Consumer News Story July 22, 2010
from William McKnight
RE: Bank of America
In 2007, I had a fire on my property destroying a two story cottage. At the time I was insured by Travelers and mortgaged by Countrywide soon to be Bank of America. Once settlement was completed with Travelers a dual party check was issued to myself and Countrywide to be placed in escrow for the purpose of rebuilding the cottage. Fortunately, I had my own savings to fall back on because Bank America made it impossible to get monies from my escrow account essentially I had to pay out of pocket for the demolitian and foundation and deposit for a modular replacement unit. BOA insisted that no funds would be released until the building was ¾ complete. I insisted that the modular would come complete and the project would be a foundation until monies where paid to the modular company for the completed building. I inquired on various occasions about the interest on the 53K that they were holding in escrow. They responded that I would not get any interest on my escrow account. How could they hold on to that amount of money without paying interest? It’s clear they are getting interest on the money. They would not give me a rationale for that and insisted that they made that decision and I would have to accept it.
At this point I, contacted the state, the federal banking administration who where sympathetic but admitted they had no power to do anything. I then hired an attorney who got the same run around with no recourse to anyone at BOA at the Simi valley, Ca. property claims division. The attorney’s response to me was that they would make to expensive for him to continue on my behalf because of the time he had to spend on the case. He admitted that after three years of holding my escrow it was likely that I would not see a penny. After much correspondence and 50 or more phone calls they release the check to the modular company. Again I asked about interest on the $53K and to placate me I received a check for $146.71. This is clearly not acceptable and have filed small claims suite and am writing you for your help in this matter if for no other reason then warning the public about Bank of America’s practices.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
William R. McKnight
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