In the past we were not able to make payments for two months on our mortgage, but we are current and paid up to date for the months of March and April. The bank recently completed an appraisal of just the property, and our loan officer, Mr. Joe Hellinger, said that the appraisal is at $900,000.00, but he did not give us a copy. We owe the bank $632,000. We do not understand on what grounds the bank feels insecure when there is equity of close to $270,000 and we are current on all our payments as of today.
We had a prospect who bought our business on the terms of a lease with option to purchase for $1,249,000 and made a down payment of $107,350. We will receive a second payment of $80,000 on May 5th. Under this deal we showed willingness on our part to pay off as much money as the bank wants to keep from this $187,350. On top of this payment, we showed willingness to raise our remaining mortgage payments from $4600 to $6200 a month so that the remaining balance of $450,000 gets paid off quicker. The bank harassed the buyer and us for a good two weeks just to approve our deal. In the end the buyer backed out and told us on April 15th that Mr. Hellinger told them that this business is in foreclosure status and the property was recently appraised at $900,000. Mr. Hellinger went on to ask the buyer why he is paying $1,249,000 when it is not even worth that. At one stage, on April 13th, Mr. Hellinger told us, how about you drop the sale price of your business to $850,000 and sell to someone who can pay money right away rather than selling on lease with option to purchase terms.
We received foreclosure court papers on April 21st, which was a surprise. That same day we visited Mr. Hellinger at the bank to understand the reason for foreclosure. Mr. Hellinger gave us the reason that because we have been late a few times, it cannot provide lending to us anymore, even though we are up to date on payments currently. We showed eagerness to present our concern to somebody above him who makes the decision. Mr. Hellinger said we need to talk to the bank's lawyer, Jeff Dunham with Tuggle Dugging Attorneys at Law, because they make all lending decisions for the bank, and he did not know of the person above him at the bank who makes this sort of decision. We strongly believe that there is unethical practice going on with this issue under the present status of the US economy and the credit crunch. The bank's harassment is an unmanageable nightmare for us. Can you please help our small family-owned business survive this discrimination.
With such big equity in our property and the goodwill value of the business, the bank has malicious intentions of making a huge profit by foreclosing. With this foreclosure the bank can easily sell this business for $800,000 and charge all sorts of fees and repayment penalty, which would be around $25,000. The bank can profit more than $50,000 out of foreclosure.
Damage resulting: my family can lose everything that we have worked so hard for.
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