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We bought our house in 2007 and obviously the housing market crashed and we found ourselves underwater and money was very tight. We qualified for the "Making Home Affordable" loan modification program (this plan: Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP)) and were able to knock $300/month off our monthly mortgage payment which helped tremendously. We went through a trial period, made all our payments, and were approved to make it permanent. Sounds great, right? It was until my DH noticed there was too much money in our account and did a little digging to find our mortgage payment was RETURNED! Turns out Chase bank made a mistake and put our house in FORECLOSURE instead of putting the loan modification through! My DH spent hours on the phone with them and they keep assuring him that things are being fixed and we don't need to worry, but then we keep getting foreclosure letters in the mail! My DH just called them again and they assured him that the foreclosure letter was just an automated thing and we aren't being foreclosed on, but I'm really worried. I'm also worried this is going to show up on our credit! We have never been behind on our mortgage payments, so this is insane that they mistakenly put us in foreclosure! I'm worried we need a lawyer but money is tight. Any advice?
Thanks for the responses. We are putting a call into the lawyer that did our home closing. Does anyone know what our rights are? Can we sue Chase for our legal fees?
Thanks for all your replies. We put a call in to the lawyer. He said that we are getting the letters because they are handled by 2 different departments that don't communicate with each other. He said we are o.k. as long as we aren't served by any official legal papers. He said if we do get served to give him a call and he will help us, otherwise we are o.k. Phew, I feel better now.
I hate to disagree with a lawyer, because I have to assume they know their business. But if your payment was returned, you have not made your current payment, and that will reflect on your credit report. Since it really is a mistake, Chase will have to correct it, but that will probably require a lot of chasing from you (no pun intended).
He is right that as long as you are only receiving letters, you aren't actually "in foreclosure", but that doesn't mean it is ok. It is still a mess. So I wouldn't just sit back and wait for it so sort itself out. Keep calling Chase. Make sure that it gets fixed, your payment gets made, all late fees get waived and no lates get reported on your credit. You may have to talk to multiple departments. And it could take a long time to fix completely.
By doing nothing and just waiting for it to resolve itself, one of three things will happen. 1. It will never get fixed and Chase will foreclose on your house. 2. It will eventually get fixed, but Chase will expect you to pay all sorts of late fees to get current. or 3. It will eventually get fixed, Chase will waive the late fees, but your credit will be severely damaged. Saving your credit will almost certainly involve a lot of effort from you (or the assistance of an attorney).
When you get to the point that Chase tells you it is all taken care of, they take your payment and tell you your credit report is fine, wait 30 days, then pull your credit reports from all three of the major agencies (www.annualcreditreport.com) if you haven't already gotten it for free for the year. Make sure that no negatives show up. If you pull the first one and it still shows a negative, STOP. Do not waste the other 2. Get back on the phone to Chase and tell them it isn't fixed. Send them a certified letter demanding that this mistake be corrected from your credit reports immediately. Rinse and repeat. If you run out of free reports, switch to your husband's. You each get a free report from each of the agencies once a year.
My 2 cents - I work for a mortgage attorney firm. We are on the front line fighting with lenders everyday.
The attorney you spoke too is correct. Your in Illinois, which is a judicial state - requiring lenders to process a foreclosure through the courts.
You should act if you get a court notice of an auction or sale date. Other than that, keep a file of everything you are receiving. Make sure you have your paperwork showing your permanent modification.
As for your credit - there is a really good chance the mortgage company not reporting correctly and the possibility of lates appearing. If that is the case - you need to get a letter from your lender, reflecting your payments made. Then send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus, to remove the lates appearing. You have to do this, no one else is going to do it because this is really time intensive.....
While the attorney is correct that in Illinois you cannot be foreclosed without your case going to court the fact is the "automated systems" are going to send those same "letters" to the credit reporting agencies and THAT is something that "phone calls" will NOT resolve.
You NEED either an attorney or at least some advice from like a law school's legal aid department to send the appropriate "nasty letters" to the right departments with the correct service to get the "automated systems" over ridden by actual human being that has the authority to but your mortgage AND CREDIT back in good standings.
I know several attorneys that make a living doing real estate closings and maybe one out of dozens has an experience dealing with the messed up credit ratings / lender errors. The OP needs to find a different kind of attorney...
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