Complaint Review: Wells Fargo Home Mortgage - Newark New Jersey

We are also going through the same thing with Wells Fargo. Let me first state that we were not ever behind in our mortgage payments when we entered this modification program. Our home was started over 8 years ago as a replacement home on family land for my mother in law and husband. The first five years the home was built from the outside and up off of money that had been had saved over the years. At one point a small mortgage was obtained from a local bank to complete a new well, exterior etc. The house then sat for a couple of years only studs on the inside until February of 2007.

In 2007 we hired a general contractor to complete the inside of the home and obtained a new mortgage to complete it. The house was completed in October of 2007 and we all moved in that month. The following month we demolished and removed his mother's cottage ourselves. Our new home was designed so that the mother in law has her own floor and we have our own floor. We all have separate living, dining, kitchens etc. One month after going to closing my spouse was informed by his job of 8 years that his pay was going to be cut by one third. As he works out of state for two weeks at a time he chose to switch jobs in order to try offset this loss in pay and hopefully have more advancement opportunities.

2008 went just fine with the exception of receiving a 9000.00 increase in property taxes due to the new home. This resulted in negative escrow balance with Wells Fargo who in turn increased the monthly mortgage payments from 2600.00 per month to 3500.00 per month. In the midst of all this we dealt with the stress of my spouse coming close to being laid off from the new job he took at least three times. That goes with the whole last one hired is the first one fired thing.

My mid summer of 2009 things were beyond tight in our home. My spouse who used to do excavating on the side sold every piece of equipment, treasured items and I think he may have even tried to sell us at one point all of this to try and cover a mortgage that had grown beyond our budget. He thankfully was still employed but had still not been able to regain his prior income. In November of last year he called to make the mortgage payment and it was 20.00 short. Wells Fargo would not accept this payment if it was not in full and instead stated that he could enroll in the home modification program.

Being that we were coming to the end of year two on our five year arm and needing to lock in a fixed rate it seemed like a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the new lower interest rates and lower our monthly payments. We were told not to make a payment until January of 2010 and then that payment would be 2600.00 per month. We were also told to make these lower payments on time for January- March and then our pre-approved modification would be complete.

We also had quite a delay in receiving the paperwork to complete and return my the magic fax. We went to a HUD counseling seminar and then started our first round of Wells Fargo fax hell in February. Most importantly it is really scary faxing all of your personal information over and over and over again all while wondering who the heck may end up with it.

So follow up calls were made regularly and was told all was fine and to just be patient until March. That's when the little peach post office cards for certified mail showed up along with six regular letters in the mail box. My spouse was away at work at the time and when he called I was freaking out. I opened them up only to find it was their first attempt to foreclose notice if we didn't cough up 7k by the end of April. Frightened at the loss of losing the house amidst this supposed modification we withdrew 15k before penalties from my spouses 401k. We did this so that if we were denied the modification we would have the funds on hand to bring the loan current and then we could list the house for sale.

Well five plus months later, a million faxes, phone calls and more counseling, paperwork sessions with HUD we sent off yet another package by certified mail. Still making the modified payments as instructed, still getting nasty calls, mail and certified letters but every time you call they tell you that is all a different dept and it will all be straightened out. All LIES!!

So yesterday my mother in law tells me that we received a denial on the modification and we have thirty days to appeal. I immediately started searching the web and now I am truly scared that our home will be sold out from beneath us. We have close to 45% equity on the land and home and know I am all but sure that they want these types of properties to make even more money at our expense.

My spouse and I are just 40 so we can live elsewhere and recover. It just breaks my heart that my mother in law may lose her family land, and her entire savings she contributed to build this house. This has to be illegal I know it is immoral. I firmly believe that them telling us to not pay for two months was there way to get us into default so they could start this whole thing going.

So on Monday it will be calling HUD again, consulting an attorney and filing an appeal. We will also be consulting a real estate agent on trying to list and sell this home. My biggest fear at this point is that the house will be sold without our knowledge and we will lose it all without being given the opportunity to find a buyer, sell to another family member etc. Wells Fargo treats people like they are taking lambs to slaughter. They really just want to have you get in so deep you can't get out.

So what will happen now? I am guessing since they did not approve the modification another notice will come that will insist we pay all the offset from the last 10 months plus the whole two months they told us not to pay and I am sure several more thousand dollars in fees to bring our loan back to par. Then add on that we will have our payments back to where we even though we were not even scraping by in the first place. What kind of American Dream is this?