Imagine my suprise when I went looking for Homecommings Financial to double check the address which I send my payments to, and I come across this website! Reading through the reports, I suddenly realized that My husband and I are not alone! We too have been subject to the extortion which Homecommings Financial perpetrates. We too are now sitting in bankruptsy court because of their actions. We too will be looking to sue this company in court once we are sure that our home is saved and we will not be out on the streets!
Owning our own home has been a dream that was finally fulfilled in August. We had the payments we had asked for (under $750 a month), the property so that we could have our dogs in peace. We had set up mortgage payments as a direct allotment out of my husbands military retirement, therfore the mortgage company recieved them on the first each month without fail from the government. We had paid for homeowners insurance for 1 year in advance as required by the finance company prior to even considering the loan. We were releaved that one day we would own our own home outright without paying somone elses mortgage in rent.
The first cloud on the horizon was recieved by letter in November of when I got something from Homecommings about not havng insurance on the home. I imeadiatly called my insurance company (Farmers) and inquired. They assured me that the policy was in effect and was good until Sept. They then offered to contact Homecommings and give them whatever information they needed, which they did, and then called me back to let me know that they had faxred all the required info to the mortgage company. Problem solved... Or so I thought.
Now, I admit to some fault here as honestly after the first 2 or 3 months I got really tired of wading through the ads for vacuum cleaners, life insurance and so forth, and knowing that my mrtgage payment was recieved by them on time, I began to just take the statements sent and file them without opening them. My biggest mistake. Had I continued to wade through all that, I would have caught this sooner.in February of homecommings added an escro and paid for Hazard insurance, then raised my mortgage payment over the 750 mark.in fact that payment request was over $1200!
Then in July of 05 I get another letter from Homecommings saying our 2004 taxes had not been paid.in closing, the seller had agreed to pay the 04 taxes and we included the amount prorated that would cover the amount of time we were living in the home in 04 in closing costs. I had also asked if there could be an escrow for taxes at closing and was told no. I went to the tax office anyway and talked to them, and set up a payment plan for the taxes owed. I was to make the first payment on the 15th of August. I went in to make that payment and was told the taxes were paid. When I asked who paid them, they looked it up but had no information other then the check number and amount. I assumed that the seller had finally gotten around to paying them and looked no further.
Everything seemed fine, no notes from the finance company saying they had paid the taxes and that what Defence Finance was paying was not enough to cover the mortgage now, nothing. Imagine our suprise when we get a certified letter from Homecommings in mid December that we are in default! We imeadiately called Homecommings and talked to some guy who was really rude. He stated that there had not been a payment since Oct of 05. He told us that we should sell our home or refinace! I told him I did not want to sell our home, and that I doubted that we could refinace now that they had this going on. It went from bad to worse, when I finally said "fine" and hung up.
I called back about 10 minutes later and got a very nice lady who told us that the amount the guy had told me earlier, $1150, was incorrect that the amount of the mortgage was now $880. I told her that our contracted note was $639.74 and that it would be difficult to pay any more then $750/mo, using the system we had set up when we closed. She then sent me to THEIR credit counselor and we discussed what could be done.in the end, we agreed to pay $800 am month and would pay of fthe escrows with our income tax return.
We got a letter from them stating that everything was fine per the agreement.in the mean time we contacted Defence finace and was told that Homecommings had contacted them stating that they needed more money, and since they had not heard from my husband, they had stopped all payments and frozen the account in September. Again we were NEVER contacted by homecommings.
2 weeks later I have a message on my voicemail from homecommings saying "this is your last chance". I called them on Monday afternoon asking what they meant. I was told that they had tried to contact us by mail and by telephone to discuss the matter, but we had not responded to the mailings and when they called the number, they were told that it was incorrect. We got no letters nor any calls from them prior to the voicmail message.
Interestingly ehough they did manage to get ahold of me using that very same number and leaving a voicemail, which I pointed out to the guy. He told me that I had to have $945 on his desk by Tuesday morning (the next day) or they would begin foreclosure. Of course I got upset and asked to speak to the lady (whos name I had) I talked to before. He told me that she was no longer involved and that he was handling it now. Eventually he threatened to hang up on me, and insisted that I send him the $945 via western union. I didnt have $945 at the time but had the $800 that was agreed upon earlier and had been about to send it in. I offerd that, but he refused it saying it was $945 or foreclosure. Well you can imagine that I told him where he could stick it, and contacted attorneys that evening.
We had our meeting of creditors on the 19th of April. When the court officer asked me what our mortgage was, I told him $639.74. He looked on his sheet and said "But they say here that it is $1100/" I looked him in the face and said "Oh so that is what they are trying to get now? That's the third increase.By the time this gets to court I am willing to bet it will be over $1500." he looked at me and asked what I meant, so I told him what had happened.
Now mind you; the ONLY reason we are filing is to save our home. We have no credit card debt, we do have a reasonable car note, some back medical bills but nothing that would usually make someone file Ch13. I told the court officer that id sell the home before I paid $1500 a month, or even $1100 a month as the property wasnt worth it. The selling price on the home was only $78K and we put 20K down!
Our attorney for the bankruptsy has stated to us that he has 3 other cases pending against other finance companies who did the exact same thing and that once we had our home protected, we would then discuss whether or not we had a case against homecomings. I have since told him that i want to sue them for the amount of the home loan plus atty fees and court costs, and $20K for forcing us to file bankruptsy, thereby ruining our credit.
It is our belief that they held their silence until we got so far behind because of their escrows (which incidently on our contract in big bold letters it says "NO ESCROW") that there would be no way to dig ourselves out. Additionally we were hearing that we could refinance at a lower rate after we had paid on time for a year and a half. The timing of their finally getting around to telling us there was an issue was certainly suspect. We had paid on time for a year and 1 month!
Fortunately Texas has a homesteaders law which prevents them from taking our home as long as we make payments. I am sending all payments to their overnight address, in the form of money orders and sending it certified mail, return recept requested. Therefore if they try and say it wasnt paid... I have the proof that says "Oh yes it was and YOU signed for it!" If any atty wants to make a class action, sign us up! These people need to be stopped! What they are doing is illegal, and they KNOW it. Its just that no one has had the gumption or the money to call them on it!
Cynthia
Leander, Texas
U.S.A.
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