The more stories we get from homeowners at shamethebanks.org and the more people I talk to about how they're losing their homes, the more I start to believe that banks and servicers are spending more time figuring out how to take homes than they are on how to save them. In the past few days alone I've heard stories from people who have recounted instances where they have been blatantly mistreated and swindled by banks.
At the rate that banks and mortgage servicers are foreclosing on homeowners it's been difficult lately to not buy into some of the speculative theories, no matter how conspiratorial they might sound. The theories range from land grabs, covering up a massive Ponzi scheme or massive fraud, and systematically eradicating the middle class. It's hard not to buy into these when you spend most of your free time talking to homeowners or reading their stories.
Last week Treasury announced that all the reports and statistics they've been publishing over the last year were based on bogus information they'd received from Fannie Mae. This week Country Wide, now owned by Bank of America shelled out $600 million to settle a class-action case for hiding how risky its business had become during the housing market's boom years. The week before that Citigroup was fined $75 million to settle civil charges that it misled investors about its potential losses from sub-prime mortgages, regardless of what Mark Rodgers, Director of Public Affairs has to say about their transparency. Mother Jones did an entire investigative piece on the illegal and rampant fraud happening with foreclosures, and The Huffington Post's Shahien Nasiripour and Arthur Delaney did an entire dissection and analysis of the administration's failed HAMP program, in which officials allude to the plan being more of a means for "orderly liquidation" as opposed to actually saving homes. What more could we possibly need to make it more obvious that homeowners are being raked over the coals and under complete and total financial assault?
It's one thing for a bank or servicer to foreclose on a property because the homeowner bought beyond their means, lost their job, can no longer afford the mortgage, or is simply refusing to pay after realizing they've been swindled and will never get a return on their investment. It's entirely another thing to actually invest the time and effort into forcing someone into default and foreclosure.
Janice, a homeowner in Massachusetts showed me one of her statements from Bank of America. There's a charge on it for flood insurance. She doesn't carry flood insurance, has never carried flood insurance, doesn't need flood insurance, and her insurance company never wrote anything up for flood insurance. Bank of America however charged her $865 out of her escrow account for the insurance that they claim to have paid to an insurance company that exclusively covers veterans. Neither Janice, nor her husband are veterans and the insurance company has no record of them, their home, or their Social Security numbers. So where's the $865 going? And how many people are getting this same charge?
As for veterans, it doesn't seem that Bank of America knows or cares that President Bush signed the Service Members Civil Relief act specifically to protect the military from these attacks. Kent Walker from North Carolina, who served in the military for 20 years and whose wife is currently on active duty, writes in his story on shamethebanks.org, "don't I qualify for any option plan after I paid the 31% of my income into your HAMP program for over 7 months," referring to the length of time Bank of America strung him along before denying him a permanent modification under HAMP.
The HAMP program, sometimes referred to as "extend and pretend", has done little more than give mortgage servicers an incentive and in some people' s eyes the encouragement by Treasury to suck what little money homeowners have left before throwing them out of their homes. According to a July 21 report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief, as of June Treasury has disbursed just $247 million for successful modifications. On the other hand, the banks and servicers have made an estimated $4 billion by offering struggling homeowners the false hope of a modification, collecting the trial payments for three to eight months, and inevitably foreclosing with the addition of late fees, fines, back payments, and foreclosure costs passed on to the homeowner. If you consider Steve Dibert's article on the possible insolvency of Bank of America the speculative theories begin to gnaw at your psyche.
The trial period according to Treasury guidelines is supposed to be three months. After that, if the homeowner has made all three payments on time (Kent Walker made seven) the modification is made permanent. Instead, last month, Bank of America decided to foreclose on the former serviceman and his family. So, for now, Walker, his wife, and their two girls, four and eight-years-old, are waiting. "We're just waiting for the Sheriff to show up", Walker said in a phone conversation. Bank of America will sell the house (maybe) and probably end up making less than they would, had they kept Walker in the house with lower monthly payments. Strange way to thank the troops for protecting the Bank's right to screw people.
This blatant abuse of an otherwise well-meaning program is happening at alarming rates. RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service, is predicting more than a million foreclosures for this year. Mortgage servicers and banks continue to plunder what they can from people in an attempt to extract more money with no intention of ever offering any help. Walker' s story is unfortunately not uncommon, but that Bank of America would take advantage of a family who have dedicated the better part of their lives to defending a country that would allow this is criminal.
As Walker himself said in his story, "So if I understand what you're saying is that the same bank that our taxpayer dollars bailed out because it was too big to fail, is the same bank that' s willing to kick me and my family out of our home? Well guess what, my family is too big to fail too! Who will make me whole again and return my credit score back to its original state? How many homeowners and veterans are in a worse situation than I'm in and how are they being treated? Who holds BofA accountable for their mistakes?"
You can read Kent Walker's story along with others and leave your own at www.shamethebanks.org .
Follow Richard Zombeck on Twitter: www.twitter.com/zombeck
My own HOA lawyers Sellers, Hinshaw, Ayers, Dortch & Lyons, P.A, purchased my $272,000 appraised home for $3,610.25! This doesn't smell right. "Collusion", "unjust enrichment" or "shock the conscience"?
Did they purchase a "junior lien" and did BofA agree to a Foreclosure. Aren't we protected under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)?
I'm still here squatting waiting for the Sheriff to show up. I've been mentally raped.....
B of A told me I had to be 60 days late just to apply for HAMP (they know this affects your credit), and after speaking with many reps from B of A (almost all in INDIA!), they told me I wouldn't qualify for HAMP or any of their programs because I wasn't 60 days late, and with my spouse being unemployed since December, apparently we couldn't afford to pay the mortgage if they LOWERED our mortgage interest rate.
What a joke - I've been paying my current rate of 6.75%, albeit late by a month since this May. I put down 20% (a lot of money), and I'm staying in this house if it kills me. It's my tiny 1,340sq foot place I call home.
A friend of ours told us he got approved for a loan mod several months ago - Chase - put him on indefinite "interest only" payments. He was happy his payments were lower and was able to manage fine.
This week, Chase turned around - they kicked him out of the program (even though he made all of his payments on time) and told him he had to pay them ALL of the balance difference NOW.
It sounds illegal to me. He had a contract in writing. Now he's planning to walk.
I hate banks.
There are hundreds of similar stories all over the internet. I'm a B of A victim too, but I'm one of the lucky ones that got the Oregon Attorney General's office to force them to back off, at least temporaily to my next postponement date of 9/10/10. They made it very clear to B of A that foreclosing on my home would be an illegal action.
I made 4 HAMP payments and them my file disintegrated, no warning and no explanation given. I was told I had to reapply, all paperwork was received, my file was perfect, but they refused to register me for HAMP. Instead they gave me two days to accept a ridiculous In-House Modification or foreclose, it would have been 85% of my net income. I knew it was illegal, so I just said "No!"
Oregon's AG has received many other complaints like mine, so they have launched a formal investigation into B of A's foreclosure practices. I've told numerous TV and Print media outlets, and I even sent an email to Bill O' Reilly at FOX and no one will run with it. I believe the White House will not stop B of A's rape of the American homeowner, only a massive media blitz can apply the right kind of pressure to stop their abusive and fraudulent practices.
What happened to the swat team the government sent to the banks? A disgusting temporary tactic to pat the homeowners on the head.
Debtnavigation -great idea. For those who are on the sidelines, pointing their fingers at the struggling homeowner with the mindset that they bought above their means and deserve what they get, understand that homes being foreclosed, whatever the reason, is bad for the economy. Bad for your neighborhood, bad for your home's value. Forget about the "reason" and you should be as mad at the banks for their deceitful, should-be illegal practices as the struggling homeowners.
Freddie Mac, as overseer of this failed program, how about you do your job and oversee this program? How about an audit of the banks files on all the homeowners who have been offered assistance? I have a feeling if you attempted to verify the banks REAL numbers, your numbers would be quite a bit different than those of the banksters/Fannie Mae. Unless, of course, you use the creative accounting method utilized by the banksters.
If only that were true BofA might not foreclose. Unfortunately, what most people fail to comprehend is that the bank bailouts and guarantee against future losses means BofA will not lose money no matter what they do and in fact, by foreclosing, are likely to be paid TWICE for each mortgage they originated before the bail out. If they modify the mortgage and leave it in place, they'll only receive the paltry servicing fee and then only over the life of the mortgage which averages out to between 7 to 12 years. In essence, they're choosing to take an additional lump sum profit now vs. a paltry (by comparison) .025% servicing fee over the course of many years if they do a loan modification.
Obama should have let real estate professionals design the HAMP program. Summers, Gates, & the rest have proven that they're inept on the subject based on the way they designed it.
And when are we going to insist that government assume the role of protector of the consumer? When are we going to realize that government can't be the friend of Business and still properly regulate business? The only help I ever want to see government give business is to tax and regulate the living hell out of businesses proportionately to their size and level of systemic risk. This would help even the playing field for Truly small business.
Instead we stand with those people and against the banks. Unless and until real programs, with real and attainable relief are instituted, as well as jobs returned to the American economy, the rest of us say "sorry, I'm getting between my neighbor and that bank--they will not be moved." Instead of trying to work things out, we take spray paint and mark the homes of members of the new, united Americans against bank depredations and we show up en masse if anyone tries to move them out for any reason. We have a "Bonus Army" in place, and when the banks aren't able to get what they need through the legal process and the people we've elected won't give 'em a handout, the only alternative left will be change that we can actually work with.
There is a hero in the Old Testament. His name was Nehemiah. And he stopped the debt problem in Israel. I'm just sayin'...
Finally, the banks do have a place where they offer zero interest.
So you could own 70% of your home but if you are caretaking for another member of the family, they would prefer to foreclose, short sale your home, and eviscerate the equity that may have taken 10 or 20 years to build up, just like that.
Thank you, Barack Obama. I absolutely believe that Hillary Clinton would have not let the banksters run roughshod for the past two years the way the current president has.
Yes. It's called the Federal Reserve. Otherwise known as the fractional reserve central banking system. It allows banks to create money (wealth) out of thin air. That's why finance is now 40% of GDP in the US. Giving a private corporation the power to create money is definitely hogwash as many argued in 1913 when the fed was created. The only thing that has kept this system sustainable thus far was the industrial revolution which is now over. Taking us off the gold standard instead of just changing the rules then lowering taxes on the wealthy from 74% on income over 3 million dollars annually were the last two nails in the coffin. It's now time to pay the piper . . .