We fell behind in our mortgage as I was in hospice care and my husband lost his job and were assured by GMAC Mortgage that we had several options. We could do a loan modification, "catch up" by increasing our monthly payments, or tack what we owe on the back of the loan. To this end, we supplied GMAC Mortgage with our financial information. GMAC Mortgage also stated that they were sympathetic to our situation and would work with us—they really didn't want the house back. Even after the sheriff came to the door in January with a foreclosure notice (with sale set for April 28), we were not worried as GMAC Mortgage lulled us into a false sense of security by telling us they were still "working on it", and that we had "several options" and they "didn't want our house back" and they were "sympathetic to our hardship". My husband stayed in constant communication with this company, and no issues were raised over the next months leading up to our foreclosure date of April 28. We knew that as long as you had an active open loan application that a foreclosure could not take place until there was a determination from the lender, so we were not panicking.
On April 27th, GMAC Mortgage contacted us and asked us to fax over some additional information. As this was "last minute“, my husband scrambled around to make copies and find a fax machine to use. He then called GMAC to confirm that they had received his fax, and they said they had the information requested and they would get back to us. There were 9 pages in all that were faxed to GMAC.
Early the next morning, we were informed that we were "denied by everyone". I was a bit suspicious about this, as GMAC couldn't have possibly submitted our information to lenders and receive an answer literally overnight. And what happened to our other "options"? Our home was put up for sale that same day with the sheriff's office, and there was nothing we could do to stop it.
Not trusting what we were told by GMAC Mortgage regarding being "denied by everyone", I repeatedly requested the evidence of whom we were submitted to and their reason for denial, but were not supplied this information. Finally, on June 18th, with me on one extension and my husband on the other and with a tape recorder running, I got a customer service representative on the phone, Mary. She informed us that we were never submitted anywhere, so there wasn't ever a denial! My husband asked about the 9 pages they had asked us to fax to them. The rep told us that she was showing this documentation as received on the 29th, not the 27th as we claimed. We knew that we faxed over 9 pages of information and they were, in fact, received the day before the foreclosure sale was set on April 28th and that GMAC had confirmed that they were in receipt of this information. We also knew that if we had an active application for consideration of funding, that a foreclosure could not happen. And we knew that it would take at least a full business day during regular business hours to submit and have a response to our application. As it was past business hours when GMAC said they received our information, there was no way that there could be any determination regarding our application. Why in the world would we dash around to accommodate a last minute request for information unless they asked us for it? And why were we "denied" if there wasn't any application? What had GMAC Mortgage been doing all these months on our supposed behalf?
What really bothers us is, if GMAC Mortgage never had any intention of assisting us in the loan modification program, they should have just told us. That way, we could attempt to procure financing on our own. GMAC Mortgage violated our rights by denying us this process. And they have conveniently altered the time line of the events of April 28th to reflect their position—we never provided any financial information so there was no application to be done, so no denial was ever issued.
My husband and I appeared on the 10:00 news (WWL-TV Channel 4 New Orleans) on June 17th. The station's "Action Reporter", Bill Capo, took up our cause. The network even gave Mr. Capo extra time to present our story as it was so timely and compelling. We are grateful to Mr. Capo and Channel 4 for their assistance and their efforts. We plan to do a follow up interview and hope to have some resolution to report. Our home is now property of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. As I am permanently disabled, we are trying to work a subsidy plan out with our Federal Government and are working toward that resolution.
Our attempts to contact any key management or board members of GMAC Mortgage has been impossible. For those of you that have wanted to simply have a conversation with anyone from this company, you know that they only provide their customer service line or an online form to complete. It wasn’t after I filed a complaint with our Attorney General's Office (Mr. James D. "Buddy" Caldwell) and the Department of Justice, that I received a response from GMAC Mortgage to the Attorney Generals' office, that I received some viable contact information. Yes, GMAC Mortgage continues to lie about the events of April 27 and 28. But more importantly, I now have the name of a real live person who is an "Advocacy Resolution Specialist" for GMAC Mortgage (yes, they actually have one of these!). Mr. Bryan Duggan can be reached at 1-800-627-0128 extension 2365373 or directly at 319-236-5373. I'm confident that if GMAC Mortgage has an advocacy specialist, then they certainly would welcome calls from their customers, the people that keep them in business, regarding their experiences, concerns and dissatisfaction with their business practices. The way we deal with such entities as GMAC Mortgage, is by not doing business with them. And write to every consumer group and elected official you can find regarding GMAC Mortgage’s business practices. Remember, it was our government that gave GMAC a whole bunch of our tax money. But of course, we now have Mr. Bryan Duggan to listen and act on our inquiries. I know I feel so much better just knowing that GMAC Mortgage is "there" for me!
There are numerous reports of GMAC Mortgage's unethical business practices available online with consumer report groups. Even if what GMAC Mortgage does is not on paper, illegal, there is a moral side to what sort of business practices they subscribe to. If GMAC Mortgage would do this to a Baptist Minister and his terminal wife, no one is safe.
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