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Something isn't right here!
BY: Guest Blogger:
Susan Ludwig, Ohio
In March 2009 my husband and I applied for the hardship program due to him being laid of from General Motors. When we contacted HSBC we were actually told it was not "worth our time" because it would take 3-6 months for the paperwork to be reviewed. We said it didn't matter because at that time he had already been laid off 4 different weeks and in March was being laid off indefinitely.
Reluctantly the woman on the other end said okay, we will send the papers out. At that point were never told that we couldn't receive help because of us being in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and that's why our lawyer suggested we apply for the hardship due to the impending layoff. However, the papers never came so my lawyer, Diane Sekerak Stevens, told me to call again and ask for the paper work, which I did. We never received them until May 2009. In between that time I tried making a payment only to be told that they wouldn't accept it and that I should call their lawyer.
On June 19 2009 I over-nighted all the paper work to HSBC. I have the person's signature, the date and the time of which the information was received. We never heard anything back from HSBC about the hardship, nor did our lawyer. I was told to call them once again and see what was going on and was told that they never received the papers. I called my lawyer and she told me to forward them to her and she then would forward them to HSBC attorneys, which she did. None of us ever heard back from them until October when they said I owed $7000 and needed to pay that in 10 days or they would start foreclosure proceeding.
Once again I called and tried to talk to someone and make a payment only to be told that they couldn't take the money and I needed to contact their attorney. I also asked about the hardship program and they told me they had no record of us applying so again I told them to send the paper work. They told me to contact Novadebt/, which we did. Novadebt contacted them; we did a three way call. The lady at HSBC told them yes we could do the hardship and we needed the paperwork done, so we told them to send it out, they never did...that was attempt number 3.
Present day...we still know nothing about our home.
Our attorney had tried several times to contact their lawyer and nobody calls her back (this is of March 3, 2010). We were discharged form our bankruptcy in January 2010 and have just received our very 1st billing statement form HSBC on February 22, 2010 (which is was due by March 16, 2010 in the amount of $16, 424). We have had HSBC since 2003 and have NEVER received any paperwork or anything when they became our bank other than a booklet with the account number and a phone number for them. They purchased our loan from another bank which is how they became our present Mortgagee. We didn't even know the actual balance on our home until this year when we received this current billing statement. When they purchased our loan they also omitted my name off of the loan for whatever reason and also come to find out someone put my husband's name on our deed. It was land owned by me and only had my name on it since before us building our house. They raised our interest rate three times, which we were told that they could not due while we were in a bankruptcy. Our payment started at $937 and ended up at $1335]. They also didn't apply our payments to our loan 4+times and then would call us saying that we never made a payment and were default when in fact the had withdrawn the money from our account and never applied it to our mortgage, they did this so often that when we would make our monthly sometimes the payment was around $900, when it should have been $1335. Almost like someone wasn't calculating correctly.
Our interest rate hadn't changed and we only made the monthly minimum payment the months before, so how on earth could it have went down that far?...."oh" they would say, as if to be surprised, and low and behold they were holding the money elsewhere, for whatever reason, but never crediting full payments to our account...makes zero sense why they would do that, because we never knew anything about an escrow account, because during this time our taxes or insurance were not paid through them. We paid for that separately. (This is why I have never MAILED a payment fearing that they would say they never received it.)
On March 3, 2010, after talking to my attorney I called to see what was going on. I talked to three different people all of who gave me different information each time. I was told that unless I make the full $16,000 payment they would not accept anything from us. The 3rd person that I talked to actually said there was no record at all of us ever trying to apply for a hardship in 2009, which as I said before was actually 3 times, and you will be our 5th. She went on to say that they can only go by this year's pay/income, not last years. If that is the case, then they will clearly deny us because of my husband not getting laid off until the week of March 1 and the week of March 8.
As of 4-27-2010 we found out through the local newspaper that HSBC had filed foreclosure proceedings on our property as Household Realty Corporation on 4-23-2010...no clue who that is, because according to my current statement it's HSBC Mortgage Services NOT Household Realty Corp. We only knew that HSBC became our current lender because they sent us a 5x7 booklet in the mail with their name/logo, payment address, email address, and phone number along with our account number.
There have also been major discrepancies as far as to what and how much our payments should be. Because to our payment was $937 and went to $1335 and back down to $1114 (which is what it is now) this all happened in the last 5 years. Our payment fluctuates every month and from April 2007 to March 2009 we paid well over $40,000.
Now if you add all this up since they have become our lender, even when we were paying $937 and then $1335 (those amounts went up $400 in ONE month), to present we have paid approx. $86,000.
The loan that HSBC purchased was, according to my paperwork from Regions Bank, which granted could be incorrect but even so, if we have been paying all that kind of money our loan would technically be in the 60's without the fact of interest and finance charges, of course.....BUT it does make a person go Hmmm...AND we never got extra money...so if in fact the account that is closed and paid on my credit report is Regions Bank dba American Home Mortgage, that loan balance was only at $143,100...how is it now that I have paid $86,000 to HSBC and my balance is now $143,600?
Oh and yes, we do have an arm loan with an APR of 11% but to our understanding the APR laws of ARM loans can only go up 1 point or down 1 point every 6 months. I would have to say that $400 is more than 1 point in less than two years; how is that?
On Saturday May 2, 2010, I received my "certified" letters from HSBC.
As I looked through the paperwork, on the next to last page it states: "Corporate Assignment of Mortgage, Sellers Servicing Number: Ludwig, Date of Assignment: February 18, 2010, Assignor: MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC AS NOMINEE FOR REGIONS BANK "IT'S SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS" AT 1595 SPRING HILL ROAD STE 310 VIENNA VA 22182,
Assignee: Household Realty Corporation at 2929 Walden ave Depew NY 14013 Executed by Matthew Ludwin (note the N should be a G) and Susan Nicole Ludwig, husband and wife, for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them To: MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS INC AS NOMINEE FOR REGIONS BANK".
It goes on to say they had our loan and they are assigning the mortgage to Household realty Corp, the said Note having an original principal sum of $152,100 (None of these totals match up and we NEVER this paper...it is signed by someone name Christopher Ribbeck, Vice-President, VICE PRESIDENT OF WHAT?
...FUNNY thing is that in my original loan docs from REGIONS bank I have a paper called RESPA...it states that they had at that time (when we refinanced 2003) full intention on selling our loan. However, it didn't state to whom. AND it also says that we have to be notified 15 days prior to 15 days after the initial sell/transfer of our mortgage...
GUESS WHAT???
We have nothing except the aforementioned booklet by HSBC. And this new one with MERS we didn't know UNTIL we opened our certified letters for the foreclosure.
What the heck is going on here?
I have called the Jim Johnston at the Attorney General's office, our State Representative Charlie Wilson, and Save the Dream Ohio and they in turn have told me to contact ESOP and NDS from Ravenna; which I am currently doing. I am also in contact with Community Action; all of which was suggested to do by our attorney.
We don't want to not make a payment nor do we want to lose our home (I am the 3rd generation to own this land). We just need someone to help us. Something isn't right and something truly needs to be done.
Susan Ludwig
Ohio
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First, let me state: I'm not an attorney. You've got an attorney. Talk to your attorney... There - my A is C'd... :)
Well, Susan, sounds like you've got a bit of a mess happening here.... Based strictly on what you're saying, it sounds like a fairly classic case of Mortgage Servicing Fraud. Unfortunately, actual document images aren't available on line from your county recorder so I can't tell much from there except that there hasn't been an entry in your chain of title since Dec 2003 from Beneficial.
Christopher Ribbeck most likely appears on the doc as VP of MERS "solely as nominee" for whomever the note holder purports to be - HSBC perhaps? Household Realty?
With regard to your servicer notification, you're correct. You should have received a "hello" and a "goodbye" or a combination "hello/goodbye" letter a minimum 15 days before the transference of the servicing right of your loan. This is per Section 6 of RESPA.
You/ your attorney should start looking at the mounting case law from around the country against MERS. Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, MERS v. Southwest Homes of Arkansas, Bellistri v. Ocwen, and a few other excellent cases out there. You're also going to want to grab the depositions of MERS CEO R.K. Allen and Senior VP and Corp. Secretary William Hultman from my site at http://www.getdshirtz.com
Found this interesting little "Relationship Visualizer" on CorporationWiki for Household Realty - http://www.corporationwiki.com/graphs/roamer.aspx?id=14499030
Feel free to drop me a line directly through GetDShirtz as well if you like. I'll be happy to throw more info at you.
Susan,
Send them a Demand Letter for Production of the Original Blue Inked signature Note. If nothing else, that will buy you some time.
Also, I know a great Certified Fraud Examiner if you are interested. If so, Denise can forward my email address to you.
Hang in there - Believe Me, I know it is frustrating and very very mind boggling to try to understand how/why companies do this to the consumers.
Keep sending your complaint letters to every local, state, federal agency. Not once, not twice, almost every day!!! You can also fax it to the White House (their fax number is on their site).
hi mike...thanx for replying to my letter...this is all just sooo messed up...i looked thru my original loan docs with regions bank and it say on there that "MERS is acting soley as a nominee for Lender and Lender's succors and assigns. MERS is the mortgagee under this Secuiry Instrument> MERS is organized andnexisting under the lasw of Delaware, etc." now...here is what i don't understand about all of this. HOW is it that it says this on my original loan doc through regions bank but yet i have been making payments to HSBC mortgage, AND now when i rec'd my certified letter last saturday, it states {read my above letter, 13th paragraph}
i'm totally confused now because as i stated before i only have one booklet and it refers to HSBC, i have made all payments to HSBC, and yet the date of the above is Feb 18, 2010 and now says household realty corporation as the assignee but then states back to MERS and making payments to them...i am just all confused.
And as far as the Beneficial thing, that's confusing as well...because they were a 2nd mortgage but when we were discharged from our bankrupcty this Jan, Beneficial discharged everything and we owe them nothing, yet they are listed as "interested party" as far as the foreclosure goes, apparently there is still a lien on our property from them?
And what's with our credit report? we have had regions bank since 2003 and then somewhere it changed to HSBC, and yet there is NO mortgage on our credit report from either company. Even if it is good or bad, legally they should be on our credit report. The only mortgage that is listed is Option One or American Home Mortgage and it says paid as agreed, account closed. nothing else.
any ideas....feel free to email me thismomrocks99@msn.com
thanks
susan n ludwig
Susan, I'm sorry to hear about your struggle with HSBC. My quest for a mortgage loan modification with HSBC began in August 2007, before my ARM was due to re-set upwards. And here I am, 3 years later, and I still don't have a modification but it certainly hasn't been for not trying. I've started researching HSBC's role in the economic crisis to try to understand why we can't get a loan modification.
I found out that HSBC became a big buyer of subprime loans originated by others in 2005-2006, and they kept them in their own portfolio. They purchased loans from approximately 250 different wholesale mortgage companies, who had bought them from independent brokers and banks. One of those brokers and/or banks was M & I Bank and/or American Funding, because my loan was bought up in that mess. HSBC had also bought subprime loans prior to 2005, when yours was bought.
Carrick Mollenkamp from The Wall Street Journal wrote a very good article explaining this in February 2007 more than three years ago, and months before I began my fight to save my home. In this article, Mollenkamp explained that HSBC had begun to realize the extent of the crisis way back then. Yet, here we are 3 years later, we still don't have a modification, and HSBC does not have a mortgage modification program in place. Where is the help for us - the homeowners - and who is going to hold this predatory foreign company accountable?
Read more here, and keep in mind that this was written in February 2007: http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2007...Risk8feb07.htm
Some courts have ruled that MERS cannot foreclose, despite all that threatening language in your mortgage. That's why MERS is NOW recording an assignment of mortgage on your property to Household Realty. It allows Household to commence foreclosure proceedings. Household, HSBC, and Beneficial are all part of the same criminal enterprise.
The MERS® System is a national electronic registry system that tracks the changes in servicing rights and beneficial ownership interests in mortgage loans that are registered on the registry. The MERS® System tracks mortgage loan information by use of a unique numeric mortgage identifier that helps streamline the residential mortgage process.
The homebuyer at the closing table signs the security instrument (“mortgage” or “deed of trust”). By signing this document, the lender and the borrower agree to appoint Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS) as the mortgagee as nominee for the lender and the lender’s successors and assigns. By doing so, the borrower grants the mortgage lien to the property to MERS, and the security instrument is recorded in the county land records. As long as the sale of note involves a member of MERS, MERS remains the mortgagee of record, and continues to act as a nominee for the new note-holder.
MERS provides a valuable service to consumers by making servicer information available to homeowners whose loans are registered on the MERS® System. MERS also informs the borrower when the owner of their loan changes. The servicer information is available at no cost to the borrower via a toll-free helpline and a special website.
Please don't take this the wrong way - but the kindest thing that I can say at the moment in response to "MERSCORP"s post, without offending Ms. Richardson, and other readers, is BULL.
MERS provides absolutely zero "valuable service" to consumers that could not just as easily be provided by a county registry of deeds if the consumer's assignments were properly recorded whenever an exchange of ownership transpired. The majority of borrowers have never HEARD of MERS before and when they realize that MERS is involved with their loan they have no idea why.
I'll have to double check, but I believe the "valuable service" that MERS provides is to the MERS clients for whom MERS purports to have saved $2.5 Billion is recordation fees. For those not quite up to speed, that would be $2.5 Billion that MERS has helped its' clients NOT PAY to each and every county registry or recorder of deeds in the United States. That's revenue that county and state governments are and have been in dire need of for quite some time. But as long as the lenders, note holders, servicers and trustees get to keep those fees - or more accurately, pay a smaller portion of them to MERS - I guess that's OK...
Per Section 6 of RESPA, a consumer is supposed to be notified a MINIMUM OF 15 DAYS BEFORE the servicing rights to their loan are sold, assigned or transferred. This is a no-brainer. If the borrower is not informed who their servicer is the borrower doesn't know who to send their monthly payments to.
Not that it matters much, as borrowers are usually required to deal with mortgage servicers as opposed to the actual note holder, but was MERS informing borrowers when the ownership of their loan changed hands BEFORE the passage of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-896
Oh, and like the servicing rights, if the assignments of mortgage were properly recorded at the county registry or recorder of deeds to begin with, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR MERS TO INFORM THE BORROWER OF **ANYTHING.**
Some rather interesting insight into the company in the above mentioned depositions of R.K. Allen and William Hultman, btw. Attorney Nick Wooten did a very nice job conducting these in my opinion.
**UPDATE**
i received this email yesterday from ESOP regarding my loan modification:
"Hi Nikki! Unfortunately the lender has stated that they are unwilling to do a loan modification. At this time, they have advised me to tell you to call this number and set up payment arrangements. The number is: 800-958-2540. The lender has stated that by looking at your budget, you can afford the mortgage."
SOOO... i called the lender tonite(5-21-10) around 8ish...a lady name Jana proceeded to tell me that the only payment plan they will offer will require us to pay $9,377.08, which by the way is half of what we are behind. And then and only then will they decide if we can have a payment plan of regular payments. I told her that I don't have that kind of money and she told me to borrow it. I also told her that if they would have worked with us last year I wouldn't b talking to her on the phone right now. She said she can't talk about the past bc she doesn't know anything about that( basically insinuating that I am lying) and said that all she can do is talk about the future. She said I am not going to argue with u over this. This is how it is and that's it. Then she mentioned putting my home on the market or DIL or short sale and I said u would rather take my home than work with us? It makes zero sense! She just kept reiterating what she was saying about the "down payment". I don't know what to do. She told me that i have only 15 days to respond. This isn't right. I'm really upset. I have nobody to ask that kind of money from. My dad is 73 years old and works at wal-mart for gods sake so he can't help us.
Does anyone understand how hard this was to do with a knot in the throat and fighting back tears?
as i stated before...i am default 14 months in my house payments, HOWEVER, i TRIED to make (3) payments only for them to deny and that was in the begining last year, which would have been a minimal amount that i would have to pay. i then tried again in march of this year to make a payment only to once again be denied...oh but there's NO record of that and this lady is saying i don't know anything about the past. she kept bringing up thye fact that we were in bankruptcy and that THEY(HSBC) do not have to contact me or give me info EVEN if i call them, however my bankruptcy lawyer called their attorney and still NOTHING, as they have NEVER called her back or given her an answer to anything! ....oh and she(the lady at HFC/Beneficial) once again told me that my signature is NOWHERE in the mortgage docs. i had to have my husband give them permission to speak with me, as he has to do every time. we have also faxed an authorization form to give me permanent access to the account, only for them to say there isn't one on file....GRRRR...why are the allowed to lie and say these things?
i also asked her when i called the above number,why it comes up HFC/Beneficial, because HSBC is our bank...her response was because HSBC OWNS HFC/Beneficial...uh still doesn't make sense because i have never made a payment to them(HFC) AND in the foreclosure it states "Household Realty Corporation" and at the county recorders office online it says "REGIONS BANK
MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS INC" what is up with this?
I can't wait for the legal system to catch up with MERS. Their day is coming, we all know it is. Any loan affiliated with MERS is shadey to say the least. These folks are pulling smoke and mirror acts and are on the brink of getting BUSTED!
UPDATE!!!!
on june 3 i received an email from my local congressman's office after they faxed a privacy release so that they could access my account. in the email it states that after they sent the fax to HSBC they called to verify. Guess what? HSBC told them that THERE WAS NO RECORD OF ANY FAX THEY SENT....i replied with welcome to my world.
on 6-5 i received this email from ESOP after i had emailed them asking if there was anything else they could do:
Nikki. Your file is closed through ESOP. At this point, there is nothing else we can do. There are many legal issues that can be taken care of through an attorney. Since your bankruptcy is discharged, I have no idea why you would need an attorneys permission to continue with a modification. Keep in mind that a modification and mediation are two completely different things. A modification is what we tried to get you, and they said that you needed to call them and set up a payment plan. A mediation is what will go on between you, the bank, and a mediator. You should seriously take this time and consider what you will do in the future if the mediation does not go well, i.e....find alternative living arrangements, save money for a resolution if they bend and allow you to do this, consider possibly taking out a loan for the money they are asking for. Your husbands credit score is decent, is it possible to do this? I believe Household realty is acting on behalf of HSBC, so this does give them the right to proceed.
TALK ABOUT FRUSTRATING....
then on 6-14 we had an appt with our UAW attorney...i faxed him 60 pages of docs (faxed them on friday 6-11) that included our monthly income, paystubs, tax forms, etc...this was per request of HSBC attorney's. i was perplexed because i had just done the same thing through ESOP, but ok, i sent them, AND it cost me $20!! anyway, we got there for appt and he proceeds to tell us that he didn't even review our faxed papers. he was saying things like "you can't compare apple to oranges" or "you're getting ahead of yourself." I started to get a bit upset...He looked at some of my loan docs and acted like we have nothing that would hold up in court, yet there's the credit report thing, the fact that they would withhold payments and not apply them, the signature that proves we sent the loan mod docs to them last year, etc...AND we don't even know who our servicer is, and yet he doesn't seem to think anything of it? I'm really upset with all this...
I just find it awful funny that we were good on our loan until last year when my husband became laid off and now all of a sudden that doesn't matter. HSBC or Household or whomever has my loan can falsify information, forge signatures, buy-trade-sell mortgages without notifying the home buyer, increase the APR without notifying the home buyer, deny people access to their accounts, not credit people when they pay on time but make it look as if they didn't pay on time, reassign mortgages stating that we the undersigned agreed to it, even though there isn't any of our signatures, and THAT's ok. BUT when we need assistance, we can't get it and then it turns into this big heaping pile of cow manure. It's absolutely ridiculous.
There are over 70 complaints, which are almost similar to ours, on HSBC at the State of Ohio's Attorney General's website using the Brandon, Florida address....There are over 300 complaints on HSBC overall on the AG's website. How many complaints does there has to be before someone takes action. If there are other states that have these complaints, then people need to be coming forward and someone needs to be peaking and eyebrow up in interest because there's something funny going on.
**July 15 UPDATE** remember in may i told you that HSBC denied us for the loan mod/hardship program through ESOP because they said that we made too much money? well last week i received a letter dated June 26 saying that they have suspended our application for hardship due to the fact that we haven't produced the hardship paperwork. they go on to say that "we are willing to work with you and that if we do not respond in 15 days they will asume that we have backed out of the hardship program"..... that's just ironic. this letter is from HSBC in new york, yet all this time i have been dealing with HSBC in brandon, florida, and my billing statements that we have been getting come from carol stream, illinois, and the lady that i talked to in may (the one that said we had to pay them $9377.08) was in california....my head is just spinning and spinning...
Not sure if you saw the latest news on MERS;
UPDATE: MERS Sued for Fraud
A Nevada law firm has filed two civil lawsuits against Reston-based Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems alleging billions of dollars worth of fraud. The suits, filed in Nevada and California district courts, claim the company has deprived county and state governments of revenue "used among other things to maintain county real property records, fund the judiciary, school systems and other government services."
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=1780
**UPDATE** On Oct 26 we are scheduled to go for mediation at our county court. HSBC has already asked for an extention when my lawyer asked for them to produce documentation of everything...now that to me makes me think they can't find it.
when i was wathcing a news story on all these foreclosures the genetleman speaking said he had came across finanacial hardship and he, too, had applied for the home loan modification. and in the middle of that they foreclosed his home....this is what HSBC has done to us.
IT's awful scary that someone can't or WONT step up and clean out these banks. is it because too many people have their hands in the proverbial cookie jar?
My lawyer keeps asking me if I have money saved. Do I? YEA but less than $500...he says that doesn't look good on our part. we need to put up good faith...showing that we are willing to work with the bank...well what about the bank showing good faith and admitting that they screwed up and showing good faith that they are going to make it right for us? this should work both ways....not one. i understand they have to and want to make money, but without a homeowner living in the home, how are they going to do that? my county has the highest foreclosure rate in ohio...so they are saying they would rather take my home and sit on it with nobody buying, rather than work with us? makes no sense what so ever!!!!
Our situation is almost the same. We are in a Chapter 13 and have always made our payments on time. Feb. 2010 I tried to call my payment in and they would not accept it. They said it had been charged off...why?? I was making our payments on time. I called my attorney and they called HSBC's attorney and they never got back to them. Since then I have mail 3 payments and not one of the checks have been cashed. Our attorney has called them 4 times and they still have not returned their call. This is our second mortgage...I am so worried they are going to foreclose, but do not know what to do. Our BK will be discharged June 2012. Please Help!
jennifer, the only advice i really have to tell you is to start logging and documenting everyone and everything you talk to and talk about...what time, the date, etc...and then start making phone calls, emails, writing letters to your local politicians, state politicians, contact your state attorney general's office and make a formal complaint. HSBC did the exact same thing to us, would never give us an answer about anything or their lawyers would never call our lawyer back so that is the exact reason i refused to send payment to them through the mail, because i knew they wouldn't cash it...if i were you, i would stop payment...if they haven't cashed them, who knows where the checks are. put that money back into another account and don't touch it...get a good lawyer. if it wouldn't have been for me finding denise's website and her helping me and giving me insight i would have given up a long time ago...DON"T GIVE UP>>>there IS hope...you have to be willing to fight for a long time...and now that we have the foreclosure freezes, maybe, just maybe, this will go in OUR favor...you can email me any time...i will help you in any way that i can...
Nikki
Nikki,
Are you in a chapter 13 and did they foreclose on you?
jennifer...we were in a chapt 13 but we were dishcharged from that in january of this year. but during that time we had filed for the home loan mod because of everything else going on, ie: husband being laid off, etc...we never got any notices or letters stating that we were being foreclosed upon. i read it in the paper on april 27 of this year. funny thing was that household realty is the entitiy foreclosing, not HSBC and from what i was told household is a sister company of HSBC, but i still don't get how they are the ones foreclosing us...
UPDATE: we went to mediation the 26 of OCTOBER...what a joke...their lawyer either had parkinson's disease or was extremely nervous. he was shaking so bad it wasn't funny. when my lawyer mentioned that he didn't have the documents that he had previously asked for their lawyer got all bent and said that we will stop this mediation right now and go straight to litigation...hold on...my lawyer said whoa wait a second...i only asked because i need those documents to make a fair assessments of all this...their lawyer didn't want to hear it...so the mediator said well this isn't court and we aren't here to try any case we are here to come to an agreement. yea ok...here's the agreement...they want us to pay almost $10000 and would give us a fixed rate of 5% for ONLY 6 months. at the end of the 6 months they would re-evaluate our loan to see if we were eligible for anything else...thus putting us right back into the same position. we told them we would give them $5000 and that we wanted 5% fixed for the remainder of our loan. they declined...so now we are still in limbo and we have to go to actual litigation. my lawyer hasn't gotten the papers yet from HSBC/household...i'm very upset and emotionally drained, yet that's supposed to be ok. i'm trying to save money, but it's not easy when you have to live, too...(God love Mike Dillon, because i don't think i could do what he has done for that length of time!!!) Oh and i get a letter from the bank saying the other day that i would be getting another letter about my interest rate dropping.... funny thing is that it stated that my current interest rate was 7.0% and my payment was $980 and my new interest rate would be 6.5% and my new payment woud be $1023.59. now i'm not a math mathematician or anything but how does your interest fo down and your payment go up???
were any of your original lenders M&I FBS? I'm in the same boat with HSBC. Looking at a possible modification since ALL of my original mortgage documents including deed and note are 'missing' and have been for the last three years I've been in court with these folks. I'm leary about entering into a modification with an entity thats been so deceitful and kept me in the dark, also can't show me they ever owned anything in reference to my property. I hope MERS gets whats coming to them also.
Nikki-Get a new attorney-it sounds that yours is thinking modification instead of counter claim based upon fraud
I have an HSBC fraud case-no original promissory note, no standing-the majority of all notes have been sold and transfer unrecorded anywhere as mine.
Unfortunately, not enough homeowners raising hell-the government knows what happened and is failing to step up to the plate on behalf of homeowners-it gets campaign funds, both D's and R's from Wall Street. Wall Street and its banks need to go to jail.
My situation is very similar to yours. My husband worked for GM and the local plant here where he worked was closed. Due to Multiple Sclerosis I am medically retired from the same GM/Delphi plant with 20 years service. We were foreclosed on in 2009 by HSBC. We moved and surrendered our keys to the local HSBC because we had no other avenue to take at that time. I recently heard about a class action suit against this mortgage company and several others, that have been encouraged by the government. Unfortunately, I can't remember all the details but I think we may possibly qualify for this. Could you please share information you have pertaining to this? I would like to know if this in any way may include me. Thank you~
I have been trying to fined away to deal with HSBC for some time now. I never get the same answers.I have found the they are not more than a bunch liers,I have see on the news where HSBC knowingly londgering money for the drog carteal, if they did what would stop them londgering for terrorist grops. Then we need to come to gether to fite them. Lets get to gether and bring about a class action lawsuit. You can email me at c.e.harley@hotmail.com.Need to do this quick as posibal. thank C E Harley
Our story mirrors Nikki's almost exactly, except we are in Florida. Have been in foreclosure status with HSBC Beneficial Inc. of FL since 07/2009. After all the phone calls, missing loan modification tries, mediation in 2010, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, "can't find you in the system", demand for $14,000 to "reinstate the loan", we finally got a meeting in chambers with a local county judge on 2/19/2013. She told Beneficial's lawyer (2nd firm since this whole thing started) that they had 60 days to go to trial, come to an agreement with us, or request a sale date for our property. She reiterated: "I want this whole thing DONE in 60 days." As of today, 4/16/13, we haven't heard the first thing from Beneficial or its attorneys.
The day after meeting with the judge, we sent a letter to Beneficial (at the judge's encouragement) asking them for the 20th time to please modify our loan, please work with us as we now have enough income to make mortgage payments. Nothing but silence from the mortgagor or the attorneys. We got into this mess in 2009 when we got a couple payments behind due to my husband losing his job, and Beneficial refusing to take partial payments. Now we are behind according to our statements about $45,000 on a $81,000 mortgage. Seems ridiculous that we don't just walk away, but this has been our HOME since 1994 and we love the little place, and want to raise our two young daughters here.
Talked to the Clerk of Court today (4/16/13), and was told since it looks like Beneficial won't meet the 60 day order from the judge, she will be forced to dismiss their case and HSBC will more than likely file again under a new foreclosure case number. I'm trying to figure out how to best fight this so that we don't have to wait out more years of uncertainty and can just get on with life. I've ordered my own Title Search to see if there's anything there. Don't have money for an attorney, and sounds like from stories I read online that attorneys don't get much done anyways in this rampant national foreclosure mess that we are all in. Any suggestions? Thank you...
OH! Also, I forgot to mention that back in March 2013 I received a notice in the mail that I would be one of the people who would receive either a check in the mail from the Independent Foreclosure Review's firm, or "assistance in loan modification/fee forgiveness" from Beneficial. Apparently HSBC was one of 13 mortgage giants who settled out of court (no admission of guilt) by agreeing to place people in Tiers or categories of damages due to fraud, robo-signing, incorrect foreclosures, etc. Based on what level of financial damage you are placed in, you will either get a check or Beneficial will get $1 credit for every $7 of debt that forgive. They agreed to something like $96 billion in forgiveness/compensation. You can Google it and find out about the other companies too. Still waiting on that check or loan modification agreement.......