Need Advice Dealing with HFC

[Mary F]

I live in NYS and my lender is HFC.

[Moe Bedard]

Hi Mary,

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

If you need assistance and advice with you lender you are going to have to provide additional info and be specific.............

What is your interest rate?
One loan or two?
Type of loan?
Is it an adjustable rate?
If so when is it set to adjust?
How many month past due?
Are taxes past due also?
What caused you to fall behind in payments?


and so forth...................as much information as you can provide........

[Mary F]

Lender: HFC
Mortgage: 30 years adjustable rate with current rate at 8.5%
Taxes: up-to-date
Insurance: up-to-date
Number of payments behind: 6
Why behind: initially was due to a reduction in salary (went from making $55,000 to $30,000) then laid off.
City/State: Schenectady, NY
Monthly Payment: $879.69

Here's my story: Was placed in foreclosure in May 2007 due to loss of job. HFC was not willing to do a loss mitigation program with me. Retained an attorney who was useless. Months went by and by Oct.07 had to pay $9000 or lose my home. Came up with the funds thru a family member and paid it. Also, monthly payment was going from $744.11 to $844. Was told once I paid the $9000 my mortgage would be reinstated back to me and my 1st payment was due on or before Nov. 30, 2007. So, mailed the 1st payment and HFC declines it, infact, they declined both for Nov. and Dec. 2007...sent checks back saying I was still in foreclosure since May 2007. Made many calls, emails, faxes, letters to HFC and no one responded so I retained a new attorney. She sent letters, faxes, emails and no responses from HFC. Then, in Feb. 2008, I am issued foreclosure papers, again. Finally, in April08, HFC contacts my attorney and tells me to give them $3000 and pay $1350/month for the next 6 months, after the 6 months, my payments would go from $844.11 to $879.69 and my 8.5% rate would increase to 11% in 2 months! I did not accept this offer, how could I.monthly payments were way too high! After that offer, HFC went an entire month not contacting my attorney..finally..on May 1, 2008, theytell her that I was to pay $5325.89 by May 31st and my monthly payments would remain at $879.69 with the interest rate going from 8.5% to 11% in 2 months, or lose my home! I had 24 hours to accept thisoffer or else they were going to start the foreclsoure and sale on the house! My attorney said that this was a good offer, Icalled it a loss mitigation offer, and that I should accept it. So, I had no choice but to accept the offer and find a way to come up with the money. Now, I get an email from my attorney and she teels me that not only is the $5325.89 due by May 30th, but an additional $879.69 is due by May 30th for May's payment. I went back to her original email and it NEVER said anything about the additional $879.69! I have managed to come up with the $5325.89 but I do not have that other money! On top of that, my interest rate of 8.5% is going to increase to 11% in 2 months and then I'll be worse off..my payments will be well over $900/month! What do I do? Why is HFC not willing to do a loss mitigation program with me? My attorney says that they did..I disagree. My attorney says that I do not have any rights and that HFC can do whatever they want. I need advice!

Looks to me that you need an attorney that might actually fight for you! I don't know all you detail of the entire situation, but I can't imagine that a loan mod that is going to adjust to 11% in 2 months would be called a good deal by anyone.

I can tell you that back when I was originating loans that I helped get people out of many HFC/HSBC loans. Quite a few had horrible terms of yearly rising payments, high rates, and some were even predatory in nature.

You need to shake your attorney and get her to fight for you! A mod that blows up on you in 2 months is not going to do you any good. Get back to her and pressure her to AT LEAST get a fixed payment for some extended period of time to let you get back on your feet with income. Get her to counter back to HFC with an offer that you can live with for at least a couple of years before it does anything.

She needs to fight the good fight!

[Mary F]

Thanks Steve for the advice. I just emailed my attorney and asked if she has been talking to collections or loss mitigation and am waiting for her reply. Took your advice and asked her to fight harder for me. I tried telling her that I can afford the $879.69 payments if they remain that throughout the duration of the loan or at least for the next 5 years if I can build up my credit and continue to make my payments in a timely manner, therfore, allowing me to refinance 5 years down the road with a more reputable lender. I even asked her what would happen if we just went before the foreclosure judge....show him that I paid the $9000 back in 2007 on top of making my monthly payment on time and paid the $5325.89 this time around..you know..prove to them that I acted in good faith yet HFC did not follow through with their offer...attorney told me the judge would side with HFC and place my house for sale. It's just so odd to me..living in NYS foreclosures are sky high, yet I read and hear so many stories where peoples homes were saved due to loss mitigation, yet I have a lender not willing to bend. I contacted 995-HOPE and filled out information with them and will see what they can do for me. I will keep you posted.

[Moe Bedard]

Mary,

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

At the moment are you back at work now with a regular income?

In order to even try for a regular modification of the loan when you do your household income verus your household expenses you would need to show a surplus of $100-$250 at the end of the month....are you able to do this?

[Mary F]

Hi ***:

At the end of the month, after paying for mortgage, car, utilities, medical bills, orthodontist bills, credit card bills, etc.....I have around $250 remaining to spend on food or whatever else might be needed. back when I took a loss in pay, and then lost my job, I only had $50/month left to spend on food and clothes and HFC would not budge on working with me.

[Mary F]

Hi

Has anybody had HFC as their mortgage lender? If so, please provide me with any advice or feedback on your experiences with them in regards to HFC working out a payment plan or loss mitigation in order to save your home. It is impossible to talk to anybody at HFC. Please go to my other posting titled: Need Loss Mitigation Advice to hear my story. Just want to know if their are any successful stories having HFC as a lender and how it was done..need as much advice as possible!

[Moe Bedard]

Mary,

On this forum we have two members dealing with HFC and they are working on Short Sales right now.......so we don't have any others working with them right now and there are not any Success Stories with them at the moment.........Household Finance is just that a finance company and very predatory............and very difficult to get to do anything regarding any types of modifications, they say they don't offer modifications...........they said to one member that all they offer is a 6 month forebearance and no change in rate...........so what that woud do is take the 6 past due payments and break them up over a set period of months and then add them back to the current payment causing an increase..........

It is good that you contacted HOPE to help you deal with HFC because they are not a very nice company to deal with alone.........HOPE might be able to help get you somewhere with them.....

We do have the direct number to Loss Mitigation if that helps..........

HFC Loss Mitigation
1-800-340-7505


Please keep us posted on your progress....