Complaint Review: Temple-Inland - Internet

Target For Foreclosure?

-Your Mortgage Co. Can Foreclose At Any Time-

If you have a mortgage on your home and your payments are current with a good track record of payment, foreclosure doesn't even cross your mind. You're building your retirement security, you have pride of ownership, you've decorated it the way you like it and you're good friends with your neighbors. Owning your own home is the most major hurdle you have to clear in your working career, and the greatest asset all your working years can earn. It is your status symbol, your soft pillow after a hard day. Sure, there have been tough times, you've maybe been late on a few payments over the past fifteen or twenty years, but your credit is perfect, you now have 70% equity and you're on the backside of the hill. Comfortable? Don't be.

Three years ago, I was Controller of a mega-corporation making 10k+ a month. Sailboat in a marina, two cars, a three-bedroom home I purchased new 12 years ago and living in paradise. A year after that, I was unemployed, had no income, was homeless, living in my car, filing chapter 7 and suicidal. The psychiatric department at the VA came to my rescue and I've stopped looking for clean, painless ways to commit suicide.

How can this happen? Two words; mortgage company. I found out that your mortgage company can foreclose on your mortgage even though you've made your payments, your loan is current and your credit is above reproach. This can completely destroy your life and you are defenseless against it. "But wait a minute!! There are laws to protect you, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Breach of Contract and on and on!!". Wrong. They're there, but they won't protect you.

My mortgage company was bought out by a larger company and immediately after, they started double billing me. At first, I laughed and threw the duplicate bills away, thinking it was an accounting error. The threats got worse until I got a letter saying only "Send in your keys". My circuits were frying by the dozen. My loan was due for refi and I had applied to 3 major lenders, having been approved for an 'A' loan. My payment would have been $500 less per month. Yet my current mortgage company had reported me 5 payments delinquent and all refinancing was eventually declined for that reason only. I tried to explain, but to no avail. I couldn't convince anybody that my payments were current and the delinquent payments reported by my mortgage company were false.

To avoid foreclosure, I sold the home, used the equity to sue the mortgage company and ended up with a $76,000 judgement against me in Superior Court, resulting in my having to file bankruptcy, ending 40 years of perfect credit. I literally lost my mind. I was so disturbed by the whole thing I was obsessed with the disbelief that this could transpire.

I wrote letters to all mortgage companies, wrote to the DRE, to Consumer Affairs, to the Legal Aid Society, the Attorney General and consulted almost 50 attorneys. Nobody had any interest in the case at all. After the trial, which was a complete farce, I even filed a complaint with the Commission on Judicial Performance, claiming impropriety and extraordinary bias on the part of the judge. Still baffled? Read on.

Virtually every lawyer I consulted refused to take the case without $20,000 cash in advance, saying "This happens all the time". The lawyer I ultimately hired dropped me just before the trial when I ran out of money. I literally had to become a lawyer myself.

It's called portfolio purging. Major lenders purge their loan portfolios of "high risk" loans in order to improve their earnings, reduce risk and impress investors. And they get away with it because they have legal staffs and financial resources that can outlast any homeowner. Ever heard the statement, "We don't want your home" from a mortgage company? I learned in business school 30 years ago that this is utterly false. They love to foreclose to soak up your equity in penalties and legal fees while reselling the property at a profit you will never know about. When you read in the newpaper. "Foreclosures are at an all-time high", know that false foreclosures are quite common. Other reasons they want to foreclose are:

1. You're single and have no spouse's income to back you up if you lose your job.

2. You're over 50 and certain to be drummed out of the workforce soon.

3. Your payments are mostly principal after 20 years and the lender is receiving little interest, pulling down their earnings figures on their Income Statement.

4. Your occupation is becoming obsolete.

5. You're trying to refinance through a different lender.

6. The market in your area is hot and the lender can increase it's asset base before the next 10k report is due.

7. You are or have been critically ill.

So, when you hear a mortgage company representative in court say before a judge, "Your honor, we have no desire to take the home", it's perjurious, but few judges have the business training to know this and buy it like a 15 cent taco.

Now let's talk about those laws and agencies that are there to protect you from losing your home. Yes, they're there and the laws are quite explicit. So what? The burden of proof is upon you, and even though you have it in the palm of your hand in the form receipts and payment stubs, maybe even an account statement from the mortgage company showing your loan is current, nobody will take on a large mortgage company. Nobody. Don't believe it? After I realized Temple-Inland was intent on foreclosing, I threatened to sue. The manager answered "Don't do that, it'll just cost you more money".

That so angered me that I immediately filed suit. Then the games began. The mortgage company, having no substantial defense, created false documentation, submitted false declarations by company employees, and I personally had to prove all of them false. Your lawyer can't do that for you. It just takes time and record-searching. Meanwhile, your attorney is soaking up your initial deposit and asking for more. You can't work because you are doing 90% of the work on your case and writing to every public agency to file complaints.

When I finally got to court, months later, on a pre-trial motion, the judge simply stated "If he's made his payments, there is no argument to the contrary". The motion by the defense to kill the suit was denied and I was given my day in court. After calculating my losses, I claimed $500,000 in lost equity and future appreciation, defamation damages, punitive damages for false credit reporting (they actually reported a foreclosure to the credit agencies, which they removed the day before the trial). I had them by the fingernails and had every reason to believe that justice was just around the corner. I had a black and white case, every bit of evidence refuting the claims of defense and looked forward to getting my mind and my dignity back. And it couldn't happen too soon, because I hadn't worked for a year, while working on the suit and I was nearly broke.

Two weeks before the trial, the attorney for the defense asked what it would take to satisfy me, and I told him I wanted my house back and my expenses reimbursed. He offered $10,000. I refused and we went to trial. A few days before the trial I was summoned to a judge's chambers where a different judge informed me, "This is how it works... you're not going to get your house back, no matter what. Will you settle for $150,000 in cash? I said no. The mortgage company refused to budge off the $10,000. So we went to trial.

Feeling completely confident I went to court for a day and a half. The same judge who showed common sense and gave me the warm feeling earlier, refused to look at any of my evidence, babied the defense and boxed my ears continuously, finally ruling, "Aww, it's your own damned fault, you could have straightened it out if you wanted to" and issued a judgment against me for legal fees and court costs and I had to file bankruptcy. I ran out of money, my car was repossessed while I was at a a bankruptcy attorney's office and two months later I was evicted from my apartment. I spent 8 months living in my car, having nightmares about the case.

No matter who I told what my mortgage company had done to me, nobody would believe it... not a soul. It wasn't until recently, when I heard about an identical case on CBS news, that I realized what had happened.

You see, mortgage companies know they can outlast you in a legal action. By the time the damage is done, the real damage is so great, they will just stall the case until you run out of money, or sanity, or both.

Now a real estate appraiser, I have learned there is more corruption in the real estate and mortgage industry than legs on a centipede ranch. They can literally take your home out from underneath your feet, even though your payments are current and there is little the consumer can do about it, except beware of it, don't be nave about all those consumer-protection laws, forget legal representation in case you are wronged because you won't be able to afford it, and NEVER go to court. And if your mortgage company demands mordida, just pay it.

- Documentationional support for all assertions I have made are on file.

William

San Diego, California
U.S.A.