Hi everyone,
We have been living an absolute nightmare for the past few months. We were dual-tracked into foreclosure by Carrington Mortgage (who is a HIGHLY predatory and abusive company who took over our loan back in 2014) while we were actively engaged in HAMP negotiations with them for a loan modification. They jerked us around for an entire year and completely stonewalled us throughout the entire process and acted in very bad faith. They repeatedly claimed that they lost our documents, didn't receive our documents, or claimed that the documents were incorrect or stale and needed to be resubmitted. They put up obstacle after obstacle and made it literally impossible to get the modification that we were perfectly eligible to receive. We then found out at the end of September that they had foreclosed on our home in April and then retained it at auction in August, yet they had continued to request documents from us well AFTER the foreclosure had already occurred and never even so much as mentioned it to either us or the HUD counselor we had been working with. They had even lied and told us that all foreclosure activity was on hold while we were working with them towards a modification. The BIG problem is that this was a totally illegal/fraudulent foreclosure, not just because of the rampant dual-tracking that took place, but because they were NOT in possession of the promissory note. In looking through the foreclosure documents, there is mention of the note in the mortgage itself, but the actual note is nowhere to be found, so they technically NEVER should have been granted this foreclosure by the court. All that they had was the mortgage and a description of our property. That's it. NO note. The note ALWAYS comes first. It's what secures the mortgage and the mortgage is supposed to ALWAYS follows the note whenever a loan is transferred from servicer to servicer. So, without the note, they should have had absolutely no leg to stand on when it comes to foreclosure. Instead, they fabricated a phony quitclaim assignment, which is total fraud. Now we know why they wanted to foreclose so badly and did everything possible to avoid giving us a loan modification - our loan was a worthless asset to them without the note and they knew it, so they wanted to foreclose fraudulently, buy our home at auction for a nauseatingly low amount, and then sell it for profit. It's criminal behavior. Last week, we received a 48-hour writ of possession notice to vacate, but we are still here as we had already filed a federal lawsuit against them prior to receiving the notice and have requested immediate and permanent injunctive relief, and we have an ADR hearing (alternative dispute resolution) coming up at the end of March, where hopefully they will settle and reinstate our mortgage. We have also just filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against them so that they cannot boot us out of our home pending our ADR hearing in a few months. This whole thing has been an absolute nightmare and emotional roller coaster for my husband and I. Our stress levels are maxed out and we are drained. We just want our lives back and some peace. We are not exactly sure what we are going to do at this point. We have been in our home for almost 13 years. While we love our location, really like our neighbors, and we have MANY wonderful memories in this home, this house needs A LOT of work and, to be honest, it has been nothing but a big money pit for quite some time now. It needs more work than we have time or money to put into it and we are getting really tired of being slaves to this house.
We went and looked at a BEAUTIFUL 3-bedroom rental home in a very nice, quiet, and safe neighborhood last week that has been completely renovated from top to bottom. The kitchen has gorgeous new black granite counter tops with white cabinets, all new stainless appliances, washer and dryer, brand new flooring (new luxury vinyl plank in the kitchen, new tile in the bathroom, and new carpeting in the living room and 3 bedrooms), fresh paint throughout he entire house, a fenced in backyard with a huge storage shed, all new windows and exterior doors, new roof, new furnace, and a completely remodeled bathroom with a beautiful tile shower. Most importantly, the landlord is totally fine with our pets, which is good since we have 4 Golden Retrievers and 4 cats. We would just need to pay a $400 pet deposit. It's in a fantastic location that is super close to everything and it would be perfect for us, at least for now and potentially the next couple of years. The landlord is EXTREMELY nice and was very personable, upbeat, and casual. He told us that the house is ours if we want it and the rent is within our means. It even includes heat, water, sewer, and snow plowing in the winter. All that we would have to pay for is electric and cable. It's not a huge house (about 1000 square feet), but it's very cozy and seems like it will be comfortable for us. It's just the two of us and our pets. I work from home full-time and one of the bedrooms would be perfect for my office and then my husband could set up his office in the other spare bedroom. We could also easily fit a twin bed in one of them for guests. We told the landlord that we love the house and that we are VERY interested in it, so we agreed to touch base again on Monday (today) to work out all of the details. EVERYONE (especially my parents) is telling us that we need to jump on this house ASAP. Our best friend is very excited about the idea of us moving there since it's just 2 miles from where she lives. I think we are going to take it, but it's just such a tough decision. There have been a lot of tears over this. We definitely have a very emotional attachment to our current home, but we know that we need to be realistic and try to remove our emotions from the situation as best as we can (easier said than done). We have no idea how long this lawsuit against Carrington is going to last or what the end result will be, but our attorney has repeatedly told us that we have a VERY, VERY strong case and he HIGHLY doubts that they are actually going to act on that 48-hour notice and try to kick us out now that they know there is a fresh federal lawsuit against them and an ADR hearing in March. It would only make them look even worse if they kicked us out. Our thought is that we could always rent this house that we looked at for a couple of years (maybe even a bit longer) while we work on boosting our credit scores and then purchase a new home. But, what if the mortgage company agrees to reinstate our mortgage as a result of this lawsuit after we've already moved? Our attorney said that is definitely a likely possibility as they have done that in quite a few other lawsuits against them in these types of cases. What would we do then? Come back and fix it up to sell? Move back in? Rent it out? We just have so many questions!
What would you do in our situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This has been an incredibly difficult, stressful, and highly emotional few months for us, and it's 100 times worse that it's happening during the holidays. However, this rental home could be exactly what we need to get a fresh start. Maybe it's just meant to be.
Sorry for rambling so much. My mind has been racing the past several days and I guess I just needed a place to kind of vent and get all of this off my chest.
We have been living an absolute nightmare for the past few months. We were dual-tracked into foreclosure by Carrington Mortgage (who is a HIGHLY predatory and abusive company who took over our loan back in 2014) while we were actively engaged in HAMP negotiations with them for a loan modification. They jerked us around for an entire year and completely stonewalled us throughout the entire process and acted in very bad faith. They repeatedly claimed that they lost our documents, didn't receive our documents, or claimed that the documents were incorrect or stale and needed to be resubmitted. They put up obstacle after obstacle and made it literally impossible to get the modification that we were perfectly eligible to receive. We then found out at the end of September that they had foreclosed on our home in April and then retained it at auction in August, yet they had continued to request documents from us well AFTER the foreclosure had already occurred and never even so much as mentioned it to either us or the HUD counselor we had been working with. They had even lied and told us that all foreclosure activity was on hold while we were working with them towards a modification. The BIG problem is that this was a totally illegal/fraudulent foreclosure, not just because of the rampant dual-tracking that took place, but because they were NOT in possession of the promissory note. In looking through the foreclosure documents, there is mention of the note in the mortgage itself, but the actual note is nowhere to be found, so they technically NEVER should have been granted this foreclosure by the court. All that they had was the mortgage and a description of our property. That's it. NO note. The note ALWAYS comes first. It's what secures the mortgage and the mortgage is supposed to ALWAYS follows the note whenever a loan is transferred from servicer to servicer. So, without the note, they should have had absolutely no leg to stand on when it comes to foreclosure. Instead, they fabricated a phony quitclaim assignment, which is total fraud. Now we know why they wanted to foreclose so badly and did everything possible to avoid giving us a loan modification - our loan was a worthless asset to them without the note and they knew it, so they wanted to foreclose fraudulently, buy our home at auction for a nauseatingly low amount, and then sell it for profit. It's criminal behavior. Last week, we received a 48-hour writ of possession notice to vacate, but we are still here as we had already filed a federal lawsuit against them prior to receiving the notice and have requested immediate and permanent injunctive relief, and we have an ADR hearing (alternative dispute resolution) coming up at the end of March, where hopefully they will settle and reinstate our mortgage. We have also just filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against them so that they cannot boot us out of our home pending our ADR hearing in a few months. This whole thing has been an absolute nightmare and emotional roller coaster for my husband and I. Our stress levels are maxed out and we are drained. We just want our lives back and some peace. We are not exactly sure what we are going to do at this point. We have been in our home for almost 13 years. While we love our location, really like our neighbors, and we have MANY wonderful memories in this home, this house needs A LOT of work and, to be honest, it has been nothing but a big money pit for quite some time now. It needs more work than we have time or money to put into it and we are getting really tired of being slaves to this house.
We went and looked at a BEAUTIFUL 3-bedroom rental home in a very nice, quiet, and safe neighborhood last week that has been completely renovated from top to bottom. The kitchen has gorgeous new black granite counter tops with white cabinets, all new stainless appliances, washer and dryer, brand new flooring (new luxury vinyl plank in the kitchen, new tile in the bathroom, and new carpeting in the living room and 3 bedrooms), fresh paint throughout he entire house, a fenced in backyard with a huge storage shed, all new windows and exterior doors, new roof, new furnace, and a completely remodeled bathroom with a beautiful tile shower. Most importantly, the landlord is totally fine with our pets, which is good since we have 4 Golden Retrievers and 4 cats. We would just need to pay a $400 pet deposit. It's in a fantastic location that is super close to everything and it would be perfect for us, at least for now and potentially the next couple of years. The landlord is EXTREMELY nice and was very personable, upbeat, and casual. He told us that the house is ours if we want it and the rent is within our means. It even includes heat, water, sewer, and snow plowing in the winter. All that we would have to pay for is electric and cable. It's not a huge house (about 1000 square feet), but it's very cozy and seems like it will be comfortable for us. It's just the two of us and our pets. I work from home full-time and one of the bedrooms would be perfect for my office and then my husband could set up his office in the other spare bedroom. We could also easily fit a twin bed in one of them for guests. We told the landlord that we love the house and that we are VERY interested in it, so we agreed to touch base again on Monday (today) to work out all of the details. EVERYONE (especially my parents) is telling us that we need to jump on this house ASAP. Our best friend is very excited about the idea of us moving there since it's just 2 miles from where she lives. I think we are going to take it, but it's just such a tough decision. There have been a lot of tears over this. We definitely have a very emotional attachment to our current home, but we know that we need to be realistic and try to remove our emotions from the situation as best as we can (easier said than done). We have no idea how long this lawsuit against Carrington is going to last or what the end result will be, but our attorney has repeatedly told us that we have a VERY, VERY strong case and he HIGHLY doubts that they are actually going to act on that 48-hour notice and try to kick us out now that they know there is a fresh federal lawsuit against them and an ADR hearing in March. It would only make them look even worse if they kicked us out. Our thought is that we could always rent this house that we looked at for a couple of years (maybe even a bit longer) while we work on boosting our credit scores and then purchase a new home. But, what if the mortgage company agrees to reinstate our mortgage as a result of this lawsuit after we've already moved? Our attorney said that is definitely a likely possibility as they have done that in quite a few other lawsuits against them in these types of cases. What would we do then? Come back and fix it up to sell? Move back in? Rent it out? We just have so many questions!
What would you do in our situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This has been an incredibly difficult, stressful, and highly emotional few months for us, and it's 100 times worse that it's happening during the holidays. However, this rental home could be exactly what we need to get a fresh start. Maybe it's just meant to be.
Sorry for rambling so much. My mind has been racing the past several days and I guess I just needed a place to kind of vent and get all of this off my chest.