My Life with Chase Bank (Might be long, because I have a story that's unbelievable) ...

[aggiesal]

I live in California.
I purchased my home in 2003. The loan was an adjustable rate mortgage, and I was happy with it.
At the time it was with Washington Mutual.

WaMu would eventually sell to Chase Bank.
Chase purchased WaMu at 10 cents on the dollar. That meant that my loan was sold to Chase for only 10%. I was pissed because I would have offered WaMu 20% to buy my loan.

Then in 2008 I lost my job. Couldn't find work for almost 22 months. I had some money saved up so I was able to make my monthly payments. During this period, my property taxes came due. I wanted to pay the property taxes, but I would prefer to pay the mortgage instead. My tax preparer, told me that the county won't do anything for 5 years, and hopefully I would reap a windfall and pay it at that time. I didn't pay my property taxes for 2 years, but I kept paying my mortgage.

I found a really good paying position right when I needed. During this the mortgage crisis hit, and I find out that my loan was one of the toxic loans everyone was talking about. So I refinanced to a fixed rate loan.
Then I get a letter for Chase. Since I hadn't paid my property taxes Chase would pay them to cover their investment (mortgage loan), and an impound account was created for me to pay it back monthly over 12 months. I asked to have the payback period to be stretched out to 24 months, but Chase refused. So I had to pay 3 years of property taxes in a 12 month period. (2 years of unpaid property taxes, and the current year).

This new payment was extremely difficult to make, but I did it, and after about 10 months I asked for an audit of the impound account. I wanted my payment reduced back to it's original amount, the minute the 2 year property taxes was paid off. When the audit came back, Chase agreed that the property taxes were paid off, and sent notice that my big payment would stop at the end of the year, and that I would have $12K overage funds. 4 months more with this payment I felt was unfair, but I continued to make payments.

During this 4 month period I received notice from Chase that my payments for the following year would be the lower original amount (Mortgage + property taxes over 12 months). Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel.

I received my January statement and sure enough, my payment was the lower amount. So I made the payment. At the end of the month, I get a call from Chase accounts receivable department asking me why I hadn't paid the full amount?
What?
Apparently, the accounts receivable department never got notice of the new amount, and was still expecting the higher amount because I had an adjustable rate mortgage. I told them that I had refinanced to a fixed rate mortgage.
After a long discussion telling them that the amount had changed, and having them pull up my account online, they agreed that my statement showed the lower amount and would except my payment.

This is where the fun begins.

What they failed to tell me was, that they would accept my payment, but that since I didn't pay what account receivable was expecting, they put my account in suspense mode until they received the full payment.

For simplicity let say that my mortgage was $1000/mo. at the lower rate, and Chase accounts receivable claims it's $1500/mo. (THESE ARE NOT THE ACTUAL NUMBERS. USED ONLY TO MAKE IT EASIER TO UNDERSTAND)

So when I didn't pay the extra $500, they put my account in suspense until they received my extra $500.
My February statement came in, and the lower $1000 was the amount due, but they never applied my January payment! I paid it my February statement amount of $1000. I get another call from Chase asking me why I didn't pay the higher $1500 amount again, and I told them again that my statement only asked for the lower $1000 amount.

When I get the March statement the amount due was again the lower $1000 amount, but I noticed that they had taken $500 from my February payment and applied to the "unpaid" January amount. So now my February was $1000 behind because they took $500, and expected an extra $500, my account still in suspense mode, but now Chase believes that I'm a full month behind schedule.

I made the March statement amount payment, The April and May went the same way. Then June statement arrived, and the statement amount was now the higher amount, and all the late numbers reflect the higher numbers. By August Chase claimed that I was more the 3 months behind. Nobody I spoke with at Chase had the authority to fix this problem. Even after proving to them that the loan had been refi'd at a fixed rate and that I'd been paying the correct amount.

In August they stopped accepting my payments. I went without paying my mortgage starting in August 2012. I went to a lawyer to sue Chase. They refused to meet. In June 2013, we received a notice that our home was in foreclosure, and that we had 90 days to pay their expected amount. We asked to meet with the Chase lawyers, but again they refused because they didn't understand numbers and it would require auditors to go through the numbers and they didn't want to do that. That amount was so out of whack, that with less then 30 days before the home was foreclosed, my lawyer filed papers, and Chase rescinded the foreclosure. But they still would not accept payment.
We went the whole 2013 year without making any mortgage payment and not paying the property taxes for 2 years now. So when we paid our IRS bill this year, we were not able to take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction, and our tax bill skyrocketed.
Lost my job in Dec. 2013, but this time, savings had be depleted.
We have not paid any mortgage for 2014, and now we find out today that Chase has filed paperwork to sue us and are in discovery.

I don't know where to go with this. We love our house, and we know what it's worth, and would really like to keep it.
My attorney doesn't believe we'll be able to keep it unless we file for bankruptcy.

If anyone knows any laws that Chase may have violated and my attorney may have overlooked, I'd like to know what I can go after them for.

I know this is long, but this was my life with Chase.

I HATE CHASE.

[grasswire]

1. thank you for sharing your story.

I have no advice, but plenty of sympathy. Be strong.

[lovemydog]

2. I hate Chase too.

You might want to educate yourself as much as you can. Maybe find a good book online about how to fight a big bank. Sorry I don't have any suggestions. Maybe someone else here does. Good luck to you!

[colorado_ufo]

3. Check with the Consumer Protection Bureau.

[Unknown Beatle]

7. I second that.

I was also going to suggest that too, colorado_ufo.

[tooeyeten]

4. Question

Is this attorney experienced with dealing with banks? What about a good accountant with this type of experience? Do you know someone close who is In finance business, or a relative friend with someone very knowledgeable that could guide you? That's always helped me getting assistance from someone who is in that market that can deal with situations that are difficult, you know create your own army of expertise.

Had nothing close to this but with a car loan when one bank bought out another, all early payments were not credited, new bank claimed delinquencies impacted credit score. Low and behold after loan paid off, stupid ass bank sent 4Mos of refunds with title, because of overpayment. The problem was dealing with bad attitude clerk on phone who was unreasonable as well as supervisor. Tried to deal with local branch in person previously, but they said nope they don't handle those in house you had to deal with it all by phone. There were no real VPs or bank officers in the local branch none of these behemoths have personnel any longer that has any authority, had to do everything by phone. Customer service is a joke at a bank these days unless its a real in state bank where that's what they thrive on is customer service.

Banks today that take over other banks, they are like KIOSKS, not banks we grew up with. I had Washington Mutual long ago, they were a pleasure to work w/but in different state another big bank took over mortgage loans. Not any problems.

Chase today is run like a kiosk. Locally they have very little authority, and like a car wash, if you need anything more than the wash for your car, they tell you in person, nope you have to call the 800 #, today big banks generally suck.

Don't know know what else to say, except when I've been in a quandary around financial stuff I've looked for and gotten smarter people than me to help me find options. I have a tendency to get stuck, but when an institution like a bank or something only gives me one option it lights a fire under my butt to say "hell no" and to get as much help as possible to. Solve the issue as best as possible. Good luck!

[easychoice]

5. Federal Trade Comission/State Atty. General

I'd start with the Feds.

[tooeyeten]

6. Advocacy or financial expertise or both

Maybe you've done all these already, but maybe an intermediary or if you have lawyers talking to lawyers maybe too late, or is refinancing another option that Chase lawyers would agree to as an option? California has banking regulators, or state attorney general, one of those offices or both will have consumer advocates who may have so e information or a place too complain. Maybe a phone call to your US senator's office, maybe even Elizabeth Warren's office to ask for advice or information for seeking other help. Your circumstances sound so familiar to what the media talked about how loans were mismanaged since the big bank failures, you're certainly not alone. Again best of luck.

[vlyons]

8. open a separate savings account and put your payment in it every month

Then when you sue and go to court, you'll have proof and the money that you have set aside as good faith payments.

[Warpy]

9. Yeah, they're assholes.

I made certain when I bought my shabby little dump that I paid enough for an escrow account to cover principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. It was convenient. Some years the payments went up a little, some years they went down a little. I was lucky that a local S&L bought the mortgage and not some megabank. I think I dodged a bullet.

Just make sure you show up at the hearing, bringing all your paperwork with you. You probably won't keep your house but you might get some of the money they stole from you back if you draw a judge who's seen this paper shuffle and housing theft before.

[IdaBriggs]

10. PM Sent.

I know how to get this fixed.

[IdaBriggs]

11. Oh, and read these posts / links.

Seriously, I know who you need to talk to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025679581

[forthemiddle]

12. Sorry for your troubles

One question, have you been putting away your mortgage and tax payments away every month that they refused to accept?
If you have I would think you have a step up, and when it comes to final judgment you can at least pay off what you have been saving.

I would also go immediately to your city and pay as much of the tax payments that you can so at least you can get out of delinquency of that.

Good luck.

[tammywammy]

13. Did you set aside the monthly mortgage payments after they stopped accepting it?

You need to work with your county on a payment plan for the taxes. Not paying property taxes puts you at risk for them to foreclose on the house.

If you go to court you'll need to prove you were willing and able to pay Chase monthly and that's provable if you actually have the money set aside.

[aggiesal]

20. Answer your question: YES ...

I did set aside my money.
But 2 things have happened since.

1) I lost my job in Dec. 2013. Severance carried out until Feb 1. So, I couldn't
set aside payment from Feb. to Aug.
2) Because I'm not paying any mortgage, I can't claim mortgage interest write off,
which meant having to pay almost 4x more the amount to the IRS, then if I had
been paying my mortgage.

One last note: Within the last couple of weeks, I got a notice from Chase that my
interest rate had changed to a new amount.

It's obvious to me, that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

[progree]

14. Non-profits that help homeowners with mortgage issues, like Habitat For Humanity

at least around here in the Twin Cities. Anyway, there's a number of these that helped/help people navigate HARP and in general keep their homes, though I don't know if it goes much beyond advice and moral support. That have gotten federal grants to assist homeowners.

* Attorney General's office
* Write congresspeople and state legislators
* Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
* BBB
* AARP
* Consumer Reports

Good luck!

[closeupready]

15. Personally, I can't STAND Chase, on any level.

I'd saddened at your predicament, but to be honest, it doesn't surprise me that of the big banks, that's the one that is behind this.

[kelliekat44]

16. I won't go into it but something similar happened to my daughter after her husband died from cancer.

They refuse to accept payments, foreclose and hope to get money from her while trying to sell the house...but the paperwork is NOT clear so they could not sell the house. It is vacant to this day...3 1/2 years later.

[WhiteTara]

17. File now! You have nothing to lose

because you are only able to bankrupt every 7 years, you will still get credit because they know you have to pay. Keep your home, get rid of the overburdening debt. JMHO of course

[closeupready]

18. If one is eligible, it's a last resort option worth considering, in my humble opinion,

given the scenario described. Or I personally would consider it.

The whole point of filing bankruptcy is to have the federal government step in, and say enough's enough, everyone must account for fiscal reality, including possibly taking losses, and then move on so that creditors' claims can be settled, and a citizen can get a fresh start at making a productive life for himself and his/her family/loved ones.

It's not as easy to file as it used to be, but it is a powerful trump card.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

19. Dover Mortgage sold my paper to Chase before my first house payment was due.