I guess I am going to keep writing about this until people seem to understand the true problems behind the housing crises. When I read the articles, my sense is that very few people really understand the bind that many Americans are in. There was a class action lawsuit against Homecomings Financial, (a subsidiary of GMAC and big time winner of bail out funds). See the lawsuit here.
http://www.homecomingsfinancialclass...
That class action lawsuit, will not go forward and not be be paid because we, the American people are last in a long line of debtors that GMAC owes money. Follow me over the fold for an understanding of how our hands have been effectively tied by the banking industry, and how this will continue to freeze our economy until the inner workings and criminal behavior are finally understood.
You can read my story here. http://www.dailykos.com/... . It tells of how I ended up in foreclosure. I suppose that one of the reasons I write extensively about this topic is because I truly ended up where I am because of the behavior of others and not because I over spent on my credit cards. I had very little credit card debt at the time I filed. More than one lawyer told me to go away and just get that mortgage company to work with me. I had tried that. Up front let me tell you what I have already done to help myself, lest you waste your time suggesting that I do things I have already done. The point of this article is to bring to light the law breaking. I have included links in every article I have written on this topic that would lead you to other stories like mine. Literally thousands of identical complaints can be found on the internet. My story is the tip of the iceberg.
I understand the suspicion. I understand it's hard to swallow. I understand that Americans hate a victim. Understand I plan to win this battle but not without making it clear that many other Americans mostly the elderly and minorities have been totally without a voice on this. They have quietly lost their homes, or made mistakes in dealing with these companies that made them feel as if they had no recourse but to lose their homes and their credit. They have quietly slipped into homelessness and renting. They are now frozen in bad credit that they likely did not truly earn. Until this story is told, their will be no real solution.
So here is what I have already tried to do to help myself. First of all, I complained to the FDIC, several complaints over the course of the last 4 years. Guess what? The FDIC cannot regulate the fees. They can do nothing to stop these mortgage companies from charging ridiculous fees. The rules regarding the fees are very grey. I have had this confirmed by at least 6 different lawyers. I have contacted my Attorney General. The A.G in my state was able to intervene in regard to their lack of communication with me, (a RESPA violation) and they were forced by my A.G to communicate with me and to send a payment history to me in 2004, whereby they knocked off several thousand in fees. But they just put those fees on the end of my loan later when the A.G was no longer looking. They volunteered to knock those fees off in front of the A.G. This was not part of the A.G initial inquiry. That means that I could ask for a follow up on their lack of communication, but that I would have to file a new complaint on the fees, which I was told by my A.G were a grey area they would not regulate. To file a complaint you have to experience the problem for at least 2 months. You must submit documentation of the problem. Then the A.G has 30 days to review your complaint and investigate. Then they send a letter to the offending company who then has 30 more days to respond. In the mean time you are about to lose your house. But I went through this process. They finally communicated with me for about 6 months and went back to the old behavior again of not answering my calls and faxes. I ended up refinancing my debt in the last week before my foreclosure at a much higher interest rate adding an extra 500.00$ a month to my house payment. This bought me time, as I was sure that they had violated laws during the course of my foreclosure. I took the refinance with the knowledge that my ex had been hauled into court by child support enforcement and was now court ordered to pay or go to jail. He was a computer analyst making a 6 figure salary who had never missed a child support payment prior to the beginning of my nightmare.
I have gone to several lawyers and we have discussed suing them in order to get my true payment history. Both these lawyers noted that a case like this would be labor intensive. They would have to review my payment history over the last 8 years and ask Homecomings financial to send a copy of my payment history which would be scrutinized in regard to the facts. They would have to review all the fees for legality. They got very excited about punitive damages. Would they go through the federal courts, could they find RESPA and TILA violations?? I brought in a stack of documentation a foot high. Yes, there was documentation of both. The hope of course is that if they work real hard on the case they might make a lot of money. A class action lawsuit already exists, there have been several of which I have volunteered to be a member. Two lost in court on some ridiculous loop holes on the federal level. But here's the problem. They (GMAC)is on the edge of bankruptcy. That means that a class action lawsuit goes to the end of the line of debtors. WE will likely not get paid or get any kind of restitution. That means that lawyers aren't too excited about taking my case anymore. Isn't THAT convenient??
So when Americans decided to bail out the likes of GMAC they sealed my fate. Homecomings brazenly continues it's behaviors. So homecomings continues it's predatory ways, commercial after commercial begs us to take out a loan with them. (ditech, GMAC, under a host of new names).
Meanwhile the banking industry spent 83 million dollars to strong arm congress into removing the provision in the stimulus bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to restructure these loans. This is the ONLY way that my lawyers tell me that the fees can be reduced. I don't want a new interest rate. I just want them to remove these bogus fees, that the judge already once asked them to get rid of. At the time I was warned by my lawyer that the judge could ask them to remove the fees(lawyers fees, penalties, when they hauled me into court twice for not paying my bills...this was an error on their part and I was able to prove it in court, but the fees are still sitting on the pay off of my loan). My lawyer warned me that the judge has no legal jurisdiction over the fees. He warned them of punitive damages if they ever tried to bring me back into court for non payment. This was a law that was changed in early bushco years that removed mortgages from the list of debt that can be restructured by bankruptcy judges. Wasn't THAT convenient? And they are fighting vehemently to keep this from changing?? Why? probably because it pads their books, AND it would make the loan fraud alot more obvious.
Suddenly you would find that these poor stupid people who took out these loans weren't so stupid after all, and that many of them could in fact pay these mortgages. You will find that with reasonable fees, many of these loans could be saved.
So how does all of this affect you and the economy?? Well here's the deal. Not only was the house flipping adding to the mortgage bubble but so were these loans. People who could were forced to get more value out of their home, to push the value upward because many of them carried these excessive fees. This contributed to the housing bubble. It was not the sole cause, but it was one contributor that is rarely ever discussed. Secondly, these loans with the high fees, (the ones the mortgage industry is desperate to keep) prevent people from being able to pay their loans and forces these homes onto an already glutted market. Thirdly, do you know how many people have had their credit ruined by these fees, and these illegal behaviors? According to Greenspan, (both in testimony in front of congress on c-span, if you can find clip I would appreciate it. It was during an agriculture finance committee meeting)and Black anywhere from 10% to 40% of the mortgages that were in foreclosure were fraudulent. Have any of you heard this?? Did you know this? That's a lot of fraud. And do you think the American people would have been so keen to bail out the likes of GMAC if they knew the laws they had violated in the servicing of these loans??
So I repeat, that until America does something to help those of us fighting the good fight, the economy will remain frozen because of unearned bad credit, these high fees that force a person like me to spend my way more than I should on mortgage, and homes will continue to fall into foreclosure. These fees are the problem and they must be regulated and stopped.
Here is a link to a new complaints about Homecomings Financial and it's continued bad behavior even in light of the bail out!
http://www.complaintsboard.com/...