"Neither one of us would be in the positions we are in, had it not been
for the unlawful deceptions and misrepresentations of Indymac/Onewest.
Rather than fighting each other, would we be wise to consider working together against the bank?
In addition to everything you already know, I was in active negotiation with the bank for modification when they auctioned my property. The day before and the morning of the auction, the bank told me it was their mistake and the sale would not go ahead.
Surely that, combined with the active court case at the time of auction, would be enough ammunition for you to have recourse with the bank and title insurance.
You would get your money back, likely with damages, and I could move back into my home.
Their actions have put us both through a horrible and costly experience. Our fighting amongst ourselves is a convenience to them, and detracts from their responsibility in the whole mess.
Just a thought."
She had been unable to sell the property because of my efforts. As time went on, I wondered if my advisers were mistaken in thinking she was working with the bank, so I wrote to her to find out.
She was not working with the bank. After learning what happened, she was very kind and helpful. She told me that she had called the trust, asking for details on the legitimacy of the sale and was stonewalled and hung up on. Despite being told the owner was a deadbeat, she had her suspicions to the contrary.
Though she had put money into the property, she agreed that if the bank simply gave her the money she paid for the property, she would waive the funds she spent. She also waived the funds the Prescott court awarded her for the unlawful detainer award. It turned out she was a nice person and I liked her a lot. The things I had found in my PI work all had explanations. We both felt terrible for everything. How's that for a twist in the tail??
So with her blessing in the form of a notarized letter, we wrote the following letter to to One West's CEO and President, Joseph Otting:-
Dear Mr. Otting,
So with her blessing in the form of a notarized letter, we wrote the following letter to to One West's CEO and President, Joseph Otting:-
Dear Mr. Otting,
RE:
Property xxxx xxxxxxx DR.,AZ.
I
am writing on behalf of myself with the approval and consent
of
Kimberly xxxx, the purchaser of my property when it was sold
at
auction in error, as admitted by IndyMac/OneWest to myself and
my
consultant, Jacqueline Graham, in our conference call with
them on the
morning of the sale.
Unfortunately, nothing has yet been done
to
rectify the situation.
I am coming to you without attorneys with the hope that there is a way to settle outstanding issues cooperatively and quickly. Both Ms. Mudd and I are motivated by the desire to put this behind us and get on with our lives. I am flexible, open to creative solutions and your productive suggestions. I am not seeking to profit from the abuse I have suffered and hope this will be a consideration for prompt resolution.
I appreciate you have full access to details of my case on file, so I will just summarize some key points. It has been my experience that things can get lost in the OneWest system, so I have enclosed some documentation for convenience, to facilitate bringing you up to speed as quickly as possible. I have kept careful records and can supply further documentation and witnesses, if necessary, but hopefully what I have included will suffice.
Enclosed please find documents titled “Submission to the O.C.C.”. This is the complaint I filed with the O.C.C. in July 2012, which is still under investigation. Within 2 weeks, the case was assigned to OneWest Escalation Specialist, Calvin Burnett, but I have not heard anything since, so I imagine it is still under investigation. However, I was assigned an “Escalation Specialist” during my first modification and this same department insisted that I go onto “serious default” in order to qualify. Further, this division makes no secret that it is a debt collector, all of which makes me very uncomfortable and untrusting that it will conduct a proper or forthright investigation.
As you will read, I was told, both verbally and in writing (enclosed), that I would not qualify for a modification until I went into “serious default”. After being told this, and paying the mortgage for another two months while I tried to find a way to qualify without going into default, I was sent another letter from the bank reiterating this (enclosed), so I went into default, as directed and required. What followed was months of hair-raising threats from a collections department, along with five dates set and canceled at the last minute to auction my home.
I was told that none of the bank's departments were authorized or willing to communicate or work with another. This led to my situation worsening by the week, with me being powerless to do anything about it but hopelessly pass information between them – on which they did not and would not act. As follows are a couple of key examples of many:-
- Leading up to the sale in July 2011; after weeks of communication attempts with OneWest to no avail (I have documentation and records on this, if necessary), a week before the auction, a bank representative called to advise me that my modification was still active. I informed him of the auction and asked him to advise the appropriate department to stop the sale. He said he had no influence over that and gave me a special “direct” number to call. He said to tell them of our conversation and they would be able to stop the sale, but it turned out to be the collections department, who said they had no influence over it either, but tried to coerce me into paying five figures immediately – which would have not only disqualified my modification, but they could not guarantee it would stop the sale.
- My consultant and I were on the phone together to OneWest representatives the day before and the actual morning of the auction on July 20, 2011. We were told there had been a mistake and the foreclosure department was being contacted as a matter of urgency to stop the sale.
- When OneWest continued to act so strangely on my second modification process (see “Emails with John Olinski”), I began to conduct research in an effort to understand why this could be. I hoped to find insight to help me help the bank make things smoother, however it eventually led to my conducting audits and investigations on the loan itself. As a result of all this, following OneWest harassing me with repeated requests for the same information peppered with threats from collections; refusing to answer any questions or produce the wet ink Note (saying they didn't have to on both accounts); I was forced to try and get answers through the legal system if I was going to save my home. At the time of the sale, OneWest and the trustee, MTC Financial Corps, had for six weeks been actively involved in an ongoing court case over the question of legal ownership and title. Not only was this seemingly disregarded, and/or not communicated to the foreclosure department, but Ms. xxxx was not informed of it when she paid money for the property at auction.
Rather than send you the bulky audit files, I have enclosed the bullet-pointed summary of findings from April 2011 and March 2012 (“Affidavit of Truth of Carlos Perez”, “Affidavit of Truth of La Mar Gunn” respectively) along with bullet-points from the Foreclosure Investigation.
I appreciate that you can substantiate these things in house, but it could take time. The reason I am enclosing these summaries is to hopefully help facilitate a swift compromise by providing information that has already been ascertained on the loan, on issues that have since been argued and validated as improper procedure in government cases, tribunals etc. with banks.
Both Ms. xxxx and I have each run our own businesses for 20+ years, are highly respected in our respective industries, and understand compromise. This is why I felt it would be wise to communicate that we are open to settling without greed or legal posturing that is so tiresome, and I feel no longer necessary for any of us.
For the past year and a half, Ms. xxxx and I have been battling with and suing each other. As you can see in the enclosed summarized story (“Submission to O.C.C.”), we have done things to each other that we both feel terribly about, now that we understand each other's real position – positions that we would never be in if it were not for the nefarious and deceptive actions of OneWest.
My advisers believed that the buyers, xx, LLC., of which Ms. xxxx is a principle member, were working in conjunction with the bank. This was deduced due to the timing of so many of xx's legally aggressive strategies coinciding with the bank's, combined with OneWest's consistently illogical and truculent actions.
Whether it was due to a lack of organization or devised strategy, it seemed there was no end to the lengths the bank was prepared to go to traumatize me and take my property. Based on past actions, it was reasonable to consider that xx LLC had been recruited (or created) in order to divert attention and responsibility away from the bank, as well as exhaust my efforts by having to contend with two powerful and forceful entities on my own.
Meanwhile, Ms. xxxx's advisers, who are experienced foreclosure attorneys, believed I was deadbeat homeowner who either shouldn't have bought property in the first place, or opted to stop paying the mortgage because the property was so upside down. In their experience, this was often the case, so it was reasonable for them to draw this conclusion.
Ms. xxxx and I recently spoke. We found that we had both been egregiously mislead by OneWest and shared not only an interest in settling the matter, but that our needs were compatible for a fair and reasonable agreement with the bank. We agreed that we would both rather recover restitutional costs vs. fighting for damages, if it meant the matter could be settled quickly. We found that things moved quickly between us without attorneys, and this is why we are reaching out to you directly, rather than going through our attorneys – or OneWest's departments. Though the landscape of the situation is complex, there is a simple and straightforward solution, but I strongly feel it will require your authorization and facilitation. To this end, there are a couple more things I feel are important to add.
As you can imagine, Ms. xxxx and I have both suffered financially and emotionally from this experience that was due to no fault of either of us. Due to the countless hours required and overwhelming emotional trauma that I have experienced, I have not only lost my home, but I have lost clients, business and income as well as it affecting my health. Ms. xxxx has also lost income and is paying interest to her partners on the loan for the property. If she sells the property, she has to disclose the situation and is not comfortable with doing this from an ethical perspective. She does not wish to subject another party to this precarious and unresolved situation, nor is she comfortable about how the property came to auction, now that she knows.
Each of the many legal, financial and real estate professionals who have reviewed this case (including Ms. xxxx's attorneys) have stated that mine is the “worse case” of mortgage and foreclosure abuse that any of them have “ever seen” - most stated they “cannot understand how it has been allowed to get this far”. Further, this case was brought up by a trainee in an O.C.C. certified bank auditing class. I was told the instructor was “incensed” by it and strongly recommended I file a complaint with the O.C.C., which is how I came to file the complaint with them. I tell you this in the hope of cutting to the chase, and saving the cost of more run-arounds. Despite the gravity of what has been, we hope you are amenable to looking forward, in the form of a reasonable agreement. A couple of ideas are as follows:
- My costs now exceed $185K and counting, which includes but is not limited to legal fees/costs, consultancy, accounting and audit fees, storage, lost income, moving and travel costs. I propose the free and clear return of my property or equivalent – and perhaps recovery of a reasonable percentage of some of my costs.
- That the foreclosure was in error makes no difference to my now damaged credit score. This, combined with my losses, means I will not in a position to qualify for a reasonable mortgage for years. As such, if the return of my property or equivalent is not feasible, I would be open to a fund equivalent for the Original Mortgage Note ($468,000.00) and down payment/closing costs ($126,710.00) along with recovery of $225,000.00 towards costs and damages (plus the taxes accordingly as these are real costs). This would enable me to purchase a replacement home and get back on my feet.
- Enclosed please find a copy of a notarized letter from Ms. xxxx, confirming that, in the event you will return my property to me, she would be agreeable to simply having her costs recovered. She is agreeable to this because she feels what has happened is so wrong, that she wants to make it as easy as possible for you to rectify it.
I trust we can agree that this situation is a sad and unfortunate mistake that can be remedied. As I mentioned earlier, we are flexible and open to creative solutions. We just want to recover our losses that we worked so hard to attain. I very much hope you will accept my plea in the spirit of fair compromise that it is extended, and see your way to intervene and make things right.
Many thanks in advance for your time and consideration Mr. Otting. I look forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully yours,
xxx
**PS - please note that my loan has had 2 numbers - my guess is that one was assigned before securitization and a different one assigned after.
cc. -
Philip A. Gerbick, Assistant
Deputy, Comptroller of the
Currency (via email and mail)
I felt it was important to let him know that the bank was TRIPLE TRACKING (foreclosed during modification AND a court case) because I thought it would be a simpler way to agree that things had been handled unlawfully. I was wrong...
I felt it was important to let him know that the bank was TRIPLE TRACKING (foreclosed during modification AND a court case) because I thought it would be a simpler way to agree that things had been handled unlawfully. I was wrong...
His response was to send the foreclosure mill attorneys after me for money for OneWest's legal fees.
I had taken the blog down as a consideration for the people who paid money for the unlawful sale (complete with the bank's forged documents) of my property. However, this is still being allowed to go on, so I am making it public again in case this information can help anyone. I have placed "xxxx" where her surname was.
Also, though I doubt the Federal Reserve will do anything, Helen Kelly's testimony to their board on 2/26/15 inspired me to take the time to update it for the record. Here is her impassioned testimony if anyone would like to hear it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq1axDyTDBs
One thing I have noticed - the banks tend to go after nice properties with equity in them.
It turns out this happened to a lot of people in Arizona. I bottom lined my story to 4 or 5 sentences to a CPA the other day. His response was "Arizona?". Yep. He'd lost 2 properties and a few of his clients the same way. We are told we might all get $300 in restitution, but no one gets their homes back.
And because the banks paid $70-80m in fees to the state government for their fraud, no one can sue them.
It turns out this happened to a lot of people in Arizona. I bottom lined my story to 4 or 5 sentences to a CPA the other day. His response was "Arizona?". Yep. He'd lost 2 properties and a few of his clients the same way. We are told we might all get $300 in restitution, but no one gets their homes back.
And because the banks paid $70-80m in fees to the state government for their fraud, no one can sue them.
As a final note, when I signed the forged deed over, I changed the conditions and codes on it to say that, though I was signing it over to the new owner, it was made without prejudice to any claims
or rights Grantor may have against parties other than Grantee. ie. the bank is not off the hook in future by my signing it over.
My thinking was, down the road somewhere, justice might prevail and I wanted to retain my rights for compensation.
If you are a journalist, please ask for my written permission before using any content of this blog.
*******************************
PS - my attorney, Donald O. Loeb, turned out to be terrible. He never supplied itemized bills and called me monthly, literally screaming and threatening to quit the case if I did not pay him thousands of dollars. I was finally able to get an approximation of hours from him, which was about $7k less than he had been paid. Rather than work the hours, he deserted the case.
