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Homeowners Receive $25 Billion Mortgage Settlement, But Is It Enough?

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LET ME TELL YOU FOLKS MY STORY...IN 2002, MY HUSBAND AND I BOUGHT 10 ACRES AND PUT A NEW HOME ON IT. OUR REAL ESTATE AGENT DIRECTED US TO A COMPANY WHO COULD BUILD OUR HOUSE, AT THE SAME TIME, MY IN LAWS HAD BOUGHT LAND AND WENT THRU THE SAME COMPANY TO BUILD A NEW HOUSE AS WELL, WELL AFTER MOVING IN AND LIVING THERE FOR ABOUT A YEAR, I GET A LETTER FROM THE COUNTY I LIVED IN STATING WE WERE BEHIND ON PROPERTY TAXES, HAVING ESCROW I KNEW THAT COULD'NT BE POSSIBLE, I CONTACTED OUR LENDER AND EXPLAINED AND THOUGTH EVERYTHING WAS TAKEN CARE OF, ANOTHER YEAR GOES BY AND WE ARE STILL OWING PROPERTY TAXES. COME TO FIND OUT, OUR LNDER WAS PAYING MY IN LAWS TAXES FROM OUR ESCROW, THEY LIVED IN A DIFFERENT COUNTY, THE LENDER PAYS UP OUR TAXES AND OUR HOUSE PAYMENT JUMPS UP $300 MORE A MONTH, I CALLED THE LENDER TO TRY TO GET THINGS STRAIGHT AN CONTINUE MAKING THE NEW PAYMENT, AFTER ANOTHER YEAR, AND ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE COUNTY STATING WE WERE BEHIND ON TAXES AGAIN, I CALLE AGAIN THE LENDER, THEN OUR HOOUSE PAYMENT GOES UP ANOTHER $200/MONTH. WELL WE COULD NOT AFFORD IT ANY MORE SO DECIDED TO SELL THE HOME IN A SHORT SALE INSTEAD OF FORECLOSING, WE HIRED AN AGENT WHO IN TURN, SOLD OUR HOME IN THE SHORT SALE, SO WE MOVED OUT THINKING WE AVOIDED A FORECLOSURE, BUT THAT FELL THROUGH TOO. WE RECEIVED DOCUMENTS ON THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS AND IT WASN'T EVEN OUR HOME. IT WAS MY IN LAWS PROPERTY. SO LONG STORY SHORT, OUR LENDER REALLY SCREWED OUR PAPERWORK UP AND GOT US MIXED UP WITH OUR IN LAWS BECAUSE THEY WENT TRU THE SAME LENDER AS WELL. WE MOVED OUT IN 2008 AND DIDN'T MAKE A HOUSE PAYMENT THE LAST 2 YRS WE LIVED THERE.

CYNTHIA RILEY of OH 2:07PM January 20, 2013

What the banks got away with is pure CRIMINAL. I bought a house in a very nice neighborhood for 274,000.00 I was self employed, and went stated loan. After escrow closed, 2 weeks later, my daughter was born. For the next 8 years, I never missed a payment, some months I sent in a double payment. I worked for a Casino where I was paid minimum wage plus tips. In 2007, I was diagnosed with advanced stage prostate cancer, however, I continued to limp along with the pain and continue working. Finally, the casino found a technicality to fire me. In August,2008 I pleaded with my bank to lower the interest rate. What they offered was a half percent reduction. We went to a modification specialist who guaranteed me that they could get my rate from 6.75 down to at least 1 or 2 percent. At that time Monthly mortage was3,600.00. We were instructed to have no contact with our lender(Chase Bank). Every time I called to check on the progress, the same answer:"We're still working on it. Jan, 2009, my neurologist and urologist retired me because the casino would not allow me to work without a letter from my MD,giving me clear bill of health. My monthly award was $929.00 Finally I started calling the bank and they said they had no knowledge of a company representing us. The Modification even told me they were trying to get past due payments forgiven because of my health. At the casino I was earning over 5,000.00 per month in tips alone, however when they calculated my monthly Social Security award, they did not recognize tips. I had the records of deposits proving I had earned this money. NO. Finally on December 11, 2009 I was returning home from my daily radiation treatment to find the sheriff at my home and a man was changing the lock. My home was sold at auction. From there on, life was a downward spiral. We stayed at the Holiday Inn for 2 weeks until we could secure a rental house. The wonderful new owner said he would open the house one day and we could get our possessions. He called 12-24-09 at 6am and said the house is open. Because it was Christmas Eve, I paid 3500.00 to move 4 miles away in the same city. So here I sit in the rental, cancer is in metastases to 100% bone cancer, with a life expectancy of 2-3 years. They say Retirement is supposed to be the golden years of your life. I can't even afford to eat 3 times a day. Chase auctioned off my home for $425,000.00 New owner sold it 2 months later for $525,000.00 The Bank had all of my medical info and they knew my income depended on tips. They said just sign here. With the economy in the toilet, they took the bail out money and paid themselves 3 million dollar bonuses and up. In the movie Too Big To Fail, the character Hank Paulson, treasurer of the Federal reserve, said" We did it because we were making too much money". The Banks Set us up to fail and they don't want to compensate when they got caught with their hands in the cookie Jar.

Kenton Sellgren of CA 5:47AM September 11, 2012

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erikjohnson400 of CA 10:35AM May 14, 2012

I can't get my $2,000 anyway. I was foreclosed on in 2010. I don't have my account number, and of course, Wells Fargo conveniently doesn't have my social security number. I contacted Nevada's attorney general, who gave me a generic number to call which still leaves me chasing my tail.

Chris De Marco of NV 1:28AM March 21, 2012

My family lost our home in 2008 after my husband was injured & I became sick only 2 mo.after & his employer decided to jerk him around because he was on light duty & say they didn't have work for him. We asked for forebearance & were lumped in w/ everyone who had bad interest rate & mortgage loans, bad credit ect. We are still trying to recover hoping to get a house this year. Taking the foreclosure of our credit score would be of immense help to getting us back on track quicker. I think that along w/ the pathetic amount of the $2,000 settlement they are talking is the least they can do so I can get on w/ trying to provide my children w/ a stable home environment again.

evalove of WA 11:52AM February 14, 2012

Homeowners with an FHA-insured loan may find a conventional mortgage refinance reduces their monthly housing expenditures, best one out there is "Official Refinance"

joyburnz of TX 2:19AM February 11, 2012

it is too little too late th-is crisis cost my family our home, my husband his business, my children their future, and my husband and myself our excellent credit! I have lost faith in my country and my government in its ability to safeguard its citizens from corporate greed and control!! I am 53, my husband is 66 it would take $200,000 minimum for us personally to get financially back on track. We will never recovet in our lifetime what has been stolen from us financially, morally, and emotionally. This has become a crime against our society and noone is making these banks pay for the dammage they really caused. This settlement is a joke. each bank should give each homeowner retribution for stall tactics that ruined the homeowner's credit, the homeowners should be put back in their homes, the homes should be refurbished to the condition they were in before the banks allowed mold and water damnage, the homeowners should have their credit restored to preforeclosure status, and the homes should all be refinanced to affordable payments!! Anything short of this is just window dressing-you aren't fooling anyone!!

Cheri garvin-dodgson of OH 1:26PM February 10, 2012