My husband and I chose to refinance our current mtg.in the spring of 2004. We decided to do this because our broker promised us there would NOT be a pre-payment penalty on our current mtg.
Everything seemed really good. Our rate was awesome and we were finally able to get a fixed rate for 30 years. Then shortly before the closiing our broker said that the mtg.Co had run our credit again and our scores had gone way down and we would not qualify for the rate and terms we were previously promised. He came back with a different rate and terms but they were still pretty good so we went with it.
On the closing day we were in for a huge shock. The pre-payment penalty DID exist and we were charged astronomical amounts for silly things.
Since we had 3 days to cancel the loan we signed it, sent the lawyer on his way and immediately called our broker. He wasn't in and we left a mssg. With his supervisor. The next day we didn't get a call so we called them. The broker said he would look into everything and see what he could do about some of the high charges.
He never got back to us so we called again the following day. He said he was still looking into it and at that time decided that we had to cancel the loan. We had a 'right to cancel' form from Long Beach Mtg. And we signed and dated it.
We sent it in the mail to the exact address provided to us. To be extra safe my husband sent it by certified mail. Imagine my surprise when about 5 days later I got the cash-out check from them (dated on the 4th day from the closing. This did not give them enough time to receive the cancellation notice that THEY had said to send by mail).
I immediately called Long Beach Mtg. And asked what I should do with the check, since we cancelled. They said they would look into it and call back. I didn't worry about it anymore because we did what we were supposed to do.
About a week after that my husband told me that the certified letter was at our house and on it was stamped 'undeliverable to address as shown'. I called Long Beach Mtg. The next day and told them what had happened. They didn't seem too interested so I called the post office that attempted to deliver the cancellation notice. They stated to me that there was no suite # and that was the reason for it being sent back. I then called Long Beach mtg. Again and told them about it and they basically said that it wasn't their problem.
We were charged $20,000 for the closing costs, all the other fees, and the pre-payment penalty and our monthly payment was only $40.00 less than it was before. I tried calling Long Beach the next day and at that time they stated that they did not speak to the borrowers, that my broker had to call.
At this time my husband and I went to a lawyer. After 3 long months we finally got justice. We have a good fixed rate and they refunded us over $13,000.00 for the pre-payment penalty and other fees. Our lawyers fees (over $1,000.00) and other fees were taken out of the $17,000.00 we were supposed to get back from them.
I have to say that this whole experience has put a bad taste in our mouths but in the end it worked out ok. I don't completely blame Long Beach Mtg. For all of this, our broker had lied to us several times. We don't plan on refinancing again any time soon because we have a good deal now. After all is said and done we are happy about the outcome.
It's just a shame that we had to go to a lawyer to get this resolved, they should have dealt with us one on one, it would have been much cheaper for all of us.
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