No Reprieve for the Diligent

With life’s challenges it sometimes becomes necessary to be proactive and take matters into your own hands in an attempt to reduce the chances of negative effects which can no doubt cripple you financially, if not worst. However, sometimes your well intentions can land you in a situation which can be both frustrating and overwhelming especially when you are dealing with seemingly ignorant people. Recently I found myself in just such a predicament. I've owned my home for roughly 15 years. Well I’m making mortgage payments with the hope of owning it someday. Sidebar: I don’t know why they say you “own” your home when truth is the bank/mortgage company owns it. Don’t believe me? Miss a payment and see how long it takes for them to start foreclosure proceedings to have you removed out of the house if you don’t rectify the delinquency.   

Now back to your regularly schedule programming – lol. Okay, as I was saying, recently I found myself in just such a predicament. I've owned my home for roughly 15 years. I've never been late with a payment nor have I ever missed a payment. With the challenges of losing my job, the car accident which rendered me unable to work, and subsequent health issues, I found myself at the verge of missing a payment.  So being the proactive person that I am I decided to contact my mortgage company to see if there was anything they could do to help a sister out. Well, actually my first letter to them was just pretty much me asking them to take into consideration all the stuff I had gone through and to consider offering me mortgage forgiveness. I know you're thinking, “what big balls you have Yáminah” lol. 

The way I figure it, I've been paying on this house for 15 years. Taking into consideration the purchase price, the interest rate, the amount of the monthly payments, and the length of time I have been paying on it, surely by now I have more than paid for it. The only thing/drawback is it all went to interest, well the bulk of it anyway. Shoot, if banks could get a bailout from the federal government, the least they could/can do is pay it forward. Can I get an Amen? Think about it. In life you have to give to get, right? So why can’t the banks and mortgage companies give something back for a change?

Open your local newspaper on any given day and you will find it is filled with countless foreclosures. Walk through your neighborhood – how many empty/vacant houses do you see? There are 95 houses in my neighborhood. Fifteen (15) of them are vacant. Most of them have been vandalized or the local teens have set up shop in them. Banks/mortgage companies really don’t gain/benefit from foreclosures, especially in this economy but nobody of influence has figured that out yet or if they have, they don’t care because it really ain't their money.

Anyway, as I was saying before I ran off on that “chain of thought”, I sent a couple of letters to my mortgage company requesting assistance or at best, for mortgage forgiveness. Up until recently, my interactions with them had been minimal at best.  Being a proactive person, rather than wait until my situation became grave, I opted to reach out to see what alternatives or options were available to me. At the end of April I wrote them a second letter detailing the hardship I was experiencing as a result of health and economical issues, and my desire to stay current with my mortgage payments if in fact mortgage forgiveness was not an option. What I got in response was a brief voice message from one of their staff members the week of May 20^th. Upon returning her call we discussed in details my situation, i.e., that I was unemployed, did not have any income since 2/5/13, was disabled due to a car accident on 6/6/12, was waiting for a ruling on my disability application, and my desire to keep my home. She then indicated that she had sent me a package in the mail and that I should complete and return it as soon as possible. A few days later I received the envelope containing an application for the Making Home Affordable Program. On May 27^th, after completing the application I hand delivered it to the agent along with the supporting documents. 

During that meeting with the agent, I again shared my situation and my desire to save my home.  She shared that she would give my application to the underwriter and hopefully have a decision for me by that Thursday or Friday. That did not happen. Giving her the benefit, I waited until the following week (June 3^rd) before visiting the office. At that time she apologized for not getting back to me citing preoccupation with foreclosures as her reason for not getting back to me.  She then indicated that she would have a response for me by that Friday (June 7^th). Again, she did not follow through. It is important to note that not once during our conversations did she indicate that my application was contingent on me being delinquent (a fact that she already knew was not the case as I am and have always been up to date with my payments since the onset off my loan). In fact I was led to believe that based on my situation, assistance was almost guaranteed. My options were either: 1) a suspension of payments for a period of 12 months; or 2) partial/reduced payments with the latter being my preference as the first option would affect my credit rating.  I had no idea that any of this was considered a formal loan modification as I am aware that you have to have income in order to be considered for that, or that this process was a part of “loss mitigation”. Nothing in those terms was ever mentioned. Truth is I thought this "Hope" program was a similar program to the "Home Safe Georgia" program – a program for which I was a participant the year before.

What happened next is what really frustrated me. On Saturday June 15^th I received a notice of certified mail from my local post office in my mailbox. When I picked up the certified mail on Monday June, 17^th it was only to discover that it was a duplicate copy of a letter the agent had sent me, which was delivered to my home without incident on that Saturday (June 15^th). That the agent felt the need to also send the rejection letter via certified mail knowing full well that I had difficulty getting around and would have to make a special trip to the post office to retrieve it, to me was inconsiderate and showed no regard for my physical condition.  That she knowingly offered me false hope that the Making Home Affordable Program was an option for me giving the details of my situation was also very inconsiderate. Not only did I waste my time and energy completing and compiling supporting documents for an application that was mute, I also wasted time and gas traveling to their office twice. 

Even if I was to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was not aware of the eligibility requirements for the program; that she neglected to research the program’s requirements prior to mailing out the application shows a deficit in her attention to detail and speaks volume to her lack of dedication for what she does. 

To add insult to injury, her letter dated 6/13/13, which I have determined is a form letter generated by their system, insinuated that there was still hope for me when it  included the following sentence: “Although we cannot process your request at this time, this does not mean your situation is hopeless.” As such, I wasted no time calling her to inquire about what other alternatives were available, only to be told, interestingly enough, that there was nothing else available because all other programs requires that my account be delinquent or that I had some form of income.

Then to add to my frustration, attempts to pay my mortgage through their phone option proved to be futile as was attempts to reach an actual live person on the phone. I then turned to the Internet thinking I could pay it online, however that option was not available to me once I logged into my account. I had to resort to calling the main number for their parent company to get assistance in finding a live person to help me.  I was first transferred to the “supervisor” but he did not answer and his voice message indicated that “this is the week of June 17^th. Bear in mind this was Monday June 25^th. All I could do at that point was shake my head before calling back the parent company’s main number and requesting someone else.  I was then transferred to another agent who did her best to help me after I relayed to her my challenges in making a payment.  Not sure if my telling her I was in the process of getting dressed to come down there had any bearing on her willingness to help. Anyway, it was during that call that I learned for the first time that my account had some sort of “stop” mode assigned to it which prevented any payments to the account. She indicated that she would remove the hold and process my payment.  She also indicated that she would waive the $5 processing fee associated with making a phone payment through her - a gesture for which I was grateful even though I knew fully well that there was no fees for over the phone payments. I figure I would just choose my battles since I wanted to win the war.

My main frustration with this whole ordeal is that there appears to be no consideration/relief for people like myself who pay their bills on time but find themselves in a similar predicament due to no fault of their own. It appears that in this country we promote/reward people for “abandoning” their responsibilities and punish the ones who  don't but instead does the right thing. It seems like the people who are delinquent in paying their bills or who run up huge debts and then file for bankruptcy as an umbrella to keep the stuff without having to pay for them, get more assistance and are catered to more so than the ones who try to do the right thing. Personally I think the system is strategically designed by the bureaucrats who run these agencies to keep the “poor” poor in an attempt to ensure job security. 

Think about it, the less people there are who aspire to get off or stay off welfare by working to support themselves and/or get a college education, the less people they (the bureaucrats) have competing for their jobs. I remember hearing my mother say when I was a little girl that welfare was designed to keep the “poor” poor. As a result my mother did not participate in their programs but rather chose to work hard to support her family even though accepting welfare would have made our lives so much easier.  I too grew up to denounce welfare and follow in my mother’s footstep to work and support my family.

All my life I strive to uphold the principle/concept that was instilled in me by my mother at a young age, which is that my reputation and my credit were the two single most important things that I possess and that I should protect them at all cost. A principle/concept which I have embraced and I am very good at. Even now, faced with no income and no job prospect in the foreseeable future due to my disability I continue to make great strives to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. An effort that is in no way an easy feat by any account. However I remain vigilant that the God I serve is leaning towards me and that He will continue to make a way where there is no way.

I am not sure how this will end but it is my hope that it will end in my favor. I am not at all opposed to receiving my deed in the mail as a gesture of good faith.

In the meantime, it is my hope that the mortgage company will take steps to train their staff in the areas of providing good customer service which includes among other things, providing all pertinent information to clients prior to subjecting them to submitting applications for programs that they are otherwise not eligible for. I’m just saying – I got issues. What about you?)i(

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