Predatory Lending & Mortgage Law

[GrammyB]

Looking for more options to save our home. Hopefully some of you might have a idea. We did a Freddie Mac Lease to Purchase back in 2002. The program was administered by Pacific Housing and Finance based in San Pedro, CA. We leased the home we choose to purchase with a locked in purchase price of $110,000.00. Leased for three years, then in 2006 we purchased our home. We found in May 2008 that it was becoming a problem keeping up the mortgage payments. My husband is ill and can no longer work and his future will be shortened. I do work and my husband has applied for SSI. So we contacted our loan servicer, First Franklin asking for help which they would not do. So we contacted a local non profit to act as mediators for us. After a staff attorney reviewed our loan docs, she found numerous problems.
The locked in price of $110,000.00 is now $131,000.00 with an additional $125,000.00 in a second mortgage held by Pacific Housing & Finance. Which is suppose to be forgiven after three years.
Our lease payments are gone, about $35,000.00 No payments were credited to purchase.
The house is uninsurable due to a wood roof. The program stated that the roof had to have 10 years of use at purchase.
The house was posted as a three bedroom, when in fact it is a two bedroom.
The closing costs were to be paid by Pacific Housing, when in fact the amount of $11,000.00 was added to the purchase price to cover closing.
In order to administer the Freddic Mac program, Pacific Housing & Finance had to have a non profit status, which we could not find in our internet search. They are actually listed as a corporation.
So due to the discrepancies in the loan docs there is no way we can refinance.
We tried filing a police report charging embezzlement. The Detective and the DA's office choose not to investigate. We send out packages containing loan docs to the Department of Real Estate, Department of Corporations, Attorney General's Office, NACA, Justice Department and FBI. Everyone gave us the same answer: so sorry but that's not our area, have you tried etc, etc.
Our house was due to be sold 12/02/2008, but we did a mod doc with First Franklin with larger payments than agreed upon. When we asked First Franklin why we could not set the amount (late payments) at the end of the loan, or at least lower the payments we were told that we did not have that option. Either we paid what was ordered and by the due date every month for the next 6 months or they will start the foreclosurer again. First Franklin also reservered the right to change the loan terms at anytime.
We have searched and asked every agency we could think of. Does anyone else have any ideas?

[Moe Bedard]

HI GrammyB,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining...........

Have you tried going through NACA for modification help?

Click on the link for the info.........
NACA

[GrammyB]

Ms. Brown from NACA was one of my first contacts. The interaction left me feeling very hopeless.

[GrammyB]

We received a response from the Department of Real Estate in California. This letter was written by Linda Klebs, Senior Deputy Commissioner of the Los Angeles Enforcement Office. Since she was very adament regarding her comments, I don't think she would mind if I shared with the people out there. Keep in mind that we had orginally asked for help from this agency back in September 2008. The first request was send to our local office in Fresno, CA. A Mr. John Sweeney, responded that his agency could not help us. Two weeks later we thought that we would try again. So we mailed a package to the Los Angeles office. The response we received from Ms. Klebs was a work of art. she made it plain from the start that Pacific Housing & Finance in no way did any wrong and she regret to inform us that the Statute of Limitations expired on our transaction this very month; therefore not allowing enough time for an investigation to be completed.
After my husband read the letter, he called Ms. Klebs to ask her if she thought it was ok to sell a house that is uninsurable? Let lease payments go directly into Pacific Housing's pockets with no accounting ? Now listen to her response, which she used many times in her conversation. "You signed the contract and (this is my favorite) You should have made your mortgage payments, I do". I wanted to ask her if she's an investor with Pacific Housing?

If every government agency has the same attitude as Ms. Klebs, we better start packing now. This is some scary stuff.