I’m really trying to get my issue out there because I think it’s lousy that my county government is taxing me, two years later, for buying a house - a guy making $40,000 a year who owns a house in a lower middle-class neighborhood. And the tax I’m talking about is no small tax: $1,500, and it’s actually believed that it could be a difference of, are you listening to this, $3,300 next year!!! Could you imagine? You buy a house where the taxes are $4k, the government raises it to $6k, and then threatens to go as high as $7k or more, all while your neighbors are paying $3,500…? It just floors me.

But my additional problem is that no one finds this issue particularly fascinating. It’s complex. And people like simple issues that are more straightforward. That’s when you can take advantage of the sensationalism to get people’s attention. And most people don’t want to read an issue about faulty tax code, or formulas that yield funny results. Of course, it’s the complexity that allows them to steal money from working-class people (and get away with it). And can you imagine just how many people in my county might have tossed in the “towel” and walked away from their homes just because of this tax?

At any rate, I would greatly appreciate it if you could post my blog with your project. As I’m interested in any exposure I can get for this issue. I did borrow the money from friends and family, so I’m not in any immediate danger of losing my home (although this can’t go on for much longer). But that’s not really the point because I just know there are others who got this bill and weren’t in the position to write a check $1,500 on top of their regular bill (plus another $750 because I paid the first installment of 2009), perhaps because they just didn’t make enough money, or because of an ARM that a mortgage broker lied to them about; or because they just lost their jobs in this awful economy we’re all experiencing.

And although I’m sure I’m giving you more information than you’re requesting, I’d like to send a “shout-out” from Illinois to you guys in California not to ever allow your state to develop a property tax code where the taxes are not tied to a percentage of the house. Your state’s in a financial crisis right now, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they start turning over stones to find the money, and take it from me, you don’t want them to start messing with the state’s property tax code. And I should know!!! Tell ‘em to look elsewhere if they want to balance their budget!!!

David’s blog can be viewed at:
http://therearecrooksinillinois.blogspot.com/

Since November, CitiCorp has been promising me and many others that they would modify our loans. So far I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe that CitiCorp is doing anything constructive with the government bailout money they’ve received. I call them every two weeks to check up on my case and they keep on telling me that I’m the perfect candidate for a loan re-modification. I’ve sent them my tax forms, my W-2s, and anything else they ask for. It’s really disconcerting to think that this process might go faster if I actually missed a payment.

I bought my house in Spring of 2006, a five year loan. I had a history of other houses that I had bought, all of which had doubled in value in the 5-7 years after I had bought them. I sat down with the bank and discussed the pros and cons of a 5 year, a 7 year, and a 30 year mortgage, and the bank recommended that a 5 year loan was best because I’d either be selling the house in 5 years or can apply for a 30-year loan.

I’m an upper-middle class single Dad. On paper, my career looks good. I’m a two-time Emmy award winning director. I know that there are people who aren’t doing as well as I am, and their foreclosure stories are more dire than mine. But the foreclosure crisis is affecting the middle class too. I’ve had friends that have lost their home.

The emotional toll is tremendous. I don’t sleep well. I cry when I think about my children having to leave this house. This is the house I bought after the divorce, and this is their place. I might lose this house and have to move into an apartment.

About a year and a half ago, I tried to refinance my home loan to get a fixed 30 year instead of the adjustable loan I had. I had just discovered that it was going to go up a LOT. However, as I had had knee surgery and then been laid off my job, I could not qualify for a refinance. Then I received information saying my loan was going from $1,800 a month to $4,700 a month! My son, who lives in my artist’s studio on the same property as my two bedroom, less than 2000 sq. ft. home, is disabled due to a construction accident, and so was unable to work to help me pay the mortgage. Neither of us are eligible for services because he was not insured, and I can’t even get food stamps.

So one month after we missed out first mortgage payment in 23 years, we received a foreclosure notice. I have had paralegal training and so began to call the loan servicer to find out how to get a modification. They didn’t know. They had no people, no plans, and no advice, and they couldn’t have cared less. They lied, hung up on me, had no direct phone numbers and wouldn’t give their last names. I couldn’t even find out who owned the loan, as it was passing from company to company. At one point I know it was Bear Stearns. Finally, after months of calling and researching and persisting, I got to a person who could make a modification and we are now paying $3,000 a month, but have no money for food or medicine after that money is taken from my bank account each month.

I get chest pains just thinking about this, so I will not write much more. We don’t know how much longer we can keep this up. After 51 months, the loan will revert back to adjustable and the payments will be over $6,000. I know we will lose our home then. I am almost 70 years old, have always hoped to live in my home during retirement, but am working every little job I can find to keep us going. I have lived here 23 years, and borrowed the money to rebuild portions of the home that had been almost completely destroyed by termites. So I did not go out and buy a giant home I could not pay for, I just repaired the extensive damage to the one I had, damage that we did not realize was happening until it was extremely serious.

Is there any help for us? I am starting a sales job on Monday. No salary, just small commissions. it will last about five months, so I can’t prove that I will have income. i constantly look for work, but my thirty years of teaching, advanced degrees and vast experience don’t seem to qualify me as I am a senior citizen now.

I did pay off all my education debts borrowed while pursuing two teaching credentials, but the schools don’t want me. I tutor sometimes, but that is not reliable. People move, have schedule changes, run out of money, or forget.

We really need help.

Thanks,

Bev, still trying to save my little home.

The following is a summary of the deception and lawless tactics used against homeowners in many foreclosure cases here in Ohio. What you will read in these pages is not an isolated incident. It is a common scenario that banks and attorneys are all too familiar with in their quest to steal the money and homes of as many people as possible. You will see the deceptive acts by Bank One (now Chase), Homecomings Financial, and Lerner Sampson & Rothfuss (attorneys for the plaintiff) and how blatantly irresponsible they are to the public.

In September of 1999, my mother at the age of 85 was allowed to finance a house in Ohio. She was given an annual rate of 9.785% after putting more than 20% down on an $80,000 loan. She was starting to have failing health so she had to move into a house where we can watch over her and still let her have some independence. She never missed a payment and was from the old school of pay what you owe and had excellent credit.

She died in 2002 and I subsequently notified the servicer, Homecomings Finance, that I would continue making her payments and live in the house. Homecomings never responded and just accepted our payments for 4 years without any complaints. I continued making the payments until May 2006 when I got behind in payments. We started doing some research on the paper work that my mom signed and I was made her Power-Of-Attorney back in 1999 and registered in the county court house. We discovered what really occurs behind the scenes on a mortgage by having a forensic audit done on the closing documents. Wefound 18 violations that constituted fraud and state and federal violations. I made several payments to get caught up which were just one month late.

Things did not go according to plan, and as a result I found myself in foreclosure. I proceeded to send documents to Homecomings asking them to validate the debt and to explain who held the note. None of my documents were answered and they continued with the foreclosure.

There were weeks of searching and studying and learning and piecing together a game plan of how to save the home. Then came the day they announced that the house was going to sheriff sale. It was scheduled for July 2007. So I contacted Homecomings Financial Inc. to work out an agreement to stop the sheriff sale and bring the payments current. A forbearance agreement was reached and they claimed in writing that as long as we paid legal fees in the amount of $2000 they would stop the sale. Those fees had to reach Homecomings office in 24 hours, which I did by Western Union Moneygram.

We had requested a signed reinstatement sheet showing the breakdown of where the money was to go. After they received the 2000 dollars for “legal” fees, we were to send another $3,000 dollars within a week to Homecomings and finally $8,050 dollars to bring it current and that had a time frame as well which we met. After we got the accounting sheet showing what was owed, there were extra unexplained charges amounting to an extra $1,000 and it now showed legal fees at $4,000 dollars instead of the $2,000 on the previous statement. When I asked about them, I was told to “just to deduct them from the total.” They gave no explanation of what they were or why they were there. After I made the last and final payment by Moneygram, I deducted $1,000 dollars from the amount and sent in $7,050 dollars. All payments were sent by Moneygram with receipt time stamped, as required by the Homecomings.

After all was done according to the signed forbearance agreement, they kept the $2,000 and they kept the $3,000 and then 30 days after the final payment of $7,050, they sent the $7,050 back and said we were short $150. Because of that, they were going to proceed with the foreclosure. They did not credit the account the $2,000 nor show correct accounting for the $3,000 dollars. We complained and questioned in writing why this happened along with recorded phone conversations.

I asked them for an accounting record of where my money was applied. They refused to provide that to me. I called Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss and asked for documented proof that the $2,000 went to them but the attorney (LSR) confirmed that the money had NOT been sent to them and that they were already on retainer with the Bank One and Homecomings.

After further investigation, it turned out that Homecomings kept the $2,000 and did NOT allocate those funds, as agreed, to the attorney’s fees. We questioned Homecomings about what had happened to all the money received and if it had actually gone toward the mortgage. We were never answered and they proceeded with the foreclosure. This can be explained in detail with documented proof which will go into our R.I.C.O. civil–criminal suit.

I never received a record showing where my money was applied. To stop it the second time, I was forced to file bankruptcy that was subsequently dismissed by the court for missing a payment by one day.

I attended the Sheriff auction, which was done illegally and we have proof of that as well, where I was high bidder and purchased it back for $78,000 and received a written receipt for $78,000 from the Sheriff and was waiting for clear title. Several months passed and I never received title to the property and in October of 2007, Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss (debt collectors which can not act as attorney for plaintiff at the same time) put in a motion to reverse the sale after I had my paid receipt. I attended a court hearing which I have the written transcript, where I was not allowed to testify under oath, to contest what had happened and to prove that the house was paid for, or how Homecomings had committed fraud upon the court and me.

The court hearing in November 2007 further acknowledged the collusive acts these individuals are willing to partake in to cover up their illegal fraudulent scheme. The foreclosing attorneys, Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss, out of Cincinnati, Ohio had stated before the court that Homecomings held the note for the loan and therefore had standing to initiate the foreclosure. These are not the correct facts in the case. The attorney that was there was acting as a debt collector and cannot act as an attorney representing the plaintiff.

The presiding “judge” Thomas Marcelain, who would not allow me to be sworn in under oath to testify to the truth, denied me due process and further denied that there was even a claim or a remedy on three separate occasions, and ruled in favor of the Homecomings.

The judge ordered me into contempt of court and ordered that I would not be allowed to attend the next sale and that no one in my family or related to my mother, would be allowed to bid on the property. And if they did, they would be arrested. Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss continued to ignore our requests and investigations, and they even filed a substitution of counsel to take away the pressure we had placed on them in regards to them dodging all attempts to settle the claim and close the case. They would still not allow us to settle the claim and pay full settlement. There was too much equity in the house and that is why they wanted it back. In March of 2008, they slated the sheriff sale once again. Only this time, a DIFFERENT LENDER, Home Servicing, had stated they held the note and assignment of mortgage (still none in the County Recorder’s office as of 2-15-09) and they clearly did NOT have standing to initiate any sell of foreclosure.

The substituted counsel, Manbir Sandhu, was informed of the fraud that was been done and advised not to proceed with the auction sale but he would not respond. The day of sale by Mr. Sandhu, representing his client, Home Servicing, said he could not stop the sale, that Home Servicing would continue the sale.

My son and I did attend the sale, and we videoed the whole auction under the watchful eye of 5 extra Sheriff deputies. Ten houses were auctioned off that morning with ours being the very last one. The statement was made prior to auctioning off the property, that if anyone from the family of my mother attempted to bid on the house, they would be arrested on sight, by court order.
This house was appraised in 2006 at $135,000 but the Sheriff’s department did their appraisal at $65,000 and the alleged attorney for the bank bid it back at $45,000.

The servicing agent, Homecomings Financial said they had possession of the note for the first foreclosure and then Home Services Inc. said they had both notes for the second foreclosure procedure. Neither servicing agent nor the banks had standing at the time of the initiation of either foreclosure. This is why we will be filing a Federal R. I.C.O. Lawsuit against all parties for fraud, theft of funds, sales of unregistered securities, theft, malicious intent to cause a tort, and for the judge ignoring his oath-bound promise to uphold the law.

Here’s my fear. More non-homeowners journey to homelessness. The new housing predator is the “landlord” whom, reeling from the insane downward spiral of their home values, have passed the burden forward to “tenants”, despite the fact they (tenants) have been been paying the owners monthly mortgage payment plus interest on a monthly basis or risk eviction. Think about this: the average renter has to come up with 2-3 times the monthly rent to enter into a lease agreement yet they are “not to be trusted” with a mortgage? People must have shelter. There’s more than enough housing stock that could eliminate homelessness but until we acknowledge that housing should be a basic right for all and resist punishing those who do not meet “fair isacc” and the questionable “character assessment” matrix, the downward spin will continue.