Another home swindled by big bank

  Melissa and Jason Graham’s story~    My name is Melissa Graham. I have the American dream as many families across our Nation do. I am a married home owner with two children. I am a law biding, tax paying citizen who is an inspiration and positive influence to many other people in my community.    My husband and I have owned our home for over six years. When we first met thirteen years ago we would sit on my mother’s porch and dream together what we would do to the yard if we ever owned it. We made our dream come true and have worked very hard to keep our dream. We fell into financial troubles and had a change in our income. This caused us to reach out to 995-HOPE to attempt reducing our payments. We were struggling with our $2050.00 mortgage every month. We were told by our mortgage company JP Morgan Chase that our modification was going through the federally funded program. I found out after the fact Chase completed an in house modification and repayment plan. Instead of placing the amount past due in the back of the loan they rolled the amount into my monthly payments causing them to increase almost to $2300.00.      When the approval documents came to my home I called Chase and expressed my concern and confusion that our payments went up. I couldn’t understand how this was helpful when we reached out to them struggling with the lower payments. I was informed to sign the documents and make the first payment. This was going to officially place me in the modification program and my loan amount would be reviewed and lowered. I have never had a mortgage before; I trusted what the bank told me. I had the lady input a note into the system that documented I did not agree with the higher amount and I would only send the first $2300.00 payment until my loan was straightened out, and by signing the documents and making the first payment I was agreeing to be in the modification program and my payments would be reduced.    After the first payment I began calling Chase aggressively wanting my loan straightened out. I was given a run around by everyone I talked to. I was receiving calls asking for more documents. I was told by several Chase employees that there were notes from someone who worked at Chase that stated she was working on a “Special Project” and all they knew was she was requesting documents. No one knew anything about a “Special Project”. This was taking months just as the approval for the modification did and I was not making anymore $2300.00 payments as I discussed with the woman who instructed me to sign the paperwork.    In November I received a letter from Chase’s attorney notifying me that my home was going to be sold under Foreclosure. I immediately called my mortgage company in shock only to be informed by 3 separate employees that my home had a sale date of November 10th which was only 4 days away! I begged and pleaded with them for an explanation. What happened to my “Special Project”. I was given nothing but the cold shoulder.    My husband and I filed our last resort. We paid an attorney $1600.00 to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy in order to save our home. The day after our attorney filed someone from JP Morgan Chase called about documents for my modification. You can imagine my confusion at this point. I went through everything with the gentleman on the other line of the phone. I was then transferred to the company’s Bankruptcy Department where I spoke with a manager. He informed me that I never should have signed those documents and made the first payment because that locked me into the agreement. It didn’t matter that it was noted in the account that I did not agree to the terms, I was locked in. I brought up about the “Special Project” and was told there is no such thing because legally my loan can not be modified again for 1 year after it was modified.    I wrote the White House and received a response from the Treasury Department informing me they had escalated my situation to the HAMP program for review. I spoke with someone from HAMP who told me they could not help me because I had a FHA loan. They instructed me to call FHA which told me the same thing; I could not get help until June 1st.    I kept in constant contact with my mortgage company. I called when I heard of the programs our President Obama put in place to help struggling borrowers and was informed I still had to wait until June 1st. I even spoke with someone at Chase last week about how close I was to June 1st and I have been so excited to get my loan back on track and save my home! I was told by the gentleman on the other line that he sees foreclosures everyday and there is no way my home will be sold before June 1st. He said that he would really be surprised if it sold before then. He assured me there are so many people in foreclosure that it takes a very long time to get a sale date.    I found out today 5/16/2012 that a sale date has been set on my home for 5/30/2012. Did you notice the dates? 2 days before I am eligible for help my home is going to be sold on the courthouse step. I cried, pleaded, and begged my mortgage company and their attorney for a realistic option to save my home. The gentleman I spoke with at Chase was rude and very bluntly informed me I could pay off the full amount past due or I could split the amount up in 6 payments on top of paying my $2300.00 every month. If I had the money to pay $6000.00 to my mortgage company I would not be in the financial distress I am currently in. The woman at the lawyers office was just as insensitive and just kept saying over and over there was nothing I can do “OK?” No, this is not OK!    By not being informed and blindly trusting my bank I now have 13 days before my home is auctioned on the courthouse steps unless our government steps in.      So think about this for a moment. JP Morgan Chase will not give me 2 days to be able to save my home that I so desperately want to keep. A company who just lost well over 3 Billion dollars in a bad risky investment that is Federally Insured and will most likely be paid back to them by our government. Our government has bailed this company out to help home owners avoid foreclosure and they will not give my family 2 days to save it. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/we-the-people-want-our-government-to-put-the-big/ Sign now