2nd Mortgage w/First Bank Mortage-being sued

[pjm392001]

Hi All. Any advice is greatly appreciated on this issue.

We live in Michigan (the home foreclosure rate in this state is awful!) and financed our home in Dec. 2006. First Bank Mortgage out of St. Louis, MO financed the real estate with 2 mortgages. (80/20). After some health issues and late payments with both mortgage payments, they wrote off the 2nd mortgage to "bad debt". The first mortgage is now current.

After trying to modify the outstanding balance in to one payment, we were told basically that there was nothing they (collections dept of firstbank) could do regarding the 2nd mortgage, it was written off to bad debt. Well, hadn't heard much of anything until Friday evening when the sherriff served both my husband and I with papers. They are suing us alleging that "Defendent has failed or neglected, despite demand, to pay the balance due on the Note which is presently $21,249.39, exclusive of tinerest; the date of the last payment being December 7, 2006."

Plantiff (Firstbank mortgage) requests judgment against the Defendant plus costs and attorney fees.
#1-This is the first contact regarding anything about this second mortgage.
#2-The last payment was not made in Dec. 2006. That's when the loan was actually initiated and financed. Payments WERE 90 days late but they would not accept payment after they informed us of write off.

Should we seek legal advice on this situation or is this something we could work out on our own. We aren't stupid people, but we're not lawyers either. Any advice will help. Thank you!

[Dan Bailey]

Welcome to the forum pjm, and thanks for joining!
***, Moe or Andrew should be by shortly to answer your specific questions.
Personaly, if I am served with papers, I'd try to get help from an attorney...court stuff freaks me out!
Good luck in your process!

[Moe Bedard]

Hi pjm392001,

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

I agree with Dan..........you should definately consult with an attorney.......especially if the goal is to keep the home.........

also you had mentioned that as of Friday when you were served the papers........
#1-This is the first contact regarding anything about this second mortgage.

If this was the first contact, how and when did you find out that the second was written off as "bad debt", which would have been an indicator that the collection effort would accellerate from that point?

[pjm392001]

We actually found out about the bad debt w.o. during one of many conversations with the collection department. The strange thing we thought is that they wouldn't say anything like, "let me direct you to someone who can help you." It was more like, "can't do anything for you at this point." We were not told anything about this being written off if it wasn't paid for by so and so date. They just did it. Would my credit report suffice for being able to prove payments indeed were made on this loan but did obviously get late. It looks as though on this summons/complaint like payments were not made on it at all. Another very weird thing is that after doing a search on First Bank Mortgage, the CEO is in a lot of legal crap. (link removed)

I'm not saying that our circumstances revolve around this, just shows you that you can't trust any of these mortgage companies. Has anyone dealt with First Bank Mortgage based out of St. Louis, MO?? Thanks

[Moe Bedard]

You would have to bounce that off of the attorney........but I would think that you would need the cancelled checks or bank statements showing the payments.