Bankruptcy Judge Allows Arizona Homeowner Seeking Loan Modification To Grill Wells Fargo Senior Exec Under Oath On Servicer's Poor Customer Service

In Phoenix, Arizona, The New York Times reports:

• Bobbi Giguere had no luck in securing a loan modification from her mortgage servicer, Wells Fargo. For months, she had sent the bank the financial documents it requested to process her modification. But each time she called to check on the request, she was told to send her paperwork again. “I submitted the paperwork three times, and nothing happened,” said Mrs. Giguere, 41, who has a high school education and worked as restaurant manager before losing her job.

• On Thursday, something happened. She questioned a Wells Fargo official about the bank’s lack of response — under oath. The spectacle of a high-ranking banking executive being grilled by an ordinary homeowner was the result of an unusual decision by Judge Randolph J. Haines of the United States Bankruptcy Court to summon a senior executive from Wells Fargo to appear in Mrs. Giguere’s bankruptcy case. At the hearing, Judge Haines made it clear that he was acting out of concerns about Wells Fargo’s mortgage modification practices generally.

• “This is certainly not an isolated case,” he said. “The kind of story I hear from this debtor is one that I and other bankruptcy judges around the country are hearing over and over and over again.”

For more, see Judges’ Frustration Grows With Mortgage Servicers.

See also, KPHO-TV Channel 5:

• Bankruptcy Judge Grills Wells Fargo,
• Judge To Bank: Explain Mortgage Policies (Judge Orders Wells Fargo Executive To Testify About Loan Modification Policies).