We have been home owners for 10 years. We originally purchased our home in August 1998, since that time we have paid over $140,000 toward the purchase of our home, which was originally purchased for $103,619. We refinanced to an ARM in 2004 to $136,000 and that mortgage was later sold to Chase Home Finance. We are now in danger of losing our home to foreclosure. While we take ownership of the fact that we have had trouble paying our mortgage over the past few months we believe that we would not be in foreclosure today if it was not for the poor business practices and communication of Chase Home Finance. My husband was then laid off in October. We knew at this time that this could cause us financial problems and shortly after begin the process to attempt to refinance. In November we were denied and we were unable to make the November and December payments. We did contact the bank in December to speak with them about possible payment arrangements and they referred us to loss mitigation. At that time we were pre-qualified for loss mitigation assistance. The loss mitigation specialist we were working with, Kristina McFadden, advised us that we would not be approved unless we were 90 days over due and advised us not to make January payment if we wished to be considered. We assumed they were giving us sound advice and proceeded as directed. In February, we were told we were pre-approved for loss mitigation assistance and while we were waiting for this process to take place, we entered into a re-payment agreement with Chase which would basically allow us to put off the extra payments until June, by which time we expected the loss mitigation refinancing to be completed. We made payments as per the agreement in February, March, April, and May. In March, we also submitted a payment for January (the payment was short about $150) in our attempt to bring our account as current as possible. At the end of April, we received a letter stating that our loss mitigation assistance request had been disapproved. We went back to the bank and Ms. McFadden stated that she didn’t understand why we were disapproved and would resubmit. At this point, we began to feel in imminent danger of losing our home and so put our home on the market. We continued to make payments as arranged. Also, during this time, there was an error with our home insurance company, who had over charged us by about $1000. We got with the company and corrected the error and, in January 2008, even change insurance companies – reducing our annual payment by $1400. Both the new insurance company and we contacted Chase, but they refused to reduce the payment or escrow account until our account was current. In June, we went to the Chase branch to make payment and they would not accept payment because there was a code on my account saying they could not because we were in loss mitigation. We than called Chase from home who stated they would remove the code because we were no longer in loss mitigation. When we went back they still had not removed the code so we finally mailed a check with the payment on 6/5/2008. It was returned to me on 6/21/08 stating it was returned due to the fact it had to be certified funds. When we attempted to then go to the bank and pay this with certified funds, they refused to accept the funds saying that there was a flag on our account and that the account was in full foreclosure. They stated they could only accept the full amount of the mortgage. We have begun looking for a lawyer at this point . We received written notification of the foreclosure on 7/7/2008. Throughout this process, especially in the last 2 months , Chase has refused to discuss the situation with us. We either get people saying they can’t discuss our account because of the flag or we get transferred from one department to another until we get voicemail or a notice that someone will call us back, which does not occur. We have sent out a formal complaint .Which is necessary as the poor communication and advice from Chase employees is what has us now in a situation where we may lose our home over the next couple of months. We do still have our house on the market and will end up selling if we can get a buyer in this housing market. Even if this occurs, we still believe that what Chase is doing is not of the law,as they are not honoring the payment agreement. Most importantly, we believe Chase’s business practices should be investigated also to ensure other homeowners don’t fall into the same trap that we have been immersed in. From searching the internet, we feel that we can safely say that we are not the only ones having mortgage issues with this company nor the only ones who feel Chase is responsible for increased foreclosures. We would request that Chase’s lending practices would be closely examined for both legal and ethical practices. Thank you for looking into these issues. I am looking forward to your response.
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