Saturday, December 10, 2011

Despite Having Valid Loan Mod In Place, Homeowner Nearly Loses Home To BofA Foreclosure; Bankster Halts Sale After Media Steps In, Shines Spotlight

In Rio Grande Valley, Texas, KRGV-TV Channel 5 reports:
  • A national bank admits its error almost cost a Valley family its home. The home loan modification program was supposed to make life easier. It was supposed to take away some of the financial burden. It did the opposite.

***

  • The Rodriguez family has lived here for nearly 20 years. They needed help paying the bills. They turned to Bank of America and a home loan modification program. The program allows homeowners to pay their mortgage at a reduced rate. They thought it would help.


  • "We got our payment back that they weren’t going to accept any more payments because the house was going to be foreclosed on," says Rodriguez. The bank told Rodriguez she owed almost $16,000.


  • Bank managers failed to realize the homeowner was put into the loan modification program. Rodriguez felt her back was against the wall. She called the bank to find out what was going on. Finally, things seemed to get straightened out.


  • "They even said, ‘Oh, miss, we do apologize. It was a mistake on our behalf. We'll go ahead and fix that mistake. Just to go ahead and continue making payments,’" says Rodriguez.


  • She still continued to get notices that she would lose her home. The bank gave her until this past Tuesday to make a full payment.

***

  • CHANNEL 5 NEWS contacted Bank of America to find out what was going on. This was their response:

    "We apologize to Ms. Martinez for the error we made in completing her modification. We had already stopped the foreclosure sale that was scheduled for earlier this week. We will work directly with her on the next steps."

For the story, see Error Almost Costs Valley Family Its Home.