My husband and I purchased a condo (not our primary residence) in May. We only purchased the condo because the “Sellers” were buying our home and so we bought the condo to expedite the closing. Shortly thereafter, we purchased our home (primary resident), which would substantially reduce our payments/debt. We financed all of our loans through Westbury Bank (f/k/a Continental Savings Bank).in fact, we probably had 7 or 8 loans in the past (all of which were paid off and payments were always received timely), not to mention we referred approx. 12 families to the bank (all of which closed loans successfully through the bank). Late in our Tenant began bouncing checks and subsequently ceased payments altogether. As a result of the economy, I had been laid off from my job and so we were not in a position to support two mortgages at that time. I contacted the bank to work out payment arrangements so as to allow us to evict our Tenant and sell the condo. My intent was to take my 2010 tax returns and pay the delinquency (which would be coming back in February at earliest). At this point in time, the condo isn't worth what we owe on it, as the property values keep decreasing, but we would go to great lengths to not let it go into foreclosure. The bank agreed to a payment arrangement, which they drew up and we signed. We had to make one payment in January and then the remaining payment February 28, as they felt that would give me time to get my returns back. So we finally get our non-paying Tenant out (through eviction proceedings of course) and a few months later (February) we rent the Condo to a Tenant who has intentions of purchasing it. Our new Tenant wants to buy the Condo within 6 months, which I also informed the bank of.
During this time, our daughter ended up hospitalized in ICU and then subsequently had surgery - had several unexpected medical issues. I made the first payment on time despite everything going on... As I understand banks don't really care about what was happening. Well... February 28th comes around, and, once again, my daughter is sick and I called the doctor and they want me to bring her in (I should mention she has Juvenile diabetes, so whenever she gets sick it really has an adverse impact on her condition). I take her in and they think she has pneumonia, so we go through the x-rays, etc. As a result, I couldn't make it to the branch before 5 (which is when they close), so I immediately call the collections supervisor at the bank and I inform her of this. I told her I would drop the check in the drop box so they could process it first thing the next morning. Renee at the bank (who has not been nice at ALL) informed me that she WILL NOT accept my check now. Not only will she not accept my check, she said she's starting foreclosure proceedings. Ironically, the very next day, our Tenant contacts us and says he can close on the condo right away. NOW the bank says that I have to pay an additional $2,500 (approx.) for the payoff and it STILL won't stop the foreclosure until the sale is finalized and there could be more attorneys' fees. Really? 24 hours later? I even forwarded the message from our Tenant to the President of the bank, Jim Podewils, but he NEVER responds to any questions or emails. Now Renee informs me that they will only accept certified funds for our primary residence – which I've NEVER bounced a check so I'm not understanding this. To top it off, I go into the bank a few weeks later to pay on our primary residence and they refuse to accept my certified funds – AFTER I took time off of work to get the funds and deliver them to the branch. After getting home I copied everyone over at Westbury Bank and copied the Office of Thrift Supervision (who has jurisdiction over the bank) and this changed their tune real quick. They apologized – it was all mixup (yeah right!) and that she would have someone come and pick up the check. Unfortunately, I already left work so I delivered it on Monday (as we were headed out of town), but still had to pay interest for the three days! This bank does not “Work with you for you”. Not sure how they ever came up with that slogan!
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