I actually appear to have had better results with my efforts than many others posting to this site, though the outcome seems about the same.
As this entry is long because of the detail: You will find that Homecomings isolates anyone of responsibility from public availability. It makes claims on its website of willingness to work with people who are having problems making payments, but does not even provide proper contact for that on the website. They have severe problems managing mail and correspondence, have independable fax machines, and do not accept e-mail communication on specific matter regarding accounts.
You can't call them and get anyone of responsibility. You can't mail them and have any certainty the letter will be received, you can't fax them and be sure it will go through legibly, and you can't discuss anything through e-mail — and they take no responsibility for any of this as the clock ticks on your next mortgage payment, while the more you get behind, the more difficult the process of even making a payment becomes.
In addition I have learned in my research that Homecomings purchased at least the Dallas office from Capstead Mortgage, which was run by cronies of Jack Abramoff. Homecomings acquisition of Capstead came on the heels of a shareholder lawsuit against it, which may also have quietly influenced the withdrawal of a U.S. Supreme Court nominee. I was not able to find out to what degree the Capstead staff and procedures remained intact with this transition.
The only way Homecomings stands up and takes notice at all is when someone contacts GMAC directly, and then the people from Homecomings you end up talking to do not deal genuinely with the consumers. That is what my experience shows, which follows.
My Experience:
Prior to having this mortgage I had not missed a rent payment in over four years, and our rent was high. I was thrilled to get a mortgage in the first place, as I needed one badly, and never thought I would get one. I had a small and a large mortgage with Homecomings, and no equity.
The first payment on each was never received, and I was not notified until much later, by then it was already late, and sending second checks for each meant tying up thousands, which I could not use to pay other bills, causing a domino effect. While one Homecomings representative told me "You can't put that on us, " — clarifying that Homecomings may never have received the mail — the fact remains that their receipt of correspondence has been a continuing issue.in addition, when you get behind even a little, you can't make payments on-line! They actually make the payment process harder for you when you are behind in your payments!
The new home purchase required a move. This ended up meaning a job change, and it took me awhile to find full-time employment. It was still no major concern, except for bills that had gotten further behind because of the checks held aloft, as described above. That was in October. I worked two jobs to equal full-time hours most of January and February.in the meantime, we kept up the smaller of the two mortgages. WAMU bought it from Homecomings, and we have had no porblem keeping it paid.
Getting into March it turned out that some money I'd thought was for Homeowner's Association dues when we closed had only been for the Association, not for dues. It meant I was behind on those and hadn't noticed.By April I was fully employed in a good job, but it was clear that I would need some leeway catching up.
I tried contacting the phone numbers provided on the internet. The numbers assigned for contacting to make payments and the numbers for making special arrangements all went through the same phone tree. I only got people looking for me to make payments. After a couple of weeks it became clear this was getting nowhere. My wife filled out the form provided on-line, and we mailed it in (granted, it had some errors). I also included written permission for them to deal directly with my wife, as I work graveyard shift. The form said to allow five business days after they received it.
A week later I got a collection call. They knew nothing of the paperwork we had sent, which they didn't have to tell me since they had called me instead of my wife.By now we were into or approaching May. The person on the phone told me that they appreciated we were trying to work something out, but for now they needed a payment. I told them that was the idea of filing the paperwork. This paperwork has still to my knowledge not been received.
When again I could not reach anyone who could be helpful in making special payment arrangements, I looked up the phone number for the associated address in Dallas. The office is located in a significant conference center building there. There was no answer at that phone number, and no message machine, no matter how often I called or what time of day.
There appeared to be no way to contact anybody but bill collectors, none of whom had anything to do with making special payment arrangements. Certainly, those I did reach said that they had no access to the workout paperwork, so they couldn't say if mine had been received yet — and how soon could I make my next payment?
Homecomings is a GMAC company, so I began working my way from the top down. I eventually found a GMAC office with some supervisory capacity over Homecomings (I'll call it Mr. P's Office). To this moment I have only received results after calling that office.
Soon after talking with Mr. P's office, I got a call from a Mr. G. Mr. G. Was willing to help me work out a repayment plan. He also informed me that they were going to begin foreclosing on May 15, when I would begin being late on the third payment — though I would like to note had I been able to reach this point, of setting up a repayment plan, when I first tried calling I would have been only one payment behind. I explained that making the payments is not a problem now, it is just catching up.
When it became clear that repayment would not work, he said he did not have the authority to make other arrangements. There was another department for that, "I assure you, Mr. Stone, a foreclosure would be a lose-lose situation." There's a loss mitigation department, and another called maybe loan modification, but I'm not sure. It was the latter in this case.
This other department, he assured me, was a new addition to the company, equipped "with more than 20 tools" to adjust loans. He needed certain information to get the ball rolling on that, and I could include authorization to talk to my wife as well (they had to deal with me directly until they got that, in writing — and not over the internet, I learned). This was Thursday, May 3. I had spent most of the day on the phone trying to get ahold of someone, and about an hour talking with Mr. G. Friday I slept, my wife was not able to fax everything needed until later in the day.
Monday Mr. G called to let me know that the fax had not come through legibly. This was sent from a fax machine in the accounts payable office of a major corporation, which faxes things all over the world, everyday, with no problem. I find it strange that the one fax sent from it that had any problems was the one to the same company that had not received two payments and a stack of paperwork through the mail, and which set-up its phone tree so that whatever reason you call for you can only talk to bill collectors.
We faxed everything again. We did not hear back, and Mr. G did not return my calls. I could not get through to him. I tried calling the number for "urgent" matters provided on his voicemail. It was different than any numbers available online, but it also led me into a circular phone tree with only bill collectors on the line. The difference is that this had a scratchy connection, and all the bill collectors had thick spanish accents.
After going a couple rounds on that phone tree, I finally got one of them to understand that he could not help me, that workout papers were supposed to be in process already, and I needed to talk to someone in the appropriate department. He gave me an extension that only went to a disconnected number. I then contacted Mr. P's office, and they provided me with an e-mail for Mr. G. I e-mailed all the material, figuring at least that way I could verify that it was received legibly.
I still never heard from Mr. G. As the end of the week approached I contacted Mr. P's office again.in addition to asking to get ahold of someone, I made an escalated complaint through yet another office. On Friday, May 11 (I believe, possibly Thursday the 12th) Mr. G. Got ahold of me again. At first he started trying to work out a repayment plan again, until I reminded him that a week before we determined that a repayment plan wouldn't work. He then looked at some other options, and said he would send this to the department to work out other options. I told him I would be able to make a full-payment on June 20 — and explained that had I been able to get ahold of someone in April, it wouldn't be so far behind. He set up for the June 20 payment, and told me I could hear from the department to adjust the loan in the interim. I thought it was settled.
After not having been to the P.O. Box for a couple of days, yesterday, the 28th of May, we received notice that effective May 1st the loan was being sold to Aurora Loan Services with a March 1st due date for the next payment. This sounds like a set-up for foreclosure to me. The letter was dated May 17th, but was not mailed until May 23rd (postmark).
Let's summarize: Their website offers help making payments if you're having a hard time, but only offers phone numbers that feed through the same phone tree to bill collectors — even separately provided numbers for urban problems. If you insist on talking with someone who can help, they provide you with a disconnected extension. You can't find contact info for anyone in the company, and nobody ever answers their officially listed office phone, which also has no voice mail. You can't be sure that a faxed communication will go through, and they won't accept e-mail, calling it insecure, though the people you can reach will talk to you on your cell phone all day. They hold the consumer responsible for any problems resulting from this.
They make it harder to make payments if you're behind, and tell you that they'll work with you on a payment plan while selling your loan to someone as you wait to hear from them. Then they let the letter sit on a desk for a week (unless it was backdated?) leaving the consumer with fewer than five business days notice that the deal is off, the loan is sold, and you are on your own now. Homecomings is not responsible for anything.
That is my experience, at any rate, and if it is not predatory lending and fraudulent servicing, I don't know what is. The kicker is that in eight months my property value has shot up 12.5 percent — which is all equity — and they still wouldn't work with me.
Peter John
Dillon, Colorado
U.S.A.
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