I purchased a home a few years ago (1995-96) and it was financed by Chase Manhattan Mortgage. I made the regular payments in a timely manner, however, one day at work, I received a call from Conti Mortgage (which has now been bought out by Fairbanks Capital Corporation), and the rep told me that the payment for my home had not been paid.
The payment amount was approx. $850.00 monthly. When I explained that I had indeed sent the payments to Chase Manhattan like always, they said that my house payments were supposed to be sent to them, (Conti Mortgage). I asked what address did they have for me, and they read off the correct address of my house. I told them that the payments for that property were with Chase, but they insisted that they were handling the account for that address, so I thought Conti had bought my mortgage from Chase.
I asked for a coupon book, which they sent, and I started sending Conti my $850.00 house payments. The note on the family house was $462.00. About 2-1/2 months later, Chase called and said my payment was late, so I told them what had happened with Conti. They said they hadn't sold my account, knew nothing about it, and I still owed them and I had to pay approx. $3,000 asap for three months, or they would foreclose.
I called Conti again and they said yes, they had received the payments I sent for my property, but the customer service agent asked me why was I paying so much? She said, "you're paying almost double payments." Of course, they wouldn't send back any of the money; they said my account was credited ahead.
What had happened was, there were two properties in my name, my house and our family home. Of course they had different addresses, and the payment amounts were different, but somehow Conti got them mixed up, and specifically told me they had the account for my house, but they actually had the family property.
Thinking that they had changed lenders, I sent them the next 3 payments. When I called Chase and wrote them and explained what had happened, they couldn't have cared less. I told them I would double up the payments, to catch them up for the next 3 months, but they wouldn't hear of it. I went ahead and sent a double payment, and they sent it back!
I didn't know what to do, so I called the company - American Mortgage Assistance, I had seen their ad on TV, and they asked me to come see them right away. They said they could stop Chase from foreclosing, etc, so I went to see them, and showed them the returned money, letters, etc.
They suggested that in order to get out of all of this, I should file for bankruptcy, so they put me in touch with an attorney and I filed for bankruptcy. I completed the bankruptcy in Dec. 02, but now, I have that on my credit record and cannot get a car, which I desperately need for transportation to work, and I am still so angry about the mess they caused!
Frustrated about all of this, I even wrote to Janet Reno during that time. There are a lot of negative reports about them, too, (Internet) and right now I want to re-finance to get totally away from that company, but with my credit all messed up because of the two companies, I probably won't ever be able to get anything else!
After talking with several real estate agents, they said they felt that Chase should have given me an opportunity to catch up the payments, since I was willing and able to catch them up, but they wouldn't even discuss it. They said most mortgage companies will do so, but Chase was extremely nasty and would not discuss it.
Thanks to Chase and Conti, my credit is all messed up when it was good before (otherwise, I couldn't have bought the new house in the first place). And now, I still need a car for work! After all that I have been through, the two companies should be forced to buy me a brand new 4 door Honda Accord LX! Even the bankruptcy attorney said I didn't belong in bankruptcy court!
Unfair
Charleston, West Virginia
U.S.A.
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