Ameriquest Mortgage AMC finance without clean title to property lien on property Ripoff Santa Ana California

I financed with Ameriquest Mortgage Company in September 2002. My payments started at 805 per month and are now up to 961 and are due to increase again in on October 1. I don't know how much longer I will be able to handle the ever increasing payments. I have struggled with making payments and have almost lost the house twice. It has only hurt my already bad credit.

The real reason I am complaining is that Ameriquest along with Michigan Title Company financed my home without clearing the title of an IRS tax lien. Both Ameriquest and the title company were aware of this lien as I told them about it when the financing was first discussed. They explained that this debt could be paid and "roled in" to the final cost of financing my home. The amount owed to the IRS was about $8800. When final approval was completed and papers were signed for the loan, I waited about 2 weeks for the checks to come from the title company to "pay off" the debts that had been consolidated to take care of my bills. The check to the IRS was sent directly from the title office. I just found out (about July 20, 2006) that this bill was never taken care of completely and that the lien was never cleared from the title. I have also recently learned that the loan should have never been completed without a "clean" title. Apparently the ball was dropped on this very important documentation. I had assumed that in all this time that everything had been taken care of and I had heard the last of my and my ex-husband's problems with the IRS. I now find out that there is $471 dollar bill with the IRS in our name to release the lien and that my ex-husband and I still have our names on a title that has not been cleared. How could this happen? The Title Company has since sent a check to the IRS to clear the lien when my ex-husband threatened to sue, but isn't there any responsibility on Ameriquest's part to make sure that this has been taken care of? Or were the two companies scamming to get this mortgage to go through? A new title should have been issued with my current husband's name and mine at the county office long ago. I assumed that these two companies knew what they were doing and that they were responsible for handling the title documentation (maybe they did know and figured I would probably not be able to handle the ever increasing payments and eventually lose the house anyway and it would belong to the mortgage company). This issue has caused a great deal of stress on myself and my ex-husband. He was very upset with me and felt that this was my fault. (I probably would have felt the same way about him.) Has this happened to anyone else? Can any legal action take place because of the fraud that was committed by both Ameriquest (AMC) and Michigan Title?

I now question the entire loan. I wonder if the past charges and costs that I have had to pay were within legal limits and the interest I am paying is absolutely ridiculous. I am too embarassed to tell anyone what it is. I would love to get out of this mortgage, but don't know when or how I can. I have to establish some good credit to do it, and with these payments I will be lucky to improve it at all. This is how the "little guy" stays at the bottom forever, and the "big guy" gets richer.

- Lisa
Howard City, Michigan

Lisa
Howard City, Michigan
U.S.A.