Here's my story...
Dear Mr. Albanese,
I am writing you in a final attempt to resolve an eight month dispute I have had with my mortgage lender. I will try to make my letter as short and to the point as possible.
I purchased my home October 20th. My original lender was Southstar Funding.
A few moths later Ocwen purchased the loan and the horror began.
On August 20th, I received a letter from Ocwen Federal Bank regarding my escrow account. The letter basically informed me that my payments would be changing from $1343.13 to $1913.99 due to a deficiency of $5,490.26
I made numerous attempts to correspond with Ocwen in an effort to understand and hopefully resolve this situation, as I did not make enough money to make the payments. I even sent a letter to Ocwen via FedEx. I filed a complaint with Ocwen's Complaint Resolution Department via the office of the Ombudsman. Ocwen would not respond.
They simply demanded payments.
In November I spoke to a telephone agent at Ocwen who's English was somewhat broken. However, I did learn from the conversation that the additional funds were needed to pay my PMI charges. I reviewed my closing documents and noted that in all references of PMI the documents read zero. I continued to attempt to correspond with Ocwen - again no response.
Over the next few months I scrambled to borrow money, get loans on cars etcetera. I started paying the monthly payments of $1913.99. Doing so caused me become delinquent on every other obligation that I had/have.
In April of this year, I decided to contact Southstar Funding to inquire how this PMI error could occur. Southstar was very kind and helpful. After one day of research Southstar Funding determined that there was no PMI mistake and the loan was not to be charged additional PMI fees. On my behalf, they contacted Ocwen and resolved the PMI error.
I was so relieved until I received my next statement from Ocwen. The required monthly payment was still $1,913.99, so again I called Ocwen. The representative then explained to me that the PMI had been cancelled and credited to my account; however my payment would not change because the additional funds were now needed to pay my property taxes. I asked him to explain to me how they were calculating my property taxes.
The very rude agent (Clark Hampton) explained that the following payments had been made from my account for the 2004 tax year.
Fulton County taxes $629.11 via check XXXXX on October 4
City of Atlanta taxes $2,322.22 via check XXXXXXXX on September 10.
City of Atlanta taxes $1,639.08 via check XXXXXX.
Special Tax $1.18 via check XXXXXXX on August 12.
According to my calculations, the total of these figures is $4591.59 in total property taxes, so I asked the agent to explain to me why they were charging me $9,381.12 per year in escrow. He simply refused to answer the question and demanded that I make a payment of $1913.99 that day. Since I did not have any money left, I did not. I, again, hung up the phone in dismay.
The next day, I was updating my neighbors on the situation and was informed that none of their property taxes were as much as what Ocwen was telling me mine was. I, then, decided to get a copy of my 2004 tax bills. Guess what I found out.
The combined county and city taxes for 2004 were only $2,268.19.
Again, I called Ocwen. The agent told me that since I had a dispute regarding the amount of the taxes that I should just pay the taxes myself. I agreed. This had to be the best solution. I was told that my payments would now be $1,079.64 and that I would be responsible for paying the property taxes. What a relief. I thought.
On June 7 I received a letter from Ocwen informing me that I was not eligible to pay my own taxes because I had several late payments over the past few months. (Amazing how this all works out, huh?)
So now here we are today. I get my latest nag greatest version of Ocwen's Account statement. The amount due is $10,174.64.
I have exhausted all of my financial resources. I've cashed out my retirement plan. I've sold my baby grand piano. My cable and DSL have been disconnected. I'm being sued by the homeowner's association for not being able to pay my dues. I'm 2 car payments behind. My auto insurance has been cancelled and I estimate that Ocwen will foreclose next month.
I need help. I feel like Ocwen has raped and taken my life away from me. Recently, I have begun to have terrible migraine headaches and unusual muscle spasms in my face. I went to my physician. He asked me if anything in my life had changed that may be causing high levels of stress. Without going into details I told him that I would soon be facing foreclosure. He diagnosed my symptoms as being stress related and I'm now being prescribed three different medications to manage depression and stress.
Can you PLEASE help me? (Soon)
1. I want Ocwen to re-evaluate my escrow account and determine why they are charging me $9381.12 for annual property tax escrow when the taxes are only $2,268.19 and correct the error.
2. I want Ocwen to refund all late fees, collection fees, legal fees etc, since this entire fiasco is due to their error.
3. I want Ocwen to remove any negative information they had submitted to the credit agencies and send a copy of their removal request to me.
4. I want Ocwen to change my payment amount back to what it should be using the correct tax information.
5. I want Ocwen to apply the $4,690.56 in overpayments (which I was required to pay) to my current and corrected amount due to them for the monthly payments of May, June and July, which according to my calculations is about $3,900.00
6. I DO NOT want Ocwen to apply the over payments to my principle because I do not have any money to make the outstanding payments.
Furthermore, I would like to know if there are any class action law suits pending against Ocwen that I may need to be aware of relating to my situation.
Mr. Albanese - I have owned five homes in the past and have never experienced the absolute horror of Ocwen. They are simply a homeowner's worst nightmare.
I have enclosed a copy of all documentation and correspondence relating to my request.
Again, I am begging for assistance.
Chad
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
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