We refinanced our home with a guy named Leon at the Ameriquest offices in the San Fernando Valley, California. He was fair and decent and helped us pay off some bills, and so on.
Several months later we got a call from another guy named Kevin also from Ameriquest. He told me that because we'd been paying on time we had become eligible for a very exclusive program so fabulous that only the most senior executives at Ameriquest could get it and all of them used it. This program offered a fixed payment interest only mortgage for, I think, ten years. This program would allow us to lower our payment by $1000 per month! I was thrilled! Kevin said that all we needed to do was have an appraisal done and sign some new loan documents&we'd have it done in a matter of a week or two.
Then Kevin called and said we were almost done but in checking our credit he'd found an outstanding home equity loan that we hadn't reported. When I told him it had been paid off he said it was too late to lower the loan amount - that we would have to accept the new loan that would include this non-existent home equity loan balance. But no worries, said Kevin, it wouldn't raise our monthly payment much at all. I was not happy but I didn't put a halt to the process because I so wanted that wonderful fixed payment interest only loan.
Then a notary came to our home on a Saturday afternoon with the loan documents. There were a lot of things to sign and I was a little concerned that none of them said what the Kevin loan disclosure statement said, namely that the loan was for a fixed payment. I asked the notary, but he said he really didn't have any information. I thought well, this has to be what Kevin promised so I signed and I had my husband sign, too.
Everything was fine for the first three months. Then we got a notice that our loan had been sold. Then the new lender notified us that our payment was going to go up because it was an adjustable, not a fixed rate mortgage. I called and talked to this new holder of our loan and they thought I was crazy! I said but this isn't the deal we had with Kevin. They pretty much said 'Kevin who?'.
I called Ameriquest and to ask what had happened and they pretty much stonewalled me. I couldn't get my old fixed payment loan back. I owed way more money because of the amount added to pay the phantom home equity loan. Home loan interest rates had gone up and as far as they were concerned I was just another potential lender— they didn't think they owed me any special favors.
I talked to a lot of people about what to do. Our payments were going up every 6 months with no annual cap and an overall cap of 14%!!! No one could help us. I talked to a very smart lawyer who said that the loan documents were controlling and we we were just out of luck... Even though Kevin lied and cheated and made it impossible for us to undo the damage we were stuck.
Now our lovely home is up for sale because the payments will eventually overtake our income and we don't want to be on the street. I am so sick at heart over this. I thought I was pretty smart but I was really duped! I don't understand how this company can get away with such practices. If anyone has an idea about what to do or some novel legal theory for how to fix our situation, you'd have my eternal thanks and if we still have a house, you'll be welcome over for dinner any time!
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