In June of 2001 Countrywide purchased our home loan and issued us an incorrect account number. For the next 5 months they accepted and cashed our bank certified checks, yet did not credit our account with any payments. We then began receiving notices of late payment penalties and forclosure actions.
Phone call after phone call after phone call. Faxes on end and many, many certified copies of the checks later, I finally had to get mad and quite literally yell and cuss out 3 workers and 2 supervisors before I was finally connected to a vice president's office.
No help there. I had to borrow an additional $5,000 to bring our account current. The VP in question said Countrywide would research and refund our payments now that we had the correct account number. Over a year later and Countrywide is still researching. We have put our attorneys on this problem, but they haven't been able to make a break through either, nor have the professionals at Wells Fargo Bank who issued the certified checks.
Then this fall Countrywide comes back and reinstates the foreclosure proceedings. Seems they have a policy of accepting no payments unless all missing payments are made up and all the bogus fees and penalties are paid. (I thought we had done so.) The so-called work out department doesn't work, and neither do the employees. Phone calls were never returned, extensions were re-routed, and when I did find someone to speak with they were totally ignorant and unprofessional.
We finally sold our home to another family member who now rents it back to us for the mortgage payment. We missed the auction block by 3 days. However, the transaction ate up all our equity, and capital gains, and we have lost significant tax advantages.
Apparently a class action suit has been filed in Utah regarding "lost payments" such as this. If anyone out there knows how to file as a party to this suit please let me know.
Brent
Heber City, Utah
U.S.A.