Media Intervention Helps Houston Widow Recover Foreclosed Home After Loan Servicer Screw-Up

In Houston, Texas, KRIV-TV Channel 26 reports on a local homeowner faced with financial trouble after Hurricane Ike hit, which caused significant damage to her home, only to be followed by a home repair scammer who pocketed $4,000 of her money without doing any repairs on her home:

• Desperate to get her house back to normal, she asked her mortgage company, Merrill Lynch for an extension of her mortgage payments. The company agreed. And once the insurance money arrived, she was able to catch up on her payments. She also paid an additional $31,000 to her principal.

• Days later she got a letter saying her home was being foreclosed. But things got worse. She then got a second letter stating her home was going to be auctioned off. She says she immediately called Merrill Lynch. '(I) finally got somebody and they said, 'OK, we're taking you off the foreclosure list. You should never have been on there.'"

• Amanda thought her emergency as over; it wasn't. When she got home from shopping one day she discovered a 'notice of sale' posted on her front door. Her home had been sold and she had to move out.

Armed with documents showing that the homeowner had paid all her bills and that someone with the mortgage servicer had made a big mistake, Channel 26 intervened on Amanda's behalf. Neither her mortgage company or the attorneys involved in the foreclosure would discuss the issue; however, the homeowner ultimately received papers stating that the foreclosure was canceled and the sale rescinded.

For the story, see Error Lands Lady's House in Foreclosure.