I own a two-family home and it is my primary residence, the other unit WAS rented. My loan originally with Principal Residential and was bought by Citi Mortgage (to my dismay). I was a flood victim and evacuee of a national disaster area as declared by the President of the United States in May. I had some flood insurance for the structure but unfortunately not for the contents. One would think this was the issue but read on...
CitiMortage forced me to submit my flood insurance check to them as it was a two party check (my name and theirs), I had no choice. They then held the entire amount hostage and I did not receive any of the funds for 8.5 months after the flood; when I recieved a fraction of the funds to begin repairs (they even sent it to the wrong address at that). The check was for $109,000 They still are holding $36,000 which they will not release until the repairs are 100% complete. The damages were $128,000 and the Adjuster charged $10,900 to assess the damages and helped get the check. So I was left with $99,000 to do the work. Since that amount is $28,000 short of what the repairs cost and CitiMortgage is still holding $36,000 in funds that means I have to pay 28K 36K=$64K to complete the repairs out of my pocket before they will release the money meant to repair the home while they have it sitting in their account.
Also I suffered greatly from this flood, losing my job since I work from home and all my belongings, as well as losing a paying tenant that paid $1200 per month which helped towards paying my mortgage. CitiMortgage by holding ALL funds hostage for the first 8.5 months and still holding funds to this day, have forced me to live elsewhere until I could repair the home enough out of pocket for me to move back in. Also I lose $1200 a month every month while the other unit goes unrepaired. It also caused me to lose my job, since if I had the funds to repair the home in a timely fashion I may have been able to get back in to the 2nd floor unit (with no damage other than utilities that were in the basement) in a matter of weeks not the 10 months that it did take; which I lost my contract as I no longer had a computer lab to work from. I have had the home for 6 years and never had any issues with my mortgage until this incident and I was in and out of housing court to save my home from cities health and safety dept as well as preventing personal prosecution for owning an unsafe dwelling in my community. I explained to the housing court that I am doing the best I can with the funds I had available since the lender would not release the funds because I was behind on the note. But who would not be behind... When I had to pay for cleanup out of my savings and mold prevention, demolition and cleanup crews, storage unit, rent to live elsewhere, the loss of $1200 from rental income, and unemployment. It took the insurance company a few months to get the flood insurance check out to me, and I thought that was going to be the lengthy difficult part, but it was actually my Lender that destroyed my life more than this flood. To date I have lost about 20 months or rental income (thats $24,000) plus $4000 in storage fees, and rent I have paid cuz I couldnt move home, all because they held funds meant to repair the house in the first place. I mean I am the one that pays for my flood insurance so why should they hold the money. I understand they want to insure the home gets fixed, but if it was up to them the house would be condemned since the mold and damage would never have been addressed until it was to late. They kept the funds while I struggled to protect the home I love and worked so hard for. Their mortgage payments went to keeping the home from being condemned and demolished for their financial hostage tactics.
*They are now foreclosing my home and I desperately need help! What they [Citi Mortgage] have done has to be illegal, it just has to be! How can a man who never had a problem with their mortgage, who has flood insurance now lose his home because of a flood? Well I'll tell you it wasnt the flood that ruined my life, it was my mortgage lender!
I just want to put the months I owe on the mortgage on the back of my loan and go on as I did pre-flood. However if I have to sue and I can I will, if there is a class action I will do it. I want my life back and this corporation has their foot on my throat.
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