Wine Dog
Concord,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sun, December 20, 2009
Something is way off with your fact pattern here. I'm going to address them in no particular order.
Lender's title insurance is required by the lender, that shouldn't have any bearing on what happened here.
There seems to clearly be an issue in the way the escrow was handled. It is highly unusual for a borrower to be paying on the existing and new loan for three months. The only reason I could think of would be to avoid the prepayment penalty, except you paid that. You should have a HUD from this transaction and it should show where the money went. If not, it's a violation of Federal law. An escrow should pay off the existing lender simultaneously with the close of escrow. If Alliance was the escrow company you have a claim against them, even though they are in bankruptcy currently.
$13,050 for your loan broker sounds like a typical number for a refinance in Ben Lomand, just knowing the approximate home values there.
This doesn't look at all like embezzlement, theft or extortion. It looks like incompetence.
The good news is that this sort of incompetence can be challenged. I would recommend that you don't walk, you run to a qualified real estate attorney's office tomorrow. Not Tuesday or Wednesday or next week. Tomorrow. I would also recommend that you go up to Santa Clara or Palo Alto to find one. You need someone who is qualified in overturning foreclosure proceedings. They are out there. I've had attorneys tell me that they can find something wrong in every single foreclosure. There is something very wrong in yours. Do not dally, you will lose your home if you do. Get an attorney and fight this one. It's wrong.
My qualifications for answering these questions are over 30 years in the title business and I am currently an REO agent. You can fight this one. The bank doesn't want to take your house, they have enough houses they don't want. They just want to be paid. You may end up unwinding this whole thing.