We filed chapter 13 bankruptcy over 5 years ago and were recently discharged. All of the sudden CitiMortgage collections department is calling me telling me I am behind by over 700.00 dollars and have accrued about 1200.00 dollars in late fees over 3 years but are just now calling me. I explained to the woman that we have payed our payment everymonth and have never received anything but a normal statement showing our regular amount due. She said that due to the bankruptcy they were not allowed to tell us. I explained to her that contact could have been made with the lawyer or trustee. I requested an itemized statement of my payments going 3 years back. She told me I could contest the late fees by faxing a request. I immediately sent the overdue amount minus the late fees and faxed a request explaining a situation.
After never receiving the requested itemized statment and calling CitiMortgage several times I got online and figured out I could see my statements there (CitiMortgage never told us this). What I found were not late fees but attorney fees and bankruptcy fees and inspection fees. CitiMortgage says the inspection fees were to make sure the house was not abandoned.
I spoke with my bankruptcy attorney regarding the attorney and bankruptcy fees and he stated that no fees can be added without petioning the court. Any fees are automatically put into the bankruptcy and paid by us over the 5 year bankruptcy period. He said my file showed no such petition.
We again contacted CitiMortgage about this and explained this and all we get are transfers to supervisors who sit there and say uh, uh, uh. Finally after several attempts one supervisor actually called us back and gave us the number to the legal firm whom she says applied the fees. That company is also dumbfounded by this and says they will investigate it and get back to us.
In the meantime we did get a response to our fax stating they refused to take the late fees off. (what late fees)
We also have sent a detailed letter via certified mail requesting all fees be taken off as we contest all of them. We have also paid the late fees so we are not charged more interest but only after the letter was sent.
Please beware and check your statement monthly to assure payments were applied correctly and remember bankruptcy fees are illegal to charge directly to you.
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