $2280. to $2800 per month! We had to borrow money from a family member so they would not foreclose. They returned my check because it was not for the full amount, and would only accept all of what we owed- or foreclose!
Our home was foreclosed on by EMC June of 2006. We tried to save our home by filing chapter 13 bankruptcy and was making our payments like we were suppose to when they raised our interest and it took our payment up almost 180 dollars a month and if that wasn't enough, were told it would go up up every 6 mos after that. Our attorney then imformed us that every time our interest went up that we would be charged a 200 fee to amend our bankruptcy payment. We couldn't afford to pay out that much with raising 3 kids, so we ended up having to file total bankruptcy and lose our home. And because we had already filed a chapter13 and paid our attorney, we had to turn around and pay our attorney their full fee to convert us to a chapter7. So not only did we lose our home, we were out almost 2,400 hundred dollars we didn't have to spare Something needs done about EMC and the way they do business and treat people. We had to deal with people working for them showing up at our door serving us papers and sticking them on our door in plain view for our neighbors to see (and read) when we were not home. That was very humiliating.
Kathy -Sorry to hear you lost your home due to such systemic wide practices that only serve to further harm our economy and struggling homeowners who continue to report their inability to obtain loan modifications that would help them stay in their homes -and in many cases avoid bankruptcy! Thanks for sharing...have you shared your complaints with the FTC? see: http://www.givemebackmycredit.com/blog/2009/07/complaints-against-emc-mortgag.html
These ongoing complaints from borrowers point out the need for stronger consumer protection regulations and oversight. Also see: http://www.givemebackmycredit.com/blog/2009/08/if-you-want-financial-reform-a-1.html
EMC HAS MADE MY LIFE AS HOME OWNER MISERABLE. CHARGING FEES FOR MODIFICATION, INSPECTION, AND ABUSE COLLECTIONS CALLS. OUTRAGEOUS LATE PAYMENT FEES WHILE THEY WERE WORKING ON MY MODIFICATION. MY MODIFICATION CASE IS STILL IN PROCESS SINCE JAN. 1ST 2009.
I started my modification with EMC 6/09 found out 4/10 that my modification was denied. The payments I have been making were set aside. They say that I am behind 17 payments and that I owe them $72,000.00 in order get my loan up to date and keep my home. When will someone figure out that EMC/Chase is a bad company???
EMC/Bear Stearns bought out our Attorney from OC after filing our case in Federal Court back in 2006. The Attorney relieved himself as our counsel even before our first court hearing. Our case was dismissed and we lost our home. This event changed our lives forever.
We started by bringing our complaint public:
http://www.avenue-s.us/change.gov.htm
Transformed our heart wrenching loss into an empowering experience for others:
http://www.avenue-s.us/services.html
Achieving these results we wished for ourselves:
http://www.avenue-s.us/results.pdf
Attorneys in Texas suck! I am about to loose my home because the Attorneys in Houston are either afraid to litigate or don't know how to litigate.
I HAVE A CASE BUT CAN'T GET ANYONE TO LOOK AT IT. BUT THEY HAVE NO PROBLEMS HELPING ME TO FILE A CHAPTER 13