Please shed some light on our situation.

User login

Member Directory

Submitted by Heidi on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 5:57pm.

Our situation involves our family’s house and come December, we will be on the street. After several income hits that were devastating, we found ourselves compromised $1000 monthly leaving us unable to make our payment. We requested a modification right away and the lender pretty much ignored us for nearly 2 months until they sent us the right to cure and then foreclosure papers. We had sold our 2nd vehicle to make up some of the $ and sent it to them to negotiate. It has been a long and really painful last 2 years. I am disabled and my husband & I have 3 children + 2 children from his 1st marriage. We went through a mediator, filed Chapter 13 (on our home only since we had NO other obligations - NO credit cards) besides our auto pymt which is only $240 month. Now we are left with nothing after wiping out all our kids savings, our savings, and my parents putting in thousands to help us. Now our shady atty wants MORE $ to attempt to stop the confirmation and reimpose the stay. We don’t even know what the ‘confirmation of sale’ means. This is the first that we have heard in regards to an impending foreclosure since our lender ridiculously applied our last 3 monthly payments to add’l principle rather than as our monthly payment and after we found out, they informed us that they could not ‘reapply’ the payments (that were in the EXACT amount as our monthly payment) correctly. Apparrently the coupons they sent us had the incorrect dates on them. THEY sent us these coupons after we were told to request them by our atty. When we asked about the dates, we were told not to worry as long as the amount was correct. This is some mess. We have contacted and actually heard back by mail, email, and phone, from many local government officials such as congressman, senators, etc. who also think we have been rooked but no one seems to know where to go with this. Not even our own atty. When we received the court documents lifting the stay, the lenders atty swore under oath that I was not disabled yet our atty felt that this was no big deal. We can’t catch a break anywhere and all I know is that we are a good and honest hardworking family that is strugglibg so terribly. My health has been so compromised by all of this and no one is ever accountable for their actions. When does it all end? Are we supposed to take this all lying down since we can’t find the answer nor anyone to help us and move our family into our minivan just before Christmas? Someone PLEASE shed some light on this. There has got to be a light somewhere.

Comments:

Submitted by Heidi on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 5:58pm.

To my above post, we are in To my above post, we are in Wisconsin. I just noticed that neglected to add that. Any help or advice is appreciated. I’d be happy to answer any questions since I didn’t include every detail. There are just far too many to list.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 6:44pm.

Hello Heidi, Wisconsin is a Hello Heidi, Wisconsin is a judicial foreclosure state, with a 6-12 month redemption period during which you can pay all past due amounts and redeem the property. After the redemption period expires a sheriffs sale is held to auction off the property, and then the court confirms the sale. The whole process takes around a year - almost 3 times longer, and with many more opportunities for the homeowner to have their day in court then in non-judicial foreclosure states like California. It also appears that you declared bankruptcy at some point (you mention a “stay”, and bankruptcy stays collection of debt). The BK likely delayed things another 3-6 months. Finally I’m guessing that your redemption period has likely expired and that all that is left is court confirmation. From this my guess is that you received horrible legal advice. First bankruptcy rarely saves a house from foreclosure, it does buy some time, but unless you have both the ability to pay, and a really clear, preferably court approved, plan coming out the other side you will likely still lose your home. Second it should have been brain dead easy for a competent attorney to make sure that a redemption payment got properly applied. Finally, your attorney should have done a better job of explaining both the process and exactly what it would take at each step to save your home. My guess is that despite the misapplied payments and other potential claims you state above, they are not sufficient to stop the process at this point. While it may still be worth a try, it seems the odds of even a truly competent attorney saving your home at this late stage are low. Definitely attend the confirmation hearing. Put together the most detailed evidence you can. Try your best to convince the judge a)the bank is in the wrong, b)that the sale should not be confirmed, and c) most importantly that you are prepared to pay all past due amounts (though you should ask that they correctly apply past payments). Best Regards.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 6:45pm.

The take away for everyone The take away for everyone else: 1. Hire competent legal counsel. Make sure they have experience in representing homeowners in foreclosure. Ask for, and speak with, references. 2. Be your own advocate. No matter how good the attorney, get involved early and make sure you understand every step of the process, and know exactly what you need to do. 3. Be realistic about your ability to actually bring everything current. Getting caught up after you are a few months behind is daunting. Add in court and legal fees and very few stand a chance. Don’t sell your car to fight a fight if you will never have the funds necessary to catch up. That may not have happened in this case, but it does in many. 4. Work with the bank early. If you are two payments behind they are far more likely to let you repay those past due amounts over time, then they will be after you put them through a bankruptcy and a full judicial foreclosure. If you wait to negotiate until after the bank has nearly completed the process, and had to deal with a bankruptcy - your chances of getting any concessions are nil.

Submitted by Heidi on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:03am.

Thank you for your reply. It Thank you for your reply. It is truly appreciated. We are concerned now about this deficiency judgment that you have mentioned since what they are claiming we owe after atty fees etc is more than our home. We purchased it before it was finished and were assured that it would be worth WAY more that it is today. Of course we have neighbors that have the exact same home from this builder that have sale signs in their yards and we wonder if they aren’t in the same or similar situation. We are worried we will never have a home again and that we won’t be able to rent after the bang up job this has done to our credit. And we lost our entire savings that took since we were both young to save. We quite literally don’t know where to go. As for our atty, he actually sent us a letter stating that if we deposited yet ANOTHER fee plus the amount that the bank is saying that we owe into HIS trust account he MIGHT be able to do something. What ascheister. One last question - what would happen if we were to show up at this hearing with a certified check for the amount claimed owing in the court documentation? I am assuming that the bank is taking ownership since the many homes around us (same street & block) have been on the market for nearly 2 years with no action and priced lower. Would it be worth selling off some prime family land to do this?

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:14am.

Assuming this is the only Assuming this is the only loan on the property, and assuming that you are right and there was not a third party bidder at the sheriffs sale, why wait for the confirmation hearing… contact the bank and see if you can work something out. The primary issue is that they probably aren’t going to want to deal with you at this point. On the other hand if you really can come up with the funds to bring it current, they may be crazy not to take it. If that fails, then try again at the confirmation hearing. It certainly can’t hurt. The question you want to ask yourself - is the house worth it? If an investor didn’t scoop it up, why would you sell that prime family land to buy this house, at this price (the amount of the remaining loan, plus the lost value of the family land used to bring the loan current)? Have you found out if the bank is even entitled to a deficiency judgment? Remember that if they did an expedited filing, they gave up their right to such a judgment. Seems that you absolutely need to know that before making a decision. Also seems to be an easy decision to walk away if there is no equity left, and you don’t have the threat of a judgment to deal with. At this point in the process, it is unlikely that staying will do much to help your credit, and there is nothing you can do to get back the savings you spent on attorneys and foreclosure costs. So focus on the real potential for a judgment, and whether or not you really want to “buy” this house again.

Submitted by Heidi on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:24am.

Hi again. We decided to let Hi again. We decided to let the house go since it wasn’t worth putting everything we had into it. Even though it was a new construction it has some major issues (electrical and otherwise) that have never been fixed by the builder who is now MIA. So thanks for helping us get the ‘big picture.’ It really would have been a real life money pit. I almost feel sorry for the poor saps who end up with it (unless it’ our lender - if they get stuck with it and the repairs then they deserve it) However, the crummy atty we had never did get anything right and we found out very late in the game that our vehicle payment was never getting paid through the Chapter 13 plan even though it was in our plan. The trustee has sent a check (payable to my husband & I) to our atty for the money that was supposed to be paid to our vehicle lender and we need to get this money to the lender ASAP. We have tried to contact the atty to pick it up only to have him tell us that he will not give it to us unless we SIGN IT OVER TO HIM so he can take 75% of it for what he is claiming is owed him for ADDITIONAL LEGAL FEES!! This is blackmail in it’s finest form! That check does NOT belong to him nor is it made out to him and he is holding it hostage wanting it to be deposited in his trust account!! He has been PAID IN FULL for his services (or lack of) which was already an outrageous amount and way above the norm. I don’t know if you would know the answer to whether or not he can do this, but if not, I am hoping that others will read this and someone will have an idea. This guy has to be stopped!! He’s succeeded in ‘helping’ us lose our home and now would like to help us lose our vehicle - the last thing of value we own. What’s next? Our kids, for God’s sake? ANY advice at all would be appreciated IMMENSELY!!

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:28am.

Hello Heidi, Really sorry to Hello Heidi, Really sorry to hear about the house, and given the quality of legal advice it seemed you were getting, I’m not surprised by this latest turn. I would suggest calling the Bankruptcy trustee and requesting he cancel the check and resend it directly to you and your husband, or to the creditor. That said, I doubt it will help. I believe that in Bankruptcy cases (remember that I’m not an atty), the attorney’s claim for legal fees is superior to all other claims - thus unless you can successfully dispute his claim you are likely stuck with paying it. Bottom line he likely is within his rights to withhold the check until he is paid. I’d still contact the BK Trustee, then try contacting your local BAR association for help or to file a complaint. A list of bar associations is available here: http://www.abanet.org/cpr/regulation/scpd/disciplinary.html. Best Regards.