Complaint Review: America's Servicing Company ASC Wells Fargo

We are dealing with a mortgage servicer that has been unscrupulous in their dealings with us.

I am really not sure of where to begin. The story of my life has been quite painful, yet my heart continues to be optimistic. This may very well be true to a fault. I am a mother of five children, a son 19 and four girls 15,13,7 and 1. When I was 19 I found myself tied to an abusive marriage. At 26 and after having three of my children, I packed everything that I could in five cardboard boxes and fled for the lives of my family. We were blessed to have a good friend that took us into her home. We went from living in a large beautiful home on a beach in the South. To sharing one room in the leaky basement of the cold Mid-West. However, we were free. We were free to dream of a better life. One that did not include a little boy sleeping with a fire poker by his bed in fear of his father's attacks. Nor his mother being beaten at any given moment. It was there that we imagined having a new place, a place of our own, a place that we could make a home. It was not easy, however, I worked really hard.

I found any job that would take me. Pride was no where to be found. The job that I left was one in which I worked my way up to be manager of one of the top resorts of Myrtle beach. Yet when you live in fear, none of that matters.

Our church surprised us and helped us raise a down payment for our very own apartment. There were two bedrooms so I set up the rooms for the children and I slept in the living room. Furniture was donated to us and we were on top of the world. Yet God still had a bigger plan. Two years after arriving destitute in Colorado, I met a wonderful man.

We fell in love and were married. His dream then became one of finding us all a home, so that we could be a family and create memories together. I guess it's just the American dream. Well we thought the dream had finally come true in March of 2006.

We fell prey to what we now understand to be predatory lending but our main issue is with our mortgage servicer.

When we first fell behind on our loan due to my medical issues, we contacted our lender. We were told that nothing could be done until we were at least 120 days behind and that we could not start any modifications until that time.

This did not settle well with me, however they were the lenders and we figured they knew their business. So we sent in a hardship letter explaining that my health had failed which left me in and out of the hospital. This led to my husband moving to a higher paying job and losing our medical insurance for the family so that he could do contract work. We waited until the 120 days had passed and then called again. At this time we were told that we needed to request a loan modification package, which we did. Weeks passed and still no package arrived. We called again to make another package be shipped. This time we did get a package. We filled out the paper work and sent all of the documents back in. We were told not make any payments on the first mortgage. We also have a second with them and qualified for a repayment plan which we had continued to honor. We were told that if a payment came in during the loan modification it would kick us out of the loan mod. ASC (America's Servicing Company) said that foreclosure proceedings would be on hold until the loan modification was either accepted or denied. We were told to rush and send $5012.95 as a deposit. So we called again and again often three times a week to double check status and confirm that a loan mod would not be possible if we made any payments, yet the response was the same. Then we got a letter stating that we were in default. We called ASC again wanting an explanation. We were told not to worry that everything was fine and that they were still waiting for the loan mod to come back. That was in October.

Well, sadly enough, even after calling day after day, December came and we were preparing our son to leave for the Military. Right before Christmas we get a post on our door for relatives to find, stating that our home would be auctioned Jan 2, 2008. We called ASC immediately only to be told the exact same thing, however this time I also called the attorney on the Trustee Sale notice. When I called Ndex-West, the attorneys, I was told that nothing was on hold, nor had it been. That the lenders were foreclosing. So I called back and fourth between the two only to keep getting lied to by the lender.

Indeed our home was to be auctioned off right from under us. This was disheartening to a little boy now grown up seeking to go off and serve his country in such a time as this. He is a very strong young man, I suppose hard times cultivated him to be so. However that day, he broke down and cried. "Momma I just want to be able to take care of you guys". Is what he said as tears rolled from his face. I could see tears not of a proud sailor, but that of a boy praying for the day to protect and defend his mother and little sisters, yet feeling helpless to do so. We said a prayer and did a little crying together. I reassured him that everything would work out just fine. He went off worried and concerned even still, not knowing what the outcome would be. I began researching, only to find that this company is well known for just this sort of thing. Just one Google search of their name and up comes scores of awful stories concerning their business.

How can this be? Are there not any out there to protect us, the consumer? Surely something has to be done. I called and refused to get off the phone until I talked to a manager. At this time I talked to a manager who assured me that he would get the matter resolved. In short we were talking directly to our actual negotiator who, after a week, was absolutely certain the investor would approve a fixed rate and we agreed to all the terms. The next day we got a letter in the mail denying us a loan. What happened to all of the promises of refinancing our rates before the rates went up? Why is nothing being done to stop these people from breaking the hearts of people? I promise to contact the media, and use every outlet to let people know what is happening as a victim of predatory lending. I plead with you to do something.

Pamela
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.