Dispatches From The Displaced: Mortgage Company Instructions Put Couple In Foreclosure

Are you facing foreclosure, or have you already lost your home? Share a story of how the housing crisis has affected you by emailing [e-mail].

Last week, we heard about Bob, a retired man who said he lost $1 million in housing investments and his own home as his tenants faced unemployment. Bob is not alone, as each day 10,000 people have their house foreclosed.

Today we hear from Peggy Kanowski of Wyandotte, MI. After being told she had been approved for a loan modification, Peggy says she was shocked to learn that her home had been put into foreclosure.

Peggy and Gerard Kanowski with their two children on the steps of their home in Michigan.

We have our loan with Saxon Mortgage. My husband's hours were cut at work and we were beginning to have a problem with our cash flow. We were living check to check with no money for savings or a rainy day for car repair or home maintenance unexpected repair bills.

We applied for a loan modification on November 12th with Saxon. After several phone calls we were told we were approved for the loan modification on December 26th. They said the lawyers are giving the final approval and will mail the papers. In the meantime they told us not to make a payment as this would mess the numbers up on the modification.

After several more weeks we got nervous because we still did not have any paperwork. We sent in a payment on January 23rd. Saxon kept the payment in suspension, did not apply it to our mortgage payment and then threw us into FORECLOSURE. Saxon says we have been approved for another loan modification on February 12th and the paperwork will be mailed "soon".

We are now trying to straighten this mess out with the help of Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services. We live in Michigan which is a non-judiciary state so our house goes up for Sheriff sale on March 11, 2009.

The Kanowski family received a foreclosure notice on February 4th. The letter, sent by Orlans on behalf of Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., suggested that the family could apply for "a loan modification" or a "repayment plan."

This whole process is totally wrong. All we did was ask for a loan modification and we have been in the runaround ever since. We could lose our home even though Saxon Mortgage says we are "approved" for a loan modification and the paperwork will be "coming soon". We have asked them to stop the foreclosure and they said they can't until seven days before the sale date-that is their so called company policy.

This whole process has caused so much stress on our family and I pray that other people will learn from our mistake.

Saxon Mortgage Services Inc. referred the Huffington Post to the Morgan Stanley communications office, which declined to comment.

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Comments

[carriellbee]

06:51 PM on 03/24/2009

Telling people to miss payments in order to qualify for modificati­on is standard procedure for these thieves. Just visit http://loa­nworkout.o­rg/2009/02­/countrywi­de-idiots/ to read many of these tales.

We were told by Countrywid­e that we couldn't be helped if we were current on our mortgage and so were instructed to not make any payments while we waited for the modificati­on to become available. Right.

According to the "Home Affordable Modificati­on Guidelines­" dated March 4, 2009, being behind on payments is not a requiremen­t. http://www­.treas.gov­/press/rel­eases/repo­rts/modifi­cation_pro­gram_guide­lines.pdf

I believe that the reason they advise people to miss payments is so that they will be that much further behind and thus closer to foreclosur­e.

During my latest conversati­on with Countrywid­e I was told that my unemployme­nt benefit cannot be counted as income when applying for a modificati­on because "unemploym­ent is temporary.­" Of course, in the official guidelines it states that unemployme­nt (and several other things) ARE counted.

When we re-finance­d during the period covered by the modificati­on program, we still had over $300K equity. Now, because of falling prices, we have lost nearly all of that equity. Furthermor­e, I have been unable to find a job for about a year. Meanwhile, outsourcin­g/offshori­ng is on the RISE and the H1B visa program continues. Our government has been sending us a message for years - the message is that the people of this country do not matter. They are wrong.

[shellshock30]

09:41 AM on 03/05/2009

This is an easy one. I would keep all the so called "approved" letters and use them to sue the pants off the Mortgage company...­..after I lost my home. They may not be able to save the current home but they would certainly pay for the next.

[mervr1]

07:49 AM on 03/05/2009

For anyone dealing with this type of situation I would recommend they contact NACA, The Neighborho­od Assistance Coalition of America...­.

Check out their website at www.naca.c­om

They helped me out negotiatin­g directly with the lender for me reducing my interest rate by over 3% and can stop foreclosur­es.

They have helped thousands of people already and do not charge any fees.

They are very well known and are NOT a scam.

[lisak2008]

02:32 AM on 03/05/2009

I see that her husband's hours were cut, but nothing about what, if anything, happened to hers. Does she have a job? If not, why isn't she working so they both can help save their home?

[iluvsam]

08:58 AM on 03/05/2009

UGH. Here we go again. Blaming the victims instead of the perpetrato­rs.

[4everdem]

11:15 AM on 03/05/2009

Actually it is a very valid question. If his hours were cut did she try and find a job? They asked for a loan modificati­on but did they do everything they could do to make the payments on the loan documents THEY SIGNED? It seems they wanted a modificati­on before doing everything they could to avoid it.

If our party continues to protect those who are just irresponsi­ble it will backfire. Make people be accoutable for the decisions they make.

[kgordon2431]

04:31 PM on 03/05/2009

Actually lisak2008, Peggy is a great friend of mine and does infact have a job. She's a Respirator­y Therapist. And she works overtime..­.every single week. She's not sitting at home daily watching soaps waiting and hoping for a miracle. I think most adults in their right mind know that that doesn't work out so well. And as for 4everdem, they did do EVERYTHING they could to prevent this. It's not like they were asking for a handout, just a simple loan modificati­on. It was the mortgage company that told them to stop making payments until the still-miss­ing-in-act­ion paperwork was signed. It even says that in the article. Before that, they were current. This is a situation that was caused by a scamming mortgage company, not by an "irrespons­ible" couple. I think these companies need to be held accountabl­e for the decisions THEY make.

[mogeorge]

02:20 AM on 03/05/2009

We keep hearing about people buying luxury homes way out of their price range and then getting hit with higher interest rates they can't afford Supposedly these home buyers are greedy and irresponsi­ble. This home is quite modest for a family of four . They are trying to save the roof over their heads, not a McMansion. This makes me sick. It is time to STOP helping the bl00dsuc kers who call themselves Mortgage Companies and Bankers. Let them go under, just as they are letting the middle class go under. ENOUGH

[fiorastar]

01:56 AM on 03/05/2009

What mistake? They did EXACTLY what they should do when hardship hits--nego­tiate with the lender and follow instructio­ns by the lender. This lender needs to be stopped from foreclosin­g on them. It sounds like perhaps, in the best case, the lender may be getting overwhelme­d with such requests and somehow screwed up the paperwork chain--hum­an error perhaps. In the worst case, it is deliberate fraud. Either way, this couple's only mistake was to follow directions­.

[4peace]

06:12 AM on 03/05/2009

My first guess would be deliberate fraud, apparently its the way business is conducted with banks these days. The multitude of bank "bailouts" proves this time and again

[JDShipley]

11:38 PM on 03/04/2009

I'm sorry these people were mislead. It's very important that, if you can, to continue to make payments on time until a refinance or loan modificati­on is actually completed. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The Saxon agent was being lazy because it's their job to track the numbers and adjust properly for the final payout made during a refinance or loan modificati­on. This agent didn't want to do any recalculat­ions.

[RockyMtns]

09:34 PM on 03/04/2009

I'm glad your getting legal help. Get everything in writing and hang on to it.

[gemzenith]

05:41 PM on 03/04/2009

Everything we thought we could trust is gone.Medic­ine is owned by the pharmaceut­ical companies the media by corporate America.Ba­nks well you think we'd know by now don't trust anyone when it comes down to money.Peop­le will do anything for $$$$$ even sell their own mommas down the river.

[myke3000]

04:49 PM on 03/04/2009

It is these types of "companies­" that the Repubs and Conservati­ves fight so hard for. We NEED to return our country to the PEOPLE that are the citizens and taxpayers of this nation. There needs to be balance restored.

[Lambpie]

04:45 PM on 03/04/2009

I personally know of somebody that got in a bind. They contacted their mortgage company for help and were told to send some amount somewhere. A while went by and they got slammed with foreclosur­e and were told to get out in 48 hours. At this point they were handed back their checks they had mailed in - as they had never been cashed, and evidently they got played.

Moral of the story - make sure your checks are cashed if you get into something?

[joetherealist]

04:33 PM on 03/04/2009

"We have asked them to stop the foreclosur­e and they said they can't until seven days before the sale date-that is their so called company policy".

They do that so that they then have you by the shorthairs­. They don't cancel the foreclosur­e but they "postpone" it week to week, meaning they can foreclose on you in a week if you make any mistakes, don't do as you are told, etc. The lender basically has these poor people by the throats.

This is why corporatio­ns must be regulated to the hilt. By their very nature, corporatio­ns are greedy and must get the most money they can get for their shareholde­rs, regardless of what it does to individual­s.

[SamKnause]

03:37 PM on 03/04/2009

It would not surprise me if this was not done intentiona­lly to cause this person to go into foreclosur­e. The leaders of the corrupt Countrywid­e mortgage company have started up a new company buying up foreclosed properties for pennies on the dollar. They were bragging in an article yesterday about how much money they will be making.

[That Guy]

04:05 PM on 03/04/2009

This would be par for the course for them

[kudzumaster]

04:49 PM on 03/04/2009

CitiMortga­ge tried to do the same thing to us. We're still wrangling with them.

Apparently­, it is a common practice.

[christopherflynn]

03:37 PM on 03/04/2009

So much for the friendly loan company and COMPASSION­. We are truly lost as a nation....