Friday, April 19, 2013

How the Government helped banks screw hard working Americans out of their homes AGAIN

My parents bought a house in 2002, they were talked into taking out a mortgage in 2007 for 40,000.00 and figured they could use the money to pay off all their other bills. It wasn’t long before their 200.00 payment went up and after my father had his stroke leaving him mentally and physically disabled they fell behind. In 2009 HSBC Beneficial started their foreclosure and send a letter saying they need 5500.00 in full to stop the process. I saw the notice and wired them the money they requested (to their lawyer who was handling the case now). We didn’t hear anything and about 3 weeks later the money was returned to me in 11 cashiers checks for 500 each.

I called them and the lawyer told me that since they sent the notice that the total owed at time I sent payment was 5535.00 with interest and since it wasn’t full amount they couldn’t take it and would have to foreclose on the house. I contacted HSBC and they told me the lawyer had no right to refuse that and they would stop the foreclosure if I sent them the money. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer on St. Patrick’s day 2012 I took over paying their bills and was shocked to see their mortgage payments are now 706.00 a month on a 30 year mortgage for 40,000.00 and after 5 years of payment they still owed more on the mortgage than original balance.

I did my best to keep up but currently we are 4 payments behind with no hope or money to catch up. We got a letter from the independent foreclosure review saying we would be awarded a settlement for the banks actions from 2009-2010 and after seeing the chart we should fall in the 2,000.00 payment which would be enough to keep their home since we spent so much time and money making it handicap read for both them.

Now here is where the fun begins, I called Rust Consulting to see if my payment was sent out on April 12th and they told me no. I then asked the lady if my 2,000.00 payment would go out anytime soon so I could use it to pay up the mortgage and keep us in the house and she said “I don’t know the date and can’t tell you the amount but can tell you it’s a lot less than that”. So we are getting the shaft and only getting the 300.00 check so I looked at how they decided this and that’s where it gets interesting.

The decision on which group you fall in and how much you receive was made by the bank that held your mortgage at the time, the same one who ripped you off those years. I thought this was odd so did a little more digging and the person who was in charge of this settlement left the OCC and is now at a high paying job with one of the banks. So that leaves us with the 6 billion in aid to troubled homeowners that the banks were supposed to put up and again the home owners were given the shaft by the big banks.

Turns out the banks don’t have to do anything until 2015 and that billions they were supposed to pay will only be a few million dollars. The banks got to write their own punishment again and the loophole is if they modify a 500,000.00 mortgage by reducing the mortgage 1.00 they get credit for the whole mortgage. That’s right if they knock 1.00 off your 500.000 dollar mortgage they get credit for the whole 500.00 against their fine while you get the shaft.

With both parents disabled and over 65 their only income is social security and w/ me not being able to work because they need 24/7 care that leaves us no choice but to walk away from our home over 2,000.00. While the bank gets loopholes to screw us again we get to live in our car but it’s ok because they will be sending us a 300.00 check for our troubles, as soon as they get around to it.