American Residential Law Group ARGLNOW Destructive Law Practices ,when will someone stop them! Ashburn, Virginia

The housing crisis gives birth to many opportunities, especially for scam artist that cannot wait to prey on those that think positively about the intentions of others.  My home value fell close to $100K as a result of the housing crisis.  That is probably an underestimation at this point, since that estimate was back in early 2010.  Traditional refinancing does nothing since the home value is less than the mortgage values.  Finally, a program comes out to help (HARP Program) but, as a result of the wonderfulness of the American Residential Law Group, that is not even an option since they ruined my credit rating in the course of their useless, empty and damaging supposedly legal advise.  That is the effect and now the story!

At the end of 2009, I was a bit desperate, seeing all of the interest rates and home values dropping, so after some amount of investigation, determined that possibly the American Residential Law Group (ARLG) could help.  Yes, I saw the negative write ups and some positive ones.  I called to find out about what the process was and got in touch with Rich Burdell and Maria Rodriguez from ARLG.  The first advise was that I needed to be behind payments and then the mortgage company would listen to their plea on my behalf to lower my interest rate and principle.  I said no way would I want to ruin my credit and abandoned that idea.  After a few months, I re-thought this and said ok, they are part of a law firm, so they must know what they are doing.  I stopped paying my mortgage for 2 months.

I contacted them again and began their "process", costing me an upfront $3500.  Months go by and nothing is happening, including multiple correspondences with no response.  My mortgage company keeps coming after me and then threatens me Foreclosure.  I send very pointed notes to ARLG and finally got a warm body.  They supposedly contacted the mortgage company and the proceedings stopped.  But a month later, I get a note indicating that proceedings will start again!  Again, I find empty responses! 

Then, seven months later, a Mandy Reaver, a supposely Senior Mitigation Specialist, contacts me and says the paperwork is in the mortgage company's Loss Mitigation Dept.  This goes back and forth for 4 more months and finally, a loan modification was processed.  Never guess, but, I was charged with interest penalties, no reduction in mortgage rate and to boot, my credit rating was in the trash.  Great Advise from American Residential Law Group! I communicated via email to them as much as possible and told Mandy that I wanted a full refund for their lack of action.  She said the Customer Care Group would contact me and I even sent her a copy of an email that they said I needed to be behind payment.  Needless to say, it is a good thing that I didn't hold my breathe!  No one has ever contacted me and I am out of my $3500, submitted a Better Business Bureau case, which was never acted on by BBB and I can't even take advantage of HARP because of the state that ARLG's great legal advise got me!

How can one fight and penalize these vultures!