House foreclosed on and sold without us knowing!!!

[jwa81]

Hi everyone,

I wasn't sure which category to post this under.

A very unfortunate, upsetting, and beyond frustrating set of circumstances bring me here today. We bought our home in the spring of 2008. Our mortgage loan was a USDA loan that was originated by Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker. As many of you know, in the summer of 2009, a little over a year after bought our home, TB&W was shut down by the feds and the owner was sent to prison for many years for mortgage fraud. Our mortgage was then transferred to Bank of America, whom we were with until 2014, when it was then transferred to Carrington Mortgage Services. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago, we fell quite a few months behind on our mortgage payments due to my husband becoming very will and underwent open-heart surgery and was out of work for an extended period of time. At the time, we were told that we would not be eligible for a loan modification because we had received one the year prior and you can apparently only get then once every 2 years. Carrington basically just told us to wait until we were eligible (which was the end of 2018) and then apply for a modification, which we did. However, about a month before we were eligible, we were served with foreclosure paperwork (this was a little over a year ago). I then contacted the Carrington's attorney listed on the foreclosure documents and they advised me to go ahead and contact Carrington directly to try and work something out with them as far as mortgage assistance, which we did and we got the boll rolling on the loan modification application process. We went around in circles with them for MONTHS. We kept sending them documents both via fax and email, yet they would repeatedly claim that this document was missing or that document was missing and we spent months going back and forth with them. Finally, we had enough and we contacted our state's Attorney General's office to request help because Carrington was giving us such a run around. They referred us to a mortgage counselor, who we started working with. He actually had a real estate attorney look up our mortgage in the MERS system, who then informed us that Carrington did not even own sufficient rights to our mortgage to be able to foreclose on it due to improper transfers from TB&W to BOA in 2009 and then from BOA to Carrington in 2014. This attorney also said that it would be especially difficult for them to foreclose since the originator of the loan, TB&W, is long since gone and has not been in existence in a decade. I thought, "Okay, cool. I guess we're literally stuck with this house!"

Anyway, the housing counselor starting communicating with Carrington on our behalf after we signed the proper release form to allow him to do so. Whenever Carrington needed another document from us, he would let us know and we would then send the document to him and he would then send it to Carrington. The last time any documents were requested from us was about 3 weeks ago. They needed updated pay stubs from my husband, an updated profit and loss statement from me since I'm self-employed, and an updated signature page since apparently the one they had on file from us was several months old and they needed a new one. So, we promptly sent ALL of those documents to our housing counselor and he then submitted them to Carrington and copied me on the email.

I emailed our counselor at the end of last week to ask him if he could check in with Carrington for a status update since it had been a few weeks and we hadn't heard anything at all. Well, this morning I received a phone call from him. He had called Carrington and was told that our property had been foreclosed on and SOLD TO CARRINGTON on August 28th!!!! We NEVER received ANY sort of notice that anything like this would be happening! Carrington literally requested more documents for our modification application AFTER this sale allegedly occurred and NEVER said a single word about this to either us or our housing counselor! We have been in VERY close contact with Carrington this entire past YEAR and have been working with them very closely to try to obtain this modification, which we were told we were now eligible for! We sent them EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT they asked for, and then some! Our counselor spoke with Carrington's attorney today, who claimed that they had mailed us documents about all of this, but we NEVER received them! I personally get the mail every single day while my husband is at work and the last thing we ever received from them was over a year ago, and that was when I contacted them and they advised me to contact Carrington to try to work something out with them in terms of a modification. How can they do this?!?!?!?!? This has been our home for nearly 12 years and now we could get kicked out at any given moment! We have put so much time, money, blood, sweat and tears into this house over the years to make it our own. I am so stressed that I can't even eat or focus on my work. I have been in tears and in constant panic and anxiety all day long since finding all this out. I know FOR A FACT that we NEVER received any documentation from Carrington's attorney about this impending sale! My goodness, I have been talking to Carrington either directly myself or through our housing counselor almost every week for MONTHS now! Why would they not even so much as mention this and WHY would they continue asking for documents for the modification process from us as though everything was smooth sailing?! I also thought they didn't even own sufficient rights to our loan to be able to do anything of this nature!

Our housing counselor did put us in touch with an attorney who handles this sort of thing and he is sending this attorney about 150 pages of documentation from our file, which he will get on Monday. I also wrote a letter to sent to the court and to Carrington's attorney stating that we NEVER received any of these notices that they claim to have mailed and that we have been working very closely with Carrington over the past many months to try to obtain a loan modification, yet they went and did this behind our backs! I requested the court that if they receive a writ request from Carrington or their attorney to NOT DO IT as we never had proper notification about any of this and we have been working with Carrington this entire time to try to obtain a loan mod!!!

Has anyone else every been through this or anything similar? We have no idea where we would go if we were totally uprooted and lost our home! We have 4 Golden Retrievers who are literally our babies and rents around here for single family homes are INSANE, almost twice that our mortgage payment was. Plus, our credit is not in the greatest shape right now after my husband's prolonged illness. The last thing we want to do is have to move in with my elderly parents. Their house is not large enough for all of us.

Can anyone offer my any advice or calming words? I feel like our entire world has been flipped totally upside down today. This came out of NOWHERE!

 

[just_me]

I'm not sure what State you are in but you might try your local legal aid society. I'm sorry this happened. It's very scary. Yes, you've been dual tracked and they proceeded to foreclosure while lying to you. It's not the first time I've seen something like this. I can't believe they didn't give any notices. Those are required by law. The sudden sale usually happens in non-judicial States. If they were required to serve you in a lawsuit and didn't, they won't have any proof (such as sherrif service or certified mail receipts) and you might find a legal way to undo the sale. (condition precedent) Meanwhile, try to save your payments. I hope speaking to an attorney will help. Sometimes these are easier to fight when they are bank-owned/REO versus a private bidder. There is hope!

 

[jwa81]

Thanks for the response! Yes, we were served with a foreclosure lawsuit in April of 2018, but at that time, the attorney representing Carrington advised us to contact Carrington directly to try to work something out, such as a modification, which we were eligible for. The housing counselor and I are currently waiting back to hear from this attorney who we spoke with on Friday, but have not heard from him yet. I also just emailed a nationally famed foreclosure defense attorney in our state, who actually was the one who told us in 2017 that Carrington did not have proper assignment/ownership of our loan and would not have any legal right to foreclose when he looked up our mortgage in MERS. He has been VERY successful in saving peoples' homes over the years. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I hear back from him today. We absolutely have been dual-tracked. They were actively working with us, or so we thought, on obtaining a loan mod, but what they were simultaneously doing behind the scenes was plotting to steal our home. We thought that as long as we had an active application for a modification with Carringtion and that we were being considered for a modification that they weren't allowed to do anything like this!

Yes, our home is now bank-owned, but the housing counselor spoke with Carrington's attorney, who stated that Carrington really isn't all that interested in helping us in any way, shape, or form. Hopefully, once we get an attorney involved they will start to change their tone a bit. I did file my motion to object the writ that they motioned for last week to hopefully slow this thing waaaaaaaay down to give us time to fight this and somehow try to work something out.

Oh, we are in Maine.

 

[wanda robo]

Thanks for the response! Yes, we were served with a foreclosure lawsuit in April of 2018, but at that time, the attorney representing Carrington advised us to contact Carrington directly to try to work something out, such as a modification, which we were eligible for. The housing counselor and I are currently waiting back to hear from this attorney who we spoke with on Friday, but have not heard from him yet. I also just emailed a nationally famed foreclosure defense attorney in our state, who actually was the one who told us in 2017 that Carrington did not have proper assignment/ownership of our loan and would not have any legal right to foreclose when he looked up our mortgage in MERS. He has been VERY successful in saving peoples' homes over the years. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I hear back from him today. We absolutely have been dual-tracked. They were actively working with us, or so we thought, on obtaining a loan mod, but what they were simultaneously doing behind the scenes was plotting to steal our home. We thought that as long as we had an active application for a modification with Carringtion and that we were being considered for a modification that they weren't allowed to do anything like this!

Yes, our home is now bank-owned, but the housing counselor spoke with Carrington's attorney, who stated that Carrington really isn't all that interested in helping us in any way, shape, or form. Hopefully, once we get an attorney involved they will start to change their tone a bit. I did file my motion to object the writ that they motioned for last week to hopefully slow this thing waaaaaaaay down to give us time to fight this and somehow try to work something out.

Oh, we are in Maine.

Tom Cox?

 

[jwa81]

Tom Cox?

Yes!!!!

 

[isisis]

So sorry this is happening to you. I've got Golden Retriever, a terrier and a thousand cats and my house is scheduled for sale tomorrow. I'm not going to let that happen of course but I can imagine what you're going through.

One thing on your side is that the lender bought it. That means it's possible to get your home ownership back. If it was a third party who bought it that can be nearly impossible. It sounds like you were seriously taken advantage of. If we knew what state you're in we could be more helpful.

Don't think about leaving, think about staying in your home. You have to be very stubborn to fight the banks.

 

[isisis]

Sale postponed. Whew! Ok.

Your position is not hopeless and you're not helpless. There are laws that protect your rights, government agencies that may be helpful (if only slightly) and people in this forum with experience fighting back who will share their knowledge. That said going up against a bank is one of the hardest things imaginable given the disparity of economics and bargaining power. It's exhausting, expensive and the effort required takes over your life.

You need to assess your commitment to your home in terms of the monetary and emotional investment. You need to also consider your own temperment and world view to determine whether fighting back will be worth it. I'm not discouraging you from standing up for your rights, just saying you need to be very determined and willing to question authority. You'll also need to be able to devote a huge chunk of time learning the laws surrounding the issue that will be in your state's statutes as well as common law - by that I mean how Courts have ruled in similar situations. The court system in general doesn't tend to favor "defaulting" borrowers and may view your home being sold without your knowledge as unfortunate but an inevitable loss. That's what you're up against. You'll need to demonstrate that your rights were violated in such a way as to have made their actions wrongful despite payments not having been made. Then from there having the sale overturned.

Here's what you could do to start with.

1. Find your loan documents - your mortgage - and read specifically what they say regarding their right foreclose. (Actually read everything because implicit in many sections of a mortgage are your rights under the loan contract.)

2. Learn your state's foreclosure procedure statutes. Google your state and foreclosure laws.

3. Go to your county's recorder of deeds search either online or in person and find out what documents have been recorded and get physical copies of those docs.

 

[jwa81]

Hi everyone,

Sorry I'm a bit late getting back. It was one hell of a week.

Well, our HUD counselor did speak with Attorney Tom Cox last Wednesday, who said that he has been seeing A LOT of "very alarming activity" from Carrington Mortgage lately. Unfortunately, his case load is very heavy right now, so he can't take us on directly, but he did say that he would be willing work cumulatively with whatever lawyer we get and assist in any way that he can. He is nationally known for uncovering the fraudulent foreclosure activity conducted by mortgage servicers and he sparked a 50-state attorney general investigation years ago. He has also taught many, many foreclosure defense attorneys how to handle these situations and win these types of cases. He even won the Purpose Prize in 2012 for his work helping people save their homes. I REALLY hope that he can help us in some capacity. Our HUD counselor has been waiting to hear back from another foreclosure defense attorney, to whom he emailed all of our documentation from our modification application as well as our many months worth of electronic communication with Carrington back on the 27th, but we never heard back from him last week, despite our HUD counselor's many attempts to reach him both via phone and email. I tried many times to reach our counselor yesterday, but was unable to. I'm sure that I'll hear back from him on Monday. He was supposed to have followed back up with Tom Cox on Friday as well, so I'm not sure if he was able to do that or not since I was unable to reach him. I have put in an email to another law firm in our state last night who handles consumer protection law to see if they can be of any help to us.

Thus far, we have done a couple of things this past week. A. I delivered my pro se motion to object to the courthouse if Carrington's counsel files a motion for a writ. I dropped that off at the court on Monday afternoon. When our HUD counselor spoke with Carrington's attorney the Friday before, she informed him that they had already filed the motion for a 21-day writ; however, this was obviously a lie, because when he called the court on Tuesday afternoon, the court clerk informed him that they had NOT received such a motion from Carrington's counsel, but they did receive motion to object it. I guess this was just a scare tactic that Carrington's attorney was using when she lied and told our HUD counselor that it had already been filed? B. Our HUD counselor filed a formal CFPB complaint against Carrington on our behalf on Thursday, so we are waiting for a response on that.

My husband and I REFUSE to lose our home. We have nearly 12 years worth of memories in our home. We have celebrated 12 years worth of holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc in our home with family and friends. We raised our furry family in this home. We GOT MARRIED in our home. This is not just a house to us. It is a time capsule of memories and even beginning to think of losing it breaks me down into tears. This is NOT right or fair. My husband and I work WAY too hard to be going through something like this. We both bust our behinds working WELL over 40 hours per week. We do not DESERVE to be going through this. We did EVERYTHING that we were supposed to do. As soon as we fell behind on our mortgage due to my husband's illness, we immediately reached out to Carrington for help. We have been sending them document after document after document for the entire past year. EVERY SINGLE document they requested from us we sent without fail. They did nothing but give us an endless runaround. They never even approved or denied our application for a modification. They just kept kicking it back and demanding the same documents over and over again, claiming that they were either missing, stale, or incorrect. We had literally JUST been told in mid-August that we were back in underwriting and then the proceeded with the foreclosure behind our backs in August 28th and then our home was sold at auction to Carrington. They do not even own our loan!!! They have no legal right to foreclose! Attorney Tom Cox already confirmed that when he looked up our mortgage in MERS a while back. He said there had been improper assignment of our loan and that Taylor, Bean & Whitaker still technically owns our loan, and they haven't existed in a decade! Plus, Carrington legally was NOT supposed to have dual tracked us into foreclosure when we had an active application for a loan modification that we had not even received a decision on. What they did was blatant dual tracking, which is HIGHLY illegal and strictly prohibited. The only reason we even found out about this foreclosure and sale is because our HUD counselor had called Carrington to check on the status of our loan mod application on the 27th and he ended up being referred to their attorney, who informed him of what had been done. He asked their attorney how we could possibly go from being in review for a mod to this. She apparently had no answer for him. I don't even know if she knew that we had been actively working with Carrington towards a modification.

We are hoping and praying that we can make some progress next week and secure an attorney. The fact that nobody has shown up with a date that we have to be out, even well over a month since the sale of our home, is at least somewhat reassuring, I guess. Ever since we found all of this out a little over a week ago, being in our home just feels...different. There is such a strange, unsettling feeling knowing that we do not even own our home anymore. I do NOT like this feeling at all and I just cannot seem to shake it. I know that I shouldn't feel this way because this is OUR home, but I do.

Thanks for listening to me and letting me ramble. This is just the most terrifying, stressful situation that my husband and I have ever been through. My husband feels like this is all his fault because his illness is the reason why we fell behind in the first place. I keep trying to tell him that this is NOT his fault and that it was Carrington's responsibility to work with us, which they failed to do and instead railroaded us into foreclosure fraudulently and wrongfully. They have broken just about every foreclosure law that exists and I have been reading about MANY lawsuits against them over the last several years for this very thing. There is even a couple in Texas who won a $5.4 million dollar lawsuit against Carrington for this exact same thing. Like I told my husband earlier, I am not looking to win some multi-million dollar lawsuit (as nice as that would be); I just want our home and I want us to be treated fairly. That is all I want.

 

[jwa81]

Oh, and we are located in Maine.

 

[just_me]

Woosh! What a week! Get used to foreclosure attorneys lying. Protect your interests and realize anything you say to them will be turned against you. Avoid further discussion until you have an attorney. Sounds like you made some great advances really quickly. Good job.

PS- download a call recorder to your cell phone. It will help you make notes in case you do speak to opposing counsel or any servicing agent about that alleged modification.

 

[jwa81]

I actually haven't personally spoken with Carrington's attorney and I have absolutely no plans to since our HUD counselor has been doing all of the talking for us and we are in the process of securing an attorney of our own. It was the HUD counselor who spoke with Carrington's attorney 9 days ago on the 27th and she informed him that they had already filed a motion with the court for a 21-day writ several days earlier; however, when our counselor called the court on Tuesday, the day after I dropped off our motion to object to their motion for the writ, the clerk informed him that they had received nothing from Carrington or their counsel, so that was definitely a bold-faced lie. Carrington's attorney also told our counselor that Carrington was not really compelled to help us in any way, shape, or form. We are doing absolutely everything we can to fight this and regain ownership of our home that was literally stolen right out from under us. We have pages and pages of documents that we had submitted to Carrington as part of our application as well as an entire year worth of emails between the HUD counselor and myself that show we were actively submitting documents to Carrington, and our HUD counselor has copies of all of the documents that he submitted via email to Carrington on our behalf, so we have a significant amount of proof that we were actively working with them to obtain a modification while they were simultaneously dual tracking us into foreclosure.

I have spent the entire past 9 days educating myself on our rights, and I know that as long as you are actively working with your mortgage servicer to obtain a loan modification or any other type of mortgage assistance, then they are NOT allowed to move forward with foreclosure. It is the responsibility of both the mortgage servicer and their legal counsel to ensure that this does not happen while the borrower is being reviewed for assistance. All foreclosure activity must be 100% halted during this time. They are required to review your application and then they have to either approve or deny the application. If it is denied (which there should have been absolutely NO reason that ours would have been denied), then they are required to provide to you in writing exactly why it was denied and allow you a certain amount of time to either reapply or appeal the denial. Carrington did NONE of those things. They never approved or denied our modification application. They just kept playing games by running us around in endless circles asking for documents for an entire year.

I am hopeful that we will hear from the CFPB next week since our HUD counselor had submitted the complaint to them on Thursday. They are the ones who put all of these laws into place, which Carrington has so clearly broken. We just HAVE to keep our home. There is no other option for us. We are NOT going anywhere!

 

[wanda robo]

OK, so here are my thoughts. Don't put all of your eggs in the CFPB basket ( They still can't figure out if they're Unconstitutional or not).Oh, and if they are Constitutional, they take years and years to provide help. HUD counselors (in my experience) have been worthless.
A letter writing campaign is in order.

Americans For Financial Reform
Center For Community Progress
Center For Responsible Lending
Civil Justice Inc.
Housing and Economics Rights Advocates
Legal Aid of Maine
National Consumer Law Center
National Fair Housing Alliance
Notre Dame Clinical Law Center
Public Justice Center
Woodstock Institute

You must take things into your own hands and make some noise.
Best of luck!

 

[jwa81]

I'll definitely look into these, although I'm not too sure if writing campaign letters will really be of much help in our current situation considering that the foreclosure and sale have already occurred and time is not exactly on our side. What we are in need of at this point is an experienced foreclosure defense attorney to try and get this fraudulent and wrongful foreclosure and sale of our home reversed, which we are currently working on. Like I mentioned earlier, we very briefly spoke with an attorney on the 27th and the HUD counselor had emailed him all of the documentation that he had requested to look into our case, but it has been an entire week and we have yet to hear back from him. I also was unable to reach the HUD counselor at all on Friday (even though he had said earlier in the week that he was going to touch base with Tom Cox again at the end of the week), so I went ahead and emailed another law firm last night and should hopefully hear back on Monday. Attorney Tom Cox did tell our HUD counselor that he would absolutely be willing to work in conjunction with the attorney who takes on our case and help in any way that he can to come up with a game plan. Tom also had told the counselor that he would try to get in touch with the attorney that we were waiting to hear back from to see what they could to together in this case. It's pretty difficult if not impossible for us to get any kind of free legal assistance because we are not low income as my husband and I both work full-time. We fell upon temporary financial hardship a couple of years ago as a result of my husband's illness, which is what caused us to fall behind on our mortgage payments when he was out of work for many months, but that hardship has long since resolved as my husband has recovered and has been back to work for a long time now. In fact, when he returned to work, we did try to resume making our regular mortgage payments to prevent us from falling even further behind than we already were, but Carrington would not accept anything other than the full past due amount and sent our payments back to us. That is why we were working so hard to obtain a modification so that we could get back on track and resume making our payments, which Carrington has made downright impossible with their relentless "missing documents" games that they played. We're definitely not putting all of our eggs in the CFPB basket. That is just one of the first steps we have taken while we work on obtaining legal counsel. The Attorney General's office in our state is also already aware of the situation. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next week will bring us some hope and progress. I will not rest until we have officially retained an attorney.

 

[just_me]

The CFPB will take your complaint to the servicer or lender who has to respond in so many days. (20???) Keep up with that. You may be disagreeing with their response. The more complaints they get on a particular servicer, the more likely they are to take enforcement action against them. It's important to make these complaints! (even though servicer will likely give a BS response - get your dispute on record)

 

[jwa81]

Oh, I fully expect a totally BS response from Carrington on the CFPB complaint! I would expect nothing less of them. Literally, all that Carrington does is BS when it comes to EVERYTHING! They have been an absolute NIGHTMARE to deal with these past 5 years that we've been with them! Seriously, they make even Bank of America look like Mother Theresa! There was a time a few years ago when they kept claiming that we didn't have homeowner's insurance (even though THEY had paid for it via our escrow account) and they repeatedly tried to charge us an insane amount for their own lender placed insurance, even though we kept sending them copies of our Liberty Mutual policy over and over and over again and they kept claiming that they weren't receiving it, just like the crap that they pull when you are applying for a modification with them. Last night, I also filed a complaint with our state's Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection & Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, so now we have complaints going at both the federal and state level.

I 100% agree that filing these complaints is so important, because if they see repeated complaints about the same companies, they WILL take action and have the power to sue these mortgage servicers and banks.

 

[jwa81]

Oh, I fully expect a totally BS response from Carrington on the CFPB complaint! I would expect nothing less of them. Literally, all that Carrington does is BS when it comes to EVERYTHING! They have been an absolute NIGHTMARE to deal with these past 5 years that we've been with them! Seriously, they make even Bank of America look like Mother Theresa! I so wish that they would have sold our loan to someone else...ANYBODY else. They are absolutely the WORST company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. There was a time a few years ago when they kept claiming that we didn't have homeowner's insurance (even though THEY had paid for it via our escrow account) and they repeatedly tried to charge us an insane amount for their own lender placed insurance, even though we kept sending them copies of our Liberty Mutual policy over and over and over again and they kept claiming that they weren't receiving it, just like the crap that they pull when you are applying for a modification with them. Last night, I also filed a complaint with our state's Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection & Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, so now we have complaints going at both the federal and state level.

I 100% agree that filing these complaints is so important, because if they see repeated complaints about the same companies, they WILL take action and have the power to sue these mortgage servicers and banks.

 

[jwa81]

Okay, I have some updates. I heard back from Attorney Tom Cox today, but, sadly, he has a backbreaking case load and 2 trials this week alone, so he cannot take us on, which is devastating news for us. We were really hoping that he would be able to help us at least in some capacity. The HUD counselor did email Tom and asked if he could at least recommend any other attorneys who may be able to help. The counselor also followed up with the court today and Carrington's lawyer did file for a 21-day writ last Tuesday; however, because they have my objection to the writ that I filed last Monday, the court is holding it for up to 21 days to allow Carrington's attorney time to respond to my objection. Then, if Carrington and their attorney object to my objection, then both my objection and theirs will go before a judge to decide where to go from there, whether they grant the writ, deny it, or bring all of us into court for a hearing.

However, I just got off the phone with the State of Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection (a division of the Attorney General's office), whom I filed a formal complaint with over the weekend, and the guy who I spoke with was very nice and he immediately knew who I was as soon as I said that I was calling to follow up on the complaint that I had filed against our mortgage company for wrongful/fraudulent foreclosure. He said, "Carrington, right? I literally just read your complaint and assigned it to one of our investigators about an hour ago, so you should be hearing back from them either later today or tomorrow." I then asked him if their office has the power to stop this if they detect unscrupulous/illegal activity on behalf of the mortgage company and he said yes, absolutely, they do have the ability to flex their muscles and put a stop to any illegal activity that they find. They also work very closely with the HUD counselor who we have been working with for the past year and refer a lot of people to him, but in this case, an actual investigator who oversees licensing of mortgage companies and banks, etc. will be getting involved and HOPEFULLY be able to help us. The HUD counselor said that all of these actions we are taking and complaints that we are filing hopefully will AT LEAST muck this up and bog it down enough so that Carrington will say, "Okay, what do these people want?" and then maybe they will consider at least leasing our home to us for a year or two to allow us enough time to get into a position to be able to buy it back from them. As of last week, they were not willing to do that, but since we have filed these complaints with the CFPB and the State of Maine Attorney General's office, it is the hope of the HUD counselor that they will start to change their tone a bit and be more willing to work with us to find a way to allow us to stay in our home, even if it means leasing it from them for a year or two. One thing that I know for certain is that we are NOT going to back down and do everything that we possibly can (and can afford) to fight this and remain in our home.

This is all so overwhelming. I went from being in tears this morning to having a TINY bit of hope that the state will be able to help us and that MAYBE (although I doubt this) Carrington's attorney won't object to my objection for the writ, or the judge will allow us all to come into court for a hearing to hopefully try and straighten this huge mess out.

 

[jwa81]

I also just found something a bit interesting. I just looked up Carrington's license on the NMLS web site, and our state (Maine) is the ONLY state where Carrington is listed as being a "supervised lender." I wonder what this means. They are not listed as being supervised in any other state.......

 

[just_me]

Complaining to the State Attorney General was a good choice. The State may very well stop them from further legal action while they investigate. The "supervised" category is interesting. While that's going on, you need to be pre-emptive on learning the law, offenses and defenses. Try to retain a dialogue with any legal authority or volunteer that might be able to answer questions in the even that you go pro se. You will have to check out the local rules of practice and learn about motions, etc. Not sure what resources are online in your area. Some states have better legal information for pro se than others. Finding FC defense attorneys is near impossible as you've already discovered, too few to go around. Why I suggested legal aid even though you may not be income qualified, they may be able to help with some resources and referrals.

 

[jwa81]

I did just read this about supervised lenders in our state, so I guess this kind of explains why they are listed as being a supervised lender in Maine, which I suppose works in our favor a bit since they are under a much closer microscope by the state:

Maine recently enacted legislation that modifies the Maine Consumer Credit Code to require mortgage servicers to obtain the Supervised Lender License. The measure, Maine Senate Paper (SP) 444, goes into effect on November 1, 2017.
Under current law, a person must obtain a Supervised Lender License in order to: (1) make supervised loans; or (2) take assignments of and undertake direct collection of payments from or enforcement or rights from an office in Maine against debtors arising from supervised loans. A “supervised loan” includes a consumer loan which is secured by an interest in real estate.

I have to admit that our HUD counselor has been extremely helpful and very actively involved in our situation. I know that someone had said that HUD counselors were, for the most part, kind of useless, but ours has been VERY active in following up with the court, with different attorneys, and with us. He has proven that he is staying right on top of things and trying to think of any possible resource that could help us. He is just as shocked by all of this as we are. After all, he was the one who had been communicating with Carrington and submitting our documents to them this entire time for our loan mod application. He admitted that he is not an attorney, so he does not hold any legal power, but he has several resources who he can reach out to. He was also the one who advised me to immediately file a pro se motion to object to the court a week ago to Carrington's motion for a writ, which I did, and I got it into the court a day before Carrington's lawyer got their motion in for the writ, so now everything has to be reviewed by a judge and it is buying us more time, so I am very grateful that he advised me to do that as soon as we found out about this foreclosure and sale of our home.