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DALLAS - So, you think you have your mortgage covered…you make your payments on time, pay your taxes and insurance, and then somehow you get the dreaded foreclosure letter. How can that be? FOX 4 investigates one company’s tactics and what the state is (or isn’t) doing about it.
Beth Shores is in for the fight of her life. She is battling cancer and desperately trying to hold on to her sense of humor. “I can’t say that I’m really, totally upset about the lack of hair because it’s really nice not to have to mess with hair,” Shores laughed. Shores is trying to stay positive but she’s got her hands full fighting cancer and now her mother’s mortgage servicing company. Shores fears they could lose the family home.
“To have the possibility that you could be booted out of your home because somebody screwed up on paperwork…” Shores said.
Shores says the trouble started last year. The company that manages their mortgage account sent a notice stating her mother was delinquent on her property taxes. But Shores’ mother, Helen Jordan had deferred her Dallas County property taxes, as Texas law allows for people over the age of 65. And she had written proof. But the mortgage servicer went ahead and paid the back taxes of $14,348.82 and demanded repayment.
“There is no dealing with this company,” said shores. “I faxed. I called. I certified lettered. I did everything to everybody, including the tax office that this was deferred…including the original deferral affidavit and it was totally ignored.”
Then the foreclosure letter arrived. Helen Jordan fears its taking a toll on her daughter. “She should not have any stress…period,” said Jordan. “That’s detrimental to the health.”
Shores and Jordan are not alone.
Charles Smith says he is irate and at his wits end. He says he has never missed a mortgage payment yet he fears he could also lose his home because of delinquent taxes. Even though Smith has written proof from the county tax office that his taxes have been paid in full, he says his mortgage servicer set up an escrow account to cover the taxes. Then, the company nearly doubled his monthly payment. But he kept making his regular monthly payments.
“Now I am in default and now they can accelerate the loan and put me in foreclosure and put my house on the auction for sale,” Smith told FOX 4.
So if a homeowner is facing a possible foreclosure and hits a brick wall with their mortgage servicing company, they can turn to the state…file a complaint with a regulatory agency, right? Wrong. In Texas, servicing companies don’t have to be licensed. In fact, no one is regulating these types of companies…not even the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending.
“I am not sure who would have any regulation over them,” said Doug Foster, Commissioner of the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending. “When we have a situation like that, we turn them over to the attorney general’s office for follow up.”
And plenty of consumers have gone to the Texas Attorney General for help. Along with Shores and Smith, more than 300 other homeowners have filed complaints about American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc., which has offices located in Coppell.
But in a letter to consumers who have complained to the Attorney General, the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection office complained right back, stating (whining, rather) "we receive over 35,000 complaints about every kind of deceptive business practice imaginable.” It goes on to say “we suggest you contact an attorney to advise you of your rights.”
That’s exactly what Connie and Kevin Christopher thought they were doing when they sent a letter to the Attorney General.
“That’s scary that there is no one watching over them,” said Connie Christopher. “That is the scariest thing I have heard yet through all of this.”
For the Christophers, of Port Arthur, Texas, it wasn’t their taxes, but their insurance. Even though they had a letter from Farmers stating their policy had never lapsed, AHSMI set up an escrow account, purchased a policy and then jacked up their payment.
“I had just spoke to a supervisor telling me all this will be straightened out in 10 days and then the very next day is when we get the letter saying they were wanting to do the foreclosure,” Connie Christopher told FOX 4.
Connie says she gets calls at work demanding payment. The Christophers say they can’t refinance because their credit is now a mess.
“I have sent letters to everyone. Nobody cares,” said Kevin Christopher.
FOX 4 asked American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. to talk with us on camera. The company declined and would not comment on the families in our story. The company however did tell FOX 4 that it has “resolved all open issues” with all three of them and made sure any “concerns have been addressed to their satisfaction.”
Last week Connie and Kevin Christopher sued American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. to stop the foreclosure, apparently not satisfied with the company’s action.
Charles
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