Florida homeowners Sara and Moshe have been working tirelessly trying get someone at Bank of America to respond to their many requests for BofA to correct their bank accounting errors. All promises made by BofA representatives to correct inaccuracies, to date, have been broken. Sadly, Sara and Moshe are just one of countless families across the country who continue to report that big banks seem to be giving borrowers big runarounds when it comes to finding help on mortgage servicing issues.
In Florida the news is the same. Hundreds if not thousands of aggravated Florida homeowners filed complaints with Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum against Bank of America for stalled home mortgage loan modifications.
Below, Sara and Moshe share their ongoing frustrations over Bank of America's inability to properly account for their monthly mortgage payments -payments that were made timely AND at a Bank of America branch, but continue to be reported to the credit bureaus as late and even prompted a letter indicating their loan was now on an accelerated track for foreclosure.
As they continue to fight to protect their rights and force Bank of America to properly account for their loan payments, correct their inaccurate credit reporting they share their story here;
Bank of America has reared its ugly head and is making our lives miserable!
By Sara Yoel & Moshe Rozenblum
Bank of America is not only going after legitimate foreclosures, but they are now targeting innocent homeowners. We should know because we are one of them.
Let me tell you how bad BOA is and to what extent they are willing to go to increase their bottom line profits.
Our mortgage was obtained through "Countrywide" back in 2005 and BOA took over Countrywide earlier this year. After learning of President Obama's program to help homeowners modify their loans, we dared only ASK them back in March 2009 about a modification of our mortgage based on economic change and hardship. Nevertheless, we continued to make our payments every month and on time. We never missed a payment not one. However, all hell broke loose anyway. It appears that instead of helping us homeowners with the billions of stimulus money they received, they decided it would be more beneficial for them to ignore our request for possible loan modification and proceed to harass us.
First they claimed in March that they did not receive our payment, which was not true, because upon learning of their claim that they never receive a payment I made a second payment over the phone, and put a stop payment on the earlier payment. Oops! They suddenly found that missing payment and applied that too, along with late fees too. After months of arguing with them over this, they finally removed the misapplied fees.
On our July/09 monthly statement they showed that we owed them one month payment, we did not, because after they claimed they had not received our last month's check, as of June/09 we started making payments in person at their own bank and we have their receipt to prove it. Again, I was forced to make more calls and pleas for their help in correcting their erroneous accounting.
In August we all of a sudden received a "Notice to accelerate" our mortgage, which means they are going to proceed with foreclosure. Remember, we have NOT been late and do not owe them any past due monies -ever -we are up to date.
Feeling drained, emotionally beaten and fearful that our home was being stolen out from under us, we immediately went to consult an Attorney who made a call to them and lo and behold, they said it is all a mistake and they will correct it. Yes, they corrected it, but we would learn that would be just briefly.
Later on, after making our September payment, two weeks later we received a second "Notice to accelerate" for a different amount owed.
Through the months of March through August none of our letters (Certified!), faxes, emails and phone calls were ever returned. We sent a second letter (priority mail) from another Attorney in September/09 requesting an answer and correction, but they never bothered to respond.
The nightmare for us (the fun for them) was just getting started. Mid October we noticed again that our payments were not applied to our account, and have continued until the present (now December 2009). As of this month, they are showing that we owe them in access of $ 8,000 which is three months of mortgage payments; we do not owe a penny! We have made every payment we owe, and on time.
But the worst was yet to come.
They reported these erroneous late payments to all three credit reporting agencies and succeeded in destroying our excellent credit (in the high 700's score).
As a consequence, we have already been denied credit and or have had our credit cut off, due to the negative (erroneous) reporting in our credit file with the credit reporting agencies. You also think that filing a dispute with the credit reporting agencies might help while you can prove your innocence, No way! Absolutely wrong! We tried and still are trying. They refuse to help consumers. It is a joke to think that they will practice due process, or help us in correcting inaccurate information that harms our credit rating. It doesn't matter to them. They will continue to sell and disseminate this harmful and inaccurate credit file, whether it harms us or not because they profit from selling it.
We complained to every government agency possible: OCC of the Treasury Department that handles N.A. Banks, the Florida State Attorney General, the FTC, but none has come through yet with any help.
Bank of America has a duty to handle my mortgage properly, but they are not. We believe Bank of America is outright harassing us, intimidating us and trying to steal our home. Bank of America you can't steal our home, not without us fighting to do all we can to stop you from doing this to us and other innocent homeowners!
Just a reminder, they never even bothered to contact us or respond in any shape or form regarding the request for a loan modification. They are probably having a good laugh at our expense, but we hope that just maybe we will be the ones who will laugh last.
Sara Yoel & Moshe Rozenblum
See a couple earlier blogs concerning former BofA employee complaints; Why Bank of America fired me! and Former Bank of America Branch Manager Joins Revolt.
Here are a few links to some earlier consumer complaints on mortgage servicing
If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone Jessica's story
Loan modification runarounds McCloskey and Cheverez story
Think your home is safe? Think again! Jack's story
In Florida the news is the same. Hundreds if not thousands of aggravated Florida homeowners filed complaints with Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum against Bank of America for stalled home mortgage loan modifications.
Below, Sara and Moshe share their ongoing frustrations over Bank of America's inability to properly account for their monthly mortgage payments -payments that were made timely AND at a Bank of America branch, but continue to be reported to the credit bureaus as late and even prompted a letter indicating their loan was now on an accelerated track for foreclosure.
As they continue to fight to protect their rights and force Bank of America to properly account for their loan payments, correct their inaccurate credit reporting they share their story here;
Bank of America has reared its ugly head and is making our lives miserable!
By Sara Yoel & Moshe Rozenblum
Bank of America is not only going after legitimate foreclosures, but they are now targeting innocent homeowners. We should know because we are one of them.
Let me tell you how bad BOA is and to what extent they are willing to go to increase their bottom line profits.
Our mortgage was obtained through "Countrywide" back in 2005 and BOA took over Countrywide earlier this year. After learning of President Obama's program to help homeowners modify their loans, we dared only ASK them back in March 2009 about a modification of our mortgage based on economic change and hardship. Nevertheless, we continued to make our payments every month and on time. We never missed a payment not one. However, all hell broke loose anyway. It appears that instead of helping us homeowners with the billions of stimulus money they received, they decided it would be more beneficial for them to ignore our request for possible loan modification and proceed to harass us.
First they claimed in March that they did not receive our payment, which was not true, because upon learning of their claim that they never receive a payment I made a second payment over the phone, and put a stop payment on the earlier payment. Oops! They suddenly found that missing payment and applied that too, along with late fees too. After months of arguing with them over this, they finally removed the misapplied fees.
On our July/09 monthly statement they showed that we owed them one month payment, we did not, because after they claimed they had not received our last month's check, as of June/09 we started making payments in person at their own bank and we have their receipt to prove it. Again, I was forced to make more calls and pleas for their help in correcting their erroneous accounting.
In August we all of a sudden received a "Notice to accelerate" our mortgage, which means they are going to proceed with foreclosure. Remember, we have NOT been late and do not owe them any past due monies -ever -we are up to date.
Feeling drained, emotionally beaten and fearful that our home was being stolen out from under us, we immediately went to consult an Attorney who made a call to them and lo and behold, they said it is all a mistake and they will correct it. Yes, they corrected it, but we would learn that would be just briefly.
Later on, after making our September payment, two weeks later we received a second "Notice to accelerate" for a different amount owed.
Through the months of March through August none of our letters (Certified!), faxes, emails and phone calls were ever returned. We sent a second letter (priority mail) from another Attorney in September/09 requesting an answer and correction, but they never bothered to respond.
The nightmare for us (the fun for them) was just getting started. Mid October we noticed again that our payments were not applied to our account, and have continued until the present (now December 2009). As of this month, they are showing that we owe them in access of $ 8,000 which is three months of mortgage payments; we do not owe a penny! We have made every payment we owe, and on time.
But the worst was yet to come.
They reported these erroneous late payments to all three credit reporting agencies and succeeded in destroying our excellent credit (in the high 700's score).
As a consequence, we have already been denied credit and or have had our credit cut off, due to the negative (erroneous) reporting in our credit file with the credit reporting agencies. You also think that filing a dispute with the credit reporting agencies might help while you can prove your innocence, No way! Absolutely wrong! We tried and still are trying. They refuse to help consumers. It is a joke to think that they will practice due process, or help us in correcting inaccurate information that harms our credit rating. It doesn't matter to them. They will continue to sell and disseminate this harmful and inaccurate credit file, whether it harms us or not because they profit from selling it.
We complained to every government agency possible: OCC of the Treasury Department that handles N.A. Banks, the Florida State Attorney General, the FTC, but none has come through yet with any help.
Bank of America has a duty to handle my mortgage properly, but they are not. We believe Bank of America is outright harassing us, intimidating us and trying to steal our home. Bank of America you can't steal our home, not without us fighting to do all we can to stop you from doing this to us and other innocent homeowners!
Just a reminder, they never even bothered to contact us or respond in any shape or form regarding the request for a loan modification. They are probably having a good laugh at our expense, but we hope that just maybe we will be the ones who will laugh last.
Sara Yoel & Moshe Rozenblum
See a couple earlier blogs concerning former BofA employee complaints; Why Bank of America fired me! and Former Bank of America Branch Manager Joins Revolt.
Here are a few links to some earlier consumer complaints on mortgage servicing
Homeowner to Mortgage Servicing Company: "Step Up and Do the Right Thing!" Sue's story
Mortgage Servicing Complaints Rise; Tammy's Story
Don't Skip Mortgage Payments Mari's story
Why we need financial reforms The Parton's StoryIf this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone Jessica's story
Loan modification runarounds McCloskey and Cheverez story
Think your home is safe? Think again! Jack's story
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Bankruptcy is your last option you need to bring the Banks to meet their maker of their own demise.You have nothing to lose but when you file chapter 7,11 or what ever make your first lender secured debt and your lender you now pay unsecured debt.Example if your loan started with countrywide and now its a Bank of America loan you would have countrywide as a secured lender and Bank of America as unsecured credit.This turns the tables on Bank of America because Bank of America does not own the loan in most cases and is just a servicer on the loan but if you get a foreclosure they in most cases have it as they are the owner of the mortgage and they in most cases are not the owner.
In the court of law you have the right to ask for the orginal wet ink mortgage note not not a copy.The FBI has arrested so many mortgage brokers that have forged multiple mortgage notes and sold the same notes and mortgages to Bank of America 3 and 4 times.Even if they show up with the original wet ink note it is only valid if the note followed the mortgage?If the mortgage has been securitized it has a mims # and you can look this up with the SEC They will have a record every time this traded and each company or trust should have a record of an IRS tax each time it traded.If the mortgage has been divided up into many different parts remember the wet ink note is only valid if the mortgage traveled and was transfered with the note.
So the note can't be vaild if the mortgage was sold to 15 different companies or trusts etc.The Banks paid the lobbyist millions not to have Federal Judges to modify loans so now like the old saying be careful what you wish for.You have nothing to lose the law is the law if you file a BK and your loan is with countrywide and Wells Fargo has the original wet Ink Note that is a Cashable Instrument and they could come after you after the BK if you did not list them in the BK its your right to know who you own the debt to and if you do this its only to your best interest you have nothing to lose.
Good Luck Anthony Amatrudi
Response to Anthony Amatrudi,
Thank you for your input and lengthy explanation. I would love to be able to hear you explain the above in simplier terms because I missed some of the more technical espects of it. If you email me at: sydance@bellsouth.net, I would like to talk to you.
Thank you
SY
Sarah,
Just as Anthony stated - bankruptcy is your last option. These servicers and lenders do NOT want the general consumer to fight back. It scares them. MAKE THEM PRODUCE THE NOTE. THE ORIGINAL BLUE INKED WET SIGNATURE NOTE. Just requesting that at the right time, will stall everything. Then hit them with another demand letter for 'proper and correct and detailed' accounting of your loan(s). They only have so many days to respond to your demand letters.
I am one of the victims of EMC and Ms. Richardson has posted my story also. Along with other websites.
Servicers, banks, lenders, etc. are not required to modify any loans. They are optional, not mandatory.
I will email you with my contact info.
Don't give up. But mainly, keep complaining, even if you get an answer and you don't like what was told to you. Complain to that agency again. I complained to the White House nearly every day for almost 5 weeks. I finally got a response. Not a great one, but it was a response. So I keep complaining.
Sara Yoel & Moshe Rozenblum-
Okay, I have been where you are. I mean exactly. I had a mortgage with Countrywide. They too lost our payments and then sold our loan. We ended up fighting with for 2 years and 3 months. Everytime we would think we had proven our case and gotten things straightened out, the mortgage company that owned our loan would sell our loan to a new company and the fight would start all over. Each of these companies added thousands of dollars to our loan along the way as "Mortgage Advance Fees" and legal fees. We had our State Attorney General's office fighting for us, and we also hired a lawyer that ended up costing us $5000. Finally we ended up getting things starightened out, just this past October 2009 in fact. The stress and money is almost overwhelming. Sadly, you will need to fight to the very end. Go to court, fight, fight, fight. Do not give up. A couple times, we thought it was over, only for a new company to buy the loan and then say the old company had not forwarded any of the pertinent papers, monies, etc. A couple times I thought I was going to have a heartattack from the stress when we would work everything out and then, opps they would sell again. It was a big scam. I suggest a YouTube video, name names of all the companies involved. Go to every media site you can (Try Huffingtn Post) and post comments and the link to the video on those comments. Send BofA a link to the video, and the media accounts (like the one here). They will only work this out if they are pressured- heavily. Fight long and hard, you can win this one, I am an example of someone that had this same exact problem and won, but it is unbelievably hard. It is unfair, but if you truly want to keep your home, you need to challenge them on every front. This is war, pull out all the stops!
Hello Tammy,
I read your response, thank you. This is outright criminal, and they are getting away with it!!!!
I did send email to the WH, also complained to the FL State Atty. general and they are just ignoring it, period. Mr. McCullumm prefers the company of BOA than protecting Florida homowners.
We can't keep spending money to protect our innocence! They are pushing people to the edge and one day it will blow up in their face, maybe then they will finally wake up.
Any advice and help like yours is still welcome.
Sara.
Hi Sue,
Thanks for your comment and input.
I don't think we are planning to drag this years at end, for us it must end sooner, it had already effected my health. If you read my other responses and comment, I complained to every news outlet, Fl State Atty General and WH, and they are busy playing golf, they just don't care.
I hope we can fight them to the end. Thank you.
Sara
As I feel bad that all these stories are heartbreaking, lets remember that these are promisary notes, the bond holders havelegally binding contract, and the mortgage holder as well. The homeowner invested into the home, thought they were building equity, creating a nice nest egg, and either they lose there job, or worse lose the home b/c they couldnt afford the payment. The try the shoe on the other foot. what If you were an investor who holds mortgages and you have a contract stating that you will get x return for x years as per contract. then the Government comes in and breaks that contract Same thing.
You must be reading Sara's story wrong. These homeowners, much like many other stories I shed light on here, are of homeowners who were not behind in payments, in fact, NEVER even late... The problems brought about were caused by either accounting errors or worse --fraud. Innocent families are losing homes when they never missed a payment...
Sara & Moshe reply to MHUNT,
As Denise Richardson pointed out to you, you got it all wrong. We did not gamble with any subprime loans and creative financing. As a matter of fact, we put our own cash down close to $ 200K which now is all gone, so on top of it, BOA wants to take the rest of our life savings.....OUR HOME!
So please MHUNT, don't feel sorry for the Loan Sharks and the big corp. who do their own creative stealing and fraud i.e: stealing inoccent people's homes. Is this the same thing as you mentioned?
Just Remember! WE NEVER, NEVER MISSED A PAYMENT OR EVER BEEN LATE EVEN ONE DAY!now we have to spend our hard earned money to pay Attorney's so we can defend our innocence.
Sara Yoel
This is a follow up to our story above. It is now towards the end of January 2010 and BOA is continuing with their Unlawfull activity to harm us and harass us as a result of inaccurate accounting practices. This could not be unintentional, it has been way too long and we continued every possible way to get them to correct it. Today they are showing us behind five months, this is close to $ 14K, while we paid every single dollar to them directly every single month.
Meanwhile we received a letter from the holder of our mortgage note FREDDIE MAC, boa NOTIFIED THEM OF OUR "DELINQUENCY", how about that? we tried to contact them but they do not want to hear from consumers....too much of a burden to be bothered by......why should they care? they received their fat stimulus money....our money!
We can keep you all posted how the system is immpacable and flowless(of course not), when it comes to protecting the rights of homeowners!!!
Sara Yoel & Moshe Rozenblum
What month did this start happening to you.Because today I received a certified letter in the mail saying I owe them $17,000.00 and i have been making my payments i am at a toatal lost, but most of all shocked. Also i have loan modification with them. Something is not right. Can you email me please to let me know status of your situation and give me some imput.
Thank you
Adano Herrera
adano1@netzero.net
I think I just read my story about BOA.Same exact thing that I am going through! Let me tell you what I have done. Please contact the BBB known as the Better Buisness Bureau. They BOA has 20 business days to have this resolved. I am at my last 18 days. But I still dont feel warm and fuzzy with BOA yet. I have over paid my mortgage and am waiting on a refund. Dont get me wrong I am not holdng my beathe. But I fear everyday my how is gong o be theirs. I cant sleep I live n fear daily. I have found an Attorney Carlin Phillips that is willing to listen to people like us. He is out of MA. Do a Google search an you can get his number, I dont have it on me. If you do nt or can not get it email back. I hope this helps!
We too were took over by BAC when Taylor Bean and Whittaker went bankrupt. We've had an ongoing fight since August of 2009. We provided proof that the payment was made to Taylor Bean and AWhittaker and they agree but' they haven't gotten the money from them. That is not our fault! They have harassed us for almost a year. today a I got a report of my credit and that is against me. Even though they said it would not be. I am so sick of this that I'd like to tell them where they could put that payment that has already been paid! I think we all should stick together and do something anything to keep this from happening . What can we do?
I too have a similar problem with BoA. 10/09 inquired about a modification. Without my consent they put me on one that only reduced my payments from $1800 to $1700 and added $7K to the principle. I imediately call and told them I didn't agree to this and to cancel it.
Then in January I again contacted them to pursue a modification; sent them all the required paperwork and waited. In April I finally got a hold of my mediator and was told that not only was I denied but I was 4 months delinquint on my loan. I also was never late, never mind missed a payment and had a credit score of over 850.
On initial contact about this I was told that they did not report me to the credit bureau's. Then I got a letter stating that they sent a correction to the credit bureau's for the 12/09 payment. Then I asked them if that was the only month they reported me and was told yes; I asked that they double check. A few weeks later I got a letter stating that they submitted a correction to the collection agencies for November, February and March. I've since asked them, what about January since you reported 2 months before and 2 months after and I'm still waiting to hear.
So they have screwed up my credit now for about 8 months.
I'd like to sue them for this. Could this be considered slander? Any help in how to go about sueing BoA for this?
Thanks,
All
Richard -You need to check all three credit reports and verify they removed the inaccurate credit reporting. You CAN NOT trust what they say. Bank of America and the credit bureaus both can be held accountable under the FCRA if they do not clean up their erroneous reporting. If you haven't already obtained your free annual credit reports -you can order them through annualcreditreport.com -or as I suggest, call the toll free number at 877-322-8228. Once you receive them -dispute ANY and all inaccuracies, via certified mail -they will then send you corrected versions of your credit reports -or they will return something stated "verified as accurate" -when of course it isn't accurate. I know because that's exactly how my nightmare began -the bank (fleet n/k/a BofA) continued to report inaccurate late charges based on bad mortgage servicing, then I would complain, and then they would send in corrections -then they would re-report it -over and over....see:
http://www.givemebackmycredit.com/richardson_my_story.htm
We had to file a federal lawsuit to get them to take effective measures to clean up their accounting and correct inaccurate credit reports...we sued Fleet and the cra's for their negligence and inability to stop it! So -do put all your complaints in writing, documents your follow ups and send credit reporting agency disputes via certified mail too. Then re-check again down the road.