Complaint Review: OCWEN FEDERAL BANK

In 1997, HUD sold our loan to OCWEN FEDERAL BANK. At that time, we had no idea that OCWEN was a Predatory Lender. We always made our payments as agreed.

All along with OCWEN, we had to reapply every year for a new FOREBEARANCE PLAN, and each year our payments went up. By the year 2001, OCWEN claimed that we owed them over $30,000 in arrearages and attorney fees.
We wanted to refinance our loan to pay off OCWEN, since it seemed like our mortgage payments were not making a dent and we could never catch up to pay off the arrearage.

In October of 2001,we searched for a mortgage company and found a broker called AMERICAN NATIONAL MORTGAGE COMPANY. They completely dropped the ball on our loan, and ran out the clock on our deadlines, so after 2 months of them lagging on our refinance, we pursued other options.
We believe Ocwen conspired with American National Mortgage to drag out our refinance. It was a straight forward re-fi and there was no reason for the delays and lack of communication regarding the status of our application.

During the month of December 2001, we received an email from a company called FULL SPECTRUM LENDING. They solicited us to refinance, so we replied to the email and they set up an appointment at a local office here in Las Vegas.

On December 14, 2001, we met with a representative at FULL SPECTRUM ( a Countrywide Lending company), and they took all of the information from us that they needed. We were told the loan was straight forward and would close by the end of December.

They said all we needed was an appraisal on our property.
Well, the appraisal was not done until January 4th, 2002, so needless to say, the loan did not close in December 2001.

Our property was purchased for $105,500 (loan balance was $98,000) and we had a balance on our second for $14,000, the property was appraised at $175,000. Of course, OCWEN claimed we owed them another $30,000, so that lowered our equity, but we still had plenty for a 90% loan to value.

We contacted FULL SPECTRUM every day sometimes more than once a day, asking them what was the hold up on our loan? They were starting to give us the runaround. By January 15, 2002, our loan was supposed to be paid off per OCWEN. In the meantime, we owed OCWEN for our December payment and January, since the loan was not paid off by January 15.

When I called OCWEN, Illeana Cordova, from Moss, Codilis, et. al., told me not to worry about the payments, because our loan would be paid off "any day now" and to "let FULL SPECTRUM pay it off". We trusted OCWEN, and followed their instructions. By the end of January, 2002, our loan was still not refinanced, even after the appraisal, which was the last thing FULL SPECTRUM was waiting for in order to close.

I called FULL SPECTRUM to find out what was going on with them. They approved our loan for 90% loan to value, and with the appraisal, they told us we had enough equity to fund our loan. They soon changed their mind and decided to only go 80% loan to value, and only pay off our First mortgage with OCWEN, not our second, as originally planned. They also were going to raise the interest rate and not give us any cash out as originally planned.

They were clearly looking for a way to back out of the deal. On January 30,2002, we received a default letter from OCWEN, stating that they were starting FORECLOSURE proceedings. I immediately phoned OCWEN and asked why did they tell us not to pay our mortgage and why didn't they call before they went ahead with these proceedings, when they KNEW we were trying to refinance.

I called FULL SPECTRUM, and they totally dropped the ball. We were told they were working on our loan and all the while they put it on the back burner. They apologized and said they'd get right back on it. So, they requested another payoff quote. I expressed the urgency of the issue because of the default and they said they'd make sure the loan would close "by the end of the week". By this time, our OCWEN loan was with their legal department MOSS, CODILUS, et. al. So, they were starting to rack up attorney's fees, foreclosure fees, and all kinds of extraneuos "fake" fees.

I asked them if we should send our payments at this time, since it was taking so long and they said, NO, so did FULL SPECTRUM. We were told not to worry, that FULL SPECTRUM was back on track and we would close, AGAIN, they said- "any day".

We waited awhile and then we were told that because of the default, there are snags in our loan with FULL SPECTRUM. They also said there were problems with our Appraisal. We weren't notified of problems with the appraisal until February. I asked what kind of problems and they said, our property was appraised too high and FULL SPECTRUM was considering doing another appraisal.

I called the appraiser, who said he didn't know anything about any problems, that he is on the board of appraisers which FULL SPECTRUM uses and was never questioned about any issues with the appraisal.

The appraiser asked if we'd ever seen the appraisal, and we told him we had not, so he emailed us a copy of the appraisal with all of the surrounding areas comparable to ours. He called us back after emailing the appraisal and said that he told FULL SPECTRUM that he sent us the appraisal. He proceeded to tell me that "between us, they are looking for a way out of your loan, they don't want to fund it. I am not supposed to be talking to you about this, it is a conflict of interest since I work for them".

By February 15, 2002, FULL SPECTRUM was supposed to have funded the loan. They requested 3 pay off quotes from OCWEN since December, 2001. By the 21st of February, there were still "snags" as they put it and on February 28, we received a letter from FULL SPECTRUM stating that we were denied based on "not enough equity"....??? What??!

I immediately called OCWEN and they said that FULL SPECTRUM told them they would pay off our loan by the 28th of February. I told OCWEN they changed their mind and I wanted to send our payments ASAP. They said the only way they could accept payment from us is if we pay them $6,500 which includes attorney's fees, by March 1st, 2002. We did not have $6,500, we only had enough to pay for December, January and now February's mortgage. They refused and said we would have to sign another FOREBEARANCE agreement and pay off the amount we owed in 4 months along with our regular mortgage payment.

We kept receiving default notices from OCWEN and began to get phone calls from people looking to buy our property. We were on some kind of a list of foreclosures already. We were nervous wrecks and had started looking for legal assistance. Due to our finances, we searched extensively before actually going to an attorney. So, we sought out Clark County Legal Services and through them, we found Gail Burks and Nevada Fair Housing. They proceeded to intervene on our behalf.

We were advised by Nevada Fair Housing not to sign another Forebearance, that it would really complicate things for our case. We agreed and did not sign the agreement. However, On March 5th, we sent a WESTERN UNION for $2,946 to OCWEN'S legal department, hoping they would accept it without the new Forebearance, unfortunately, they did not accept it. We were told we would be receiving a refund by mail.

We didn't know until March 28 that our money had been sitting at WESTERN UNION that whole time and it was never even picked up. We were never notified by WESTERN UNION, or OCWEN that our money should be picked up. I only found out by calling WESTERN UNION that we could go to pick up our $2,946.

On that same day, March 28, 2002, we picked up our money, went to the bank and got a cashiers check for $2,946 and brought it to NEVADA FAIR HOUSING so they could over night it to OCWEN. OCWEN refused and sent back the cashiers check.
They pushed us into a corner.

We continued getting notices from OCWEN and were warned that our property was getting ready to be listed in the NEVADA LEGAL NEWS under FORECLOSURES.

They were really trying to intimidate us and finally we agreed to sign the new Forebearance agreement even though we knew we should not do so, we felt we had no choice. So, by this time the total Ocwen (Illeana Cordova/Moss, Codilis)said that we owed was $8,600.

We signed the agreement and overnighted a cashiers check for $3,986 to OCWEN. The FOREBEARANCE agreement stated that we had 11 months to pay off the $8,600 and had to pay $1,379 a month to achieve that. (At first they wanted us to pay it off in 4 months, then 9 months, we went to an attorney and on our behalf, he worked out arrangements for us to pay it in 11 months).

Gail Burks had been trying to negotiate with OCWEN, and OCWEN was being very uncooperative. In the meantime, Gail was working on finding a lender for us to repair our loan. In April, the loan committee met, and we were pre-approved, but more information was needed.

Finally, by May 31, 2002, we signed our loan docs with HOUSEHOLD FINANCE, and on June 3, 2002, our loan closed with HOUSEHOLD.

A cashiers check for $136,514 was sent to CAL. WESTERN RECONVEYANCE CORPORATION which was the TRUST DEED for our property. This amount was the full pay off including all of the fees for Foreclosure, and also attorney fees and the $30,000 plus, that OCWEN never gave a full accounting or breakdown of.

Knowing the urgency, HOUSEHOLD paid it off to get us out from under OCWEN. This was truly extortion, because the exhorbitant, trumped up fees, were piled up and unexplained, but had to be paid. The breakdown of the fees was bogus and padded.

Ocwen owed us additional monies from a Lender placed Home owner's Insurance policy, even though we had our own policy. They gave us the run-around saying that the funds were supposedly "misapplied" and we owed more in attorney fees, so the overage that we paid for our lender placed insurance policy, was in a "suspense account" and was going to be used to pay their additional attorney fees.

This amount was $2,173. After calling OCWEN constantly from June 4 through September, finally, on September 6,2002, we received our refund of the overage for $2,173.00, but the $30,000 plus, that they claimed we owed them, is still outstanding.(they owe us this money)

OCWEN is reporting to credit agencies that we were 3 months late on our mortgage and also reporting a foreclosure. I sent all of the credit reporting agencies a letter from Fair Housing stating that OCWEN is under investigation for PREDATORY LENDING and we never went to FORECLOSURE, also, we were not intentially late, that OCWEN would not accept our payments and made us late because of their doing.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter. OCWEN is a Predatory lender and should not be allowed to operate in this very aggressive manner. They have made big business out of people's misfortunes and misinformation.

I am sure we are one of many families who have experienced similar circumstances with OCWEN. FULL SPECTRUM is also very much at fault here. We want to sue OCWEN for the $30,000+ dollars that they claimed we owed them, that is in our loan now to HOUSEHOLD.

We are very grateful that there are agencies such as NCRC and NEVADA FAIR HOUSING, without whom, we surely would have lost our home.

Please inform us of any Class Action Law Suits that we can become a part of & any attorneys that we may contact.

Thank you.

Vicki
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.

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