As many who have followed me in recent times on these pages know, I recently (six months ago) moved to North Carolina. The main reason for this move is because my mom lost the house we had lived in in Pennsylvania. The house we actually built. The house my mom expected to die in. Where my father's ashes were spread. We lost the home to foreclosure after my mother was forced to declare bankruptcy.
We lived in the house from January 2013 until September 2014 without paying a single mortgage payment. The house was built in 1993...we moved in in February of that year - so my family was there for over twenty years.
After my father's death in 1999, my mother worked two jobs for over ten years, trying to keep the house (my father left my mom no insurance, and not even a paid-for house.)
My mom worked harder and longer than most widows ever would or could...in order to keep that house...and to do the right thing, to live up to the obligations she had, as a result of the commitment my parents made when they built the house.
I ended up moving back into that house in 2005, after I left Texas, basically broke and destroyed. I had left that house originally in 1995.
Fast-forward to 2008, and the housing crash, WHICH WAS BASICALLY CAUSED BY THE TBTF BANKS. The resulting downturn in the economy caused my mom to first lose the part-time job (a seven-day a week, 365 day-a-year rural newspaper delivery route which encompassed 70 miles of driving every day...and which took three hours.)
Then, in 2011, she finally lost the full-time job...she got early-retired from the job she had held for 22 years...and the company cited the economic downturn as the reason for this. She did get a severance package, and unemployment, which enabled us to continue making payments until the end of 2012.
In 2014, my mother was finally forced to file bankruptcy. The house was included in the bankrupcy, and it was discharged in September (hence our move to North Carolina.) Now, unlike most people, our property taxes and insurance were not escrowed into the house payments, we paid those seperately.
We tried to use Bank Of America's "Deed In Lieu Of Foreclosure" Program - which, only five months after we STARTED the process...we were told we did not qualify for. The reason for this was a Home Equity Line Of Credit also through Bank Of America...which was discharged in the bankruptcy. But because of this, BofA said there was still a lein on the property (which should have been released in the bankruptcy discharge, by the way) and, while they said that we were no longer responsible to pay that back, per the bankruptcy, THEY still considered there to be a lein on the property, and thus we were not eligible for the program.
As per the program, however, we made, at our expense, several improvements to the house, which cost us nearly two thousand dollars. We also left the house in good condition, and broom-clean, as per the terms of the program.
Additionally, we kept the electric on and insurance in force on the property - again, as per the terms of the program (and I might mention here that it is substantially more expensive to insure a vacant property than an occupied property.) We maintained both until the end of January, which is when we were informed we were not eligible for the program.
At that time, on the advice of the attorney who handled the bankruptcy...we terminated the electric service and the insurance on the home. We notififed BofA of our intentions to do so, by certfied letter, two weeks prior to cutting these services off...in order to give them time to establish the services themselves. Again, this was on the advice of the attorney.
The attorney told us that BofA would then get their own insurance on the place (incidentally...if your taxes and insurance are escrowed into your mortgage, as is the case with most people...it is not required for the Deed In Lieu Program...to maintain insurance - since you already haven't been paying the insurance, since you haven't been paying the mortgage payments!!) What this means is that - when your insurance is escrowed into the mortgage...and you do not pay your mortgage...the mortgage holder, in effect, is paying for the insurance.
Because ours was NOT escrowed into the mortgage...and because we were no longer insuring it...BofA went and got it's own insurance on the house. Our attorney advised us WE WERE NOT RESPONSIBLE to pay for the insurance that BofA would obtain on the house.
YET, BANK OF AMERICA IS ATTEMPTING TO BILL US FOR THIS INSURANCE!! And they ought to KNOW they have no right to do so. Our attorney told us that they WOULD try to bill us for it...and to not pay it because we were not legally responsible, the bankrutcy protects us from that...but that BofA would attempt to do it anyway, as a form of intimidation.
And you can BET if we actually paid this (which we were not obligated to do) BofA would most definitely not return the money to which they were not entitled!!
What I want to know is...seeing as it is not our obligation to pay it (and BofA should well know that it isn't) WHY ARE THEY LEGALLY ALLOWED TO EVEN ATTEMPT TO BILL US AS A FORM OF INTIMIDATION...what they are doing ought to be flat out ILLEGAL.
Is there no depths to which these snake-in-the-grass banks will not sink?
Is there no level of illegal activity they will not engage in?
And, as I said...if we DID pay this...which we are not obligated to pay it...they certainly would KEEP the money which they know full well they are not legally entitled to! Why aren't these "business practices" or tactics ILLEGAL? At the very least these actions by BofA against my mom are unethical and slimy.