OK, this is complicated so stay with me. Ocwen took over loan servicing from Bayrock Mortgage in 2006 on rental duplex building.in September I stopped making mortgage payments, due to both a dispute with Ocwen and deadbeat tenants.in February the building burned down. My tenant was arrested for arson. I had not been served any foreclosure papers at that time, nor had I received any notice of acceleration at all.
The property was insured for replacement value. I was served with foreclosure papers after I notified them that the place had burned down. They continued to pursue foreclosure. I went in front of Judge Graham in Volusia County, and explained that an insurance payoff was pending and he told the attorney that he would not rule on any foreclosure until the insurance was settled.
I had filed a motion to set aside the lis pendens because of the fire. And also argued in my answer to the foreclosure complaint that predatory lending may exist at loan origination; that they had failed to send me anything to accelerate the mortgage; that they had charged mysterious fees on my account; and the plaintiff in the law suit lacks standing. The plaintiff is HSBC Bank, trustee for asset backed securities etc. I can't find anywhere where HSBC has any interest in this loan. The judge was pretty interested in that tidbit. Judge Boyko ruling against Deutsche Bank, if you're interested. They also stopped sending any statements out to me when I requested a mortgage modification back in September.
The amount of insurance is well over the mortgage amount. After jumping through all of the hoops of the insurance company they finally paid the entire claim, check payable to the owner and Ocwen jointly. Signed the check and sent it to Ocwen. There was nothing else I could do. I have the payoff in writing with letters acknowledging that they received the check.
After they received the check I received a settlement agreement that they want me to sign that signs all my rights away. And the language in the settlement agreement is that if I don't sign it they will return the money to the insurance company and continue to foreclose. I have written a letter to the Ocwen attorney that I am dealing with stating that I will not sign that settlement agreement and they better give me back my money anyway or I'll just have to let the judge decide. I plan to fax it to the attorney on Monday.
Now, interestingly, the attorney for Ocwen that I'm dealing with is in Alabama. I'm in Florida, the property is in Florida, and the Ocwen customer service people I deal with are in Orlando, Florida. That settlement agreement was faxed from her office in Alabama, but has the name of another Florida attorney at the end of the agreement. These are different attorneys from the foreclosure attorneys, Fishman and Shapiro, who were doing the foreclosure. Those guys are more or less like cyborgs, only know one thing. Foreclose.
Does anyone know if that is unlicensed practice of law in Florida? An Alabama attorney preparing a settlement agreement for an insurance property damage refund for property in Florida. FAxed from her office, I dont care whose name is on it.
I probably would not have gone after Ocwen for their business practices if they would have just sent me my check. But now that they're making it difficult and the language in the settlement agreement is so one-sided and self serving, I must have a claim for further damages. They would not negotiate away any of the fees at all on the payoff, even though they knew that the property had burned down, I had to continue to be responsible for the full mortgage amount. They also refused to waive a prepayment penalty. And out of the excess insurance money I am also having to pay attorney's fees when they should have just waited for the insurance money to begin with.
I had to jump up and down and scream and shout to get Ocwen to even acknowledge there was a fire. The attorney in the court hearing in May, after Ocwen was informed of the fire in February, said, oh yea we got some pictures. They got pictures of a burned out building and continued to pursue foreclosure.
I'm hoping one hand doesn't know what the other is doing and customer service will just mail me the check. On Thursday they said that they would. Otherwise I have to back down this attorney or go talk to the judge. The Bar Associations, this Alabama attorney's bosses, and everyone else is going to hear my story.
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