Hardest Post to Ever Write {Throat Punch Thursday}

It happened to us.

All those stories you hear about on the news about people’s houses being foreclosed incorrectly.  People trying to do those “loan modifications” or filing bankruptcy to save their homes because of the whole banking industry screwing people over…

Well, it happened to us.

Back when we first purchased our first home together, our loan was originally with CountryWide.  They allowed us to do split payments, which helped us pay off the interest balance faster. We would pay a little bit over half our monthly mortgage every two weeks.  It worked out great for us and great for CountryWide.  Of course, as everyone knows, CountryWide was bought out by Bank of America.  We received notification from Bank of America about the buy-out and how they would be servicing our loans and how everything stayed the same.  For almost a year, we went on doing what we had originally set up with CountryWide.

A little bit after Kimber was born, we went to our local credit union to ask about increasing our car loan because we needed to upsize our vehicle.  The representative there said that we were denied because our credit report showed us almost 18 months behind on our mortgage payments.  We were blindsided.

I got all my crap together and called Bank of America.  They said that they never agreed to the split payment arrangement.  (Apparently, they don’t agree to set ups like that because even though it helps the people paying the mortgage payments by paying off interest faster, the bank loses more money in the process.)  I asked to see how they were applying our payments.  And it was the most ridiculous amount of bullshit I’ve ever seen. 

Bank of America was receiving one half payment, and instead of automatically applying it, they would hold on to it.  The “original” due date for the whole amount due would pass, then they’d receive our other half payment.  Because it went past their original due date, they would tack on insane amounts of charges, late fees, etc.  So then both half payments wouldn’t be enough to pay the full amount due + charges, so they’d hold on to the second half payment.  Then the next month would come…. and it completely snowballed out of control.  Keep in mind, all the while, we were receiving our monthly statements and none of this was showing up.  NONE!  They never called, we never knew, nothing, nada, zilch, nein.

Then in the end of May 2010, we received a notice that Bank of America was foreclosing our home.  Only thing we could think of to do was to try going through the long drawn out process of the whole “loan modification”/Obama’s plan.  (Biggest bunch of bullshit now looking back on it.)  We supplied the Bank of America (BoA) loan modification department with EVERYTHING we had.  Going through the process of the loan modification stopped the foreclosure.  So we were ok for awhile there.

Two days before the loan modification was supposed to be finalized, BoA sold our loan to a bottom-feeder loan servicing company called Quantum.  We thought maybe this would be a good thing and we could just get back on track with everything.  We were wrong.

Quantum flat out told me that we’d have to pay roughly $5,000 up front to go through the loan modification process with them.  Luckily, I knew my rights regarding the modification process and since it was a government funded process, anyone asking for money upfront was a scam.  I called them out on it and then they started the process on their end.  All the while, not accepting payments from us.  Over the next couple months, we received notice and notice, letter after letter saying we didn’t pay our property taxes and we never had homeowner’s insurance.  Both were wrong.  I provided numerous times via fax, regular mail, and certified mail proof of tax payments and insurance documents.  Even our insurance agent did the same.

I will never forget Monday, January 3, 2011…

I was working for a pediatric medical office and David and I had made the decision for me to quit that job because it just wasn’t helping us financially at all.  I was making less than what we were paying out to childcare.  It just wasn’t worth it anymore.  So, on January 3, I turned in my resignation and then drove home for lunch and to call Quantum, since we hadn’t heard anything from them in about 3 weeks.

I call Quantum.  The representative states that the house is set to foreclose the following day (January 4).  I called the lawyer’s office that was handling the foreclosure and explained to them that we had not received one piece of mail or phone call regarding the foreclosure.  By law they have to provide you with notices via regular mail and certified mail (which of course requires a signature).  We received NOTHING.   We were going to lose the house right at the beginning of the year if we didn’t do anything quick.  I remember David was on shift at the fire department and he rushed home.  We made arrangements for the kids, and we quickly rushed to find a bankruptcy lawyer.  It was almost like pulling a name out of a hat and we went with the first one we came up with, Almand and Lee.  (Which little did we know would become almost the biggest mistake and waste of money.)

We made an emergency appointment and rushed through paperwork and the foreclosure was stopped.  Over the next couple of months we did good.  We went to the correct appointments, seminars, etc. that you have to go through when you file Chapter 13 bankruptcy.  Trustee payments were made on time.  Mortgage payments were going well.  Then in the end of June of 2011, our vehicle which my mother inlaw was driving (we were driving hers because hers was bigger and fit our 3 kids), was repossessed.  I called our lawyers and found myself leaving message after message after message.  Almand and Lee ended up splitting the firm and everything was in disarray.  So I worked my ass off to get our vehicle back.  Turns out the lawyers misfiled paperwork and the credit union wasn’t getting our payments.  Four years of pristine payment history GONE.  I spoke with a representative at our credit union and got our vehicle back since they realized it wasn’t actually our fault.

Never heard from our lawyers until two weeks after I got our car back.

Then comes December 2, 2011… @ 8:20am an officer from the constables office knocks on our door with a notice to evict.  Apparently, our loan was sold off again and no one informed us.  So all my mortgage payments are out there floating around.  The new mortgage company says they sent a letter of foreclosure almost 30 days before the foreclosure date, then a letter stating the house was sold November 1, and then a letter they said we received on November 14 giving us 72 hours to vacate the property.  They also say all those letters we received certified.  HOWEVER they cannot prove any signatures.  WE didn’t get any single one of them.  Never heard anything from our lawyer’s office either.

We had an eviction hearing the following week and went before a judge along with a lawyer from the new mortgage company.  No one in our case did it say we were in bankruptcy and then the judge asked the lawyer if her “client” knew of our bankruptcy.  She simply replied, “No, your honor.”  The judge said that he would put a stay on the case and that’s it. 

In the midst of December 2 to the 9th, we immediately started looking for a rental property.  We used a fantastic realtor who is a councilman for the city my husband works for.  We knew he would handle our situation with gentleness and not drag us through the mud.   The big issue was going to be, who would want to rent us a house with our credit now COMPLETELY  shot.  Our realtor suggested writing a letter of hardship.  And it worked.  The first house we looked out (which was printed out by my incredible employer) was the one we wanted and the one we got.

Through all this, we’re not the norm.  We could definitely afford our mortgage payment.  That was NEVER the issue.  The issue was the fact that we had no clue what was going on and it became too late.  We lost our house due to the banking industry being shot and not caring about it’s customers.  If we had only known that split payments were not going to be allowed by Bank of America, all of this could’ve been avoided. 

Our whole situation has in fact turned into a blessing for us.  We found out who are true friends are.  We found a better, bigger home for our family.  Now, granted, the situation sucks.  And yes, we are going to attempt to file whatever we need to file.  Mainly against our bankruptcy lawyer for malpractice.  But, we’re blessed.  We’re happier in our new home.  The kids have transitioned beautifully.  I cannot even begin to describe the mental and physical anguish this ENTIRE situation has caused me and my husband.  But we have stuck together.  We are a stronger couple despite some arguments and lost hours of sleep (MANY MANY lost hours). 

I wanted to tell our story because there may be someone you know out there who is going through the same thing.  Love them.  Bless them.  Help them in anyway you can.  This is a terrible, stressful, and can be a shameful thing to go through.  I felt a lot of shame going through all this.  At times, I felt like a horrible mother and wife.  I was a horrible friend.  And I felt a lot of shame telling people.

There is no shame if you have done everything in your power to save your home, your finances, your family.  There is always a blessing in everything.  It’s just hard to see it.  I thought we were going to never see the end of all this.

**SIDENOTE:  As of today, the date of this post, we have STILL not heard anything from the judge, lawyers, constables’ office… no one.  We have vacated the house and are happily in our new house, despite having to move away from our first family home and leave our fantastic neighbors of 5 years.  Which, if you are reading this, we miss you greatly.**

So, my Thursday Throat Punch goes out to the slimey bankruptcy lawyers who are preying off of young families in tough times.  It goes out to the banking industry for screwing millions of families out of their homes and making them homeless.

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God bless everyone out there going through this. It's definitely not an easy thing and if you or someone you know is going through something similar, I'd love to compare notes and maybe be of some help.