We purchased our first home in 1996 and the seller/owner agreed to finance it. He subsequently died and his estate sold the note and it was resold to Ocwen. Problems started immediately when my payments would be delayed as much as two weeks before being posted.in some cases, I called Ocwen to verify that they had received the payment and yes they had; it just wasn't posted. I spotted an ongoing problem and realized I was now doing business with a loan shark.
I called them and realized that they had a PO box number on the invoice that shows through the window envelope and that Fedex, UPS won't deliver overnight mail to a PO box. This PO box arrangement gave Ocwen the perfect arrangement to claim that the mail was received late and a late fee was due. I wrote them demanding a street address to send my payments overnight, but they refused to give me a California street address where my loan is processed; instead, they gave me a Florida street address with the caveat that it will be posted late if I send my payments there. Would you believe a mortgage company giving a mailing address and boldfacedly stating right on the invoice that your payments will be delayed in posting? Their attitude was 'We can do this to you month after month and no one can do us a thing about it'. I pointed out to Ocwen that they were in violation of Federal law since I recall that the postmark date ought to be the posting date.
Now a new problem has surfaced. We fell behind by 3 months and they called and demanded 2 months payment. I sent out the 2 months and some more in about 7 days. I called Ocwen and gave them the check numbers and told them to document the time and amounts. Two weeks later the checks were mailed back stating they wanted certified funds. I immediately sent out 3 months payments by bank draft and sent by certified mail to the Florida address. This was to bring my account fully current.
They returned this full payment and stated an additional $1700.00 collection cost had been generated in 2 weeks. Furthermore, they wanted the next month's payment, which was not yet due, plus lots of late fees included. All my subsequent monthly payments were sent on time but returned with the threat that they are now in full-blown foreclosure and the legal fees, collection costs keep mounting each day. We don't owe much on the home and we are fully capable of making the payments. They just return our payments each time and are hell-bent on foreclosure.
The latest is a forbearance agreement which they faxed to me, forcing me to agree to a 40 percent increase in my monthly payment and other unknown and unspecified present and future fees and costs which they can't quantify but which I must sign to agree to.
I refuse to believe that a federally chartered bank can continue to operate in such a flagrant manner right under the watchful eyes of government officials. The American dream of home ownership ought to have greater protections from unscrupulous banks.
There are other mortgage companies willing to take over the loan since our equity in the home is a whopping 60 percent and the payments are just 20 percent of our monthly income. The bank just won't take our payments and they won't state a payoff amount.
I am filing a full, documented report to the Office of Thrift Supervision to see what action they can take. I would also like to join the class action lawsuit. Could someone out there supply info?
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