Citimortgage
Flood Check of $109,000 Held Back, Now Facing Foreclosure

I own a two-family home and it is my primary residence. The other unit was rented. My loan was 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...

CitiMortgage 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 did receive a fraction of the funds to begin repairs, they even sent it to the wrong address. The check was for $109,000. They are still 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 help 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 own pocket before they will release the money meant to repair the home, while they have it sitting in their account.

I also suffered greatly from this flood. I lost my job, since I work from home, and all my belongings, as well as a paying tenant who paid $1200 per month, which helped towards paying my mortgage. By holding all funds hostage for the first 8.5 months, and still holding funds to this day, CitiMortgage has forced me to live elsewhere until I could repair the home enough, out of pocket, to move back in. I also lose $1200 every month while the other unit goes unrepaired. It also caused me to lose my job. If I had had the funds to repair the home in a timely fashion, I might have been able to get back into the second-floor unit (with no damage other than the utilities that were in the basement) in a matter of weeks, not the 10 months it did take. I lost my contract because 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. I was in and out of housing court to save my home from the city's health and safety department, as well as to prevent 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... I had to pay out of my savings for cleanup, mold prevention, demolition and cleanup crews, a storage unit, and rent to live elsewhere, and I lost the $1200 in rental income and was unemployed. 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 of rental income (that is $24,000), plus $4000 in storage fees, plus the rent I have paid because I could not move home, all because they held funds meant to repair the house in the first place. I am the one who pays for my flood insurance, so why should they hold the money? I understand they want to make sure 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 too late. They kept the funds while I struggled to protect the home I love and worked so hard for. The mortgage payments went to keeping the home from being condemned and demolished because of their financial hostage tactics.

They are now foreclosing on 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 his mortgage, who has flood insurance, now lose his home because of a flood? Well, I will tell you it was not 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 before the flood. However, if I have to sue, and I can, I will. If there is a class action, I will join it. I want my life back, and this corporation has its foot on my throat.

Company: Citimortgage
Country: USA
State: Massachusetts
Site: www.citimortgage.com

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