Foreclosure Horror Story: Man Loses Home After Wells Fargo Allegedly Denies Mortgage Modification

For the next several weeks, HuffPost will be cross-posting "Foreclosure Horror Stories" from the Home Defenders League's "100 Stories Of What Wall Street Broke" series, which is collecting first-person accounts from homeowners around the country. Homeowners can submit their own stories here. The following post and video, which tell the story of Steve Bailey from Denver, Colo., originally appeared in a slightly different form here.

"Telling my daughter that they weren't going to foreclose on us, promising her, swearing to her that they wouldn't -- I still answer for, two years later."

When the economy crashed and his business slowed down, Wells Fargo offered to modify Steve Bailey’s loan to lower his payments. After making a series of trial payments, Wells Fargo notified Steve that his modification was on the way.

A few days later he received a letter stating that his modification had been denied. The Wells Fargo representative he spoke with reassured him that they had made a mistake and that he should keep making the payments, which he did for seven months.

Steve then started to receive foreclosure notices. Again, the bank representative assured him that the notices had been sent in error.

Then Steve checked his credit. Wells Fargo had reported him delinquent on his mortgage for the last six months. The reduced payments that Steve had agreed to pay for the previous months had been put into a separate trust by Wells Fargo, and they had not gone towards his mortgage.

Steve took the case to court but lost despite mountains of evidence in his favor. He lost his home and his business. Watch the video above to hear the impact it made on his family.