I and my family purchased investment property in July 2004 and the mortgage was rolled over to Chase Home Finance, also known as Chase Manhattan Mortgage, in October 2004. (Reference: Loan Number 0018685529). Here's how Chase Home Finance Operates:
In May 2005, there was an opportunity to refinance the mortgage and I got the go-ahead to do so. An appraisal was done in early May, a payoff request was submitted to Chase and it our settlement attorneys indicated to all parties, including Chase, that we could go to closing the week of May 16th. While preparing for settlement, it was discovered that the deed transfer taxes (county and state), deed recordation fees (county and state), and $1,111 of the prior years' property taxes were never paid. Fees were collected to cover these items at original settlement.
During the entire life of the mortgage, all the payments on the Chase account were made on time, however because of Chase's actions as stated above, we paid a mortgage for approximately 10 months on a property we technically did not own.
I paid all the recordation and tax fees out of my pocket a SECOND time and the deed was officially recorded on May 23rd 2005. We were clear and ready to proceed with the refinance settlement on May 24th. Chase refused to release their final payoff information, held the information and refused to respond to several inquiries. Our settlement attorneys (which by the way were treated like dirt by Chase) finally got the payoff information on June 13th. This is 20 days or almost three weeks after the notification.
The refinance proceeded, the new mortgage was placed with a prime company, and the Chase mortgage was paid off June 14, 2005. After that time, Chase began placing automated phone calls and sending nasty collections letters including threats to foreclose. The most recent letter was dated and mailed on September 7th, which is twelve weeks (84 days) after Chase was paid off. Chase's most recent nasty collections phone call came on September 15th just before 9:00 PM. This is over 13 weeks (more than 90 days) after they were paid off.
Also, Chase reported their mortgage as 30 days late as of July 2005 after their organization was completely paid off in June 2005. Needless to say, no restitution has ever been made for the funds tendered to pay the above-mentioned taxes and fees when the property was first acquired, although Chase obviously has benefited from them. The HUD-1 Settlement statement from the initial purchase that we have in our possession is our proof that we have already paid, and under no circumstances should anyone have to pay again.
Chase is not worthy to do business with a college-educated professional or any veteran or any hard-working voting taxpayer (I'm all the above). Their ducking, dodging and lying, along with their mob tactics, have been both ignorant and reprehensible. I hope they keep their letters coming so I can have even more evidence for the state attorney general when their office gets around to the complaint I submitted earlier this month.
I would love to see this organization not only be disqualified from doing business in Maryland, but also charged with obstruction of justice and possibly the RICO Act. If anyone out there is interested, feel free to share this information with whomever.
Robert
Gaithersburg, Maryland