Nightmare, thy name is Ocwen!

So here we are December 2009, 5 months after our mortgage lender TB&W has been shut down. All this time we have not made a mortgage payment because we were not established with a new lender. Finally the letter arrives in the mail, a company has been assigned to our loan. The new company is called Ocwen (who? exactly...) We had never heard of this company, but I wish we had because we would have known to run far, far away.

In the beginning all was good. The letter arrived with the company introducing themselves - so far so good. Then another letter stating how much we owed them which agreed with the amount we owed from the past 5 months, no problem. However the next letter seemed strange, it was a form showing the appropriate steps to take to 'avoid foreclosure'. We proceeded to mail our check for over $7,000 to bring our loan to current, no problem. All seemed relatively quiet for a while until I noticed on one of our monthly statements that Ocwen backed out over $11,000 of our payments and reapplied them without explanation and our balance was showing that we were 1 month behind on our payments.

I called Ocwen to find out why and was told right out of the starting gate that we were a month behind in our payments by a very rude, obnoxious, condescending man who spoke as though English was his 5th language demanding to know why we were not current and when we would be making payment. To say that I was startled is an understatement. I explained to him the nature of my call, which was also wanting to know why we were a month behind. He looked further into the account and asked if we had made an $11,000 payment recently. I ask him, jokingly, what the right answer should be (he wasn't laughing) and I told him no, that was also why I was calling. After being on hold for what seemed to be an eternity, he finally came back and told me that our previous payments were misapplied so they took the liberty of reversing and reapplying them and that's why we show being a month behind. WHAT??? Are you serious? After giving me that golden nugget of information he then  returned to his 'thug like' demeanor and started demanding payment right on the spot.I told him it wasn't happening and that I would have to investigate this further. He wasn't happy and for that matter neither was I. Let the dance of the Ocwen nightmare begin.

We've Only Just Begun...

So now that you have a little background about the beginning stages of our mortgage lending nightmare let me continue with our story and to say it best I will quote the title of that ever famous song by the Carpenters, 'We've Only Just Begun'.
Once we received the shocking news that the company that held our mortgage note, Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker, had abruptly closed due to fraudulent dealings with FHA monies we had a few mixed emotions and then faced with the biggest fear of who would become our new mortgage lender. Several weeks passed, and the articles of TB&W's demise was no longer headline news, we finally received a letter stating our mortgage had been placed with a company named Cenlar, they most likely would not be the end result of our lender, and to start mailing our monthly payments to a PO Box somewhere in New Jersey. New Jersey? A PO Box? New Jersey??? To say the least it didn't give us the warm fuzzy feeling we had hoped for. We could not sign up for an account online to even access our information, just mail your check in with the payment stub. Did I mention that our check was going to go to a random PO Box, in New Jersey? All joking aside, I have nothing against PO Boxes or New Jersey for that matter but when you're not sure about the company that wants you to mail them you hard earned money and they want you to trust them that they will post your payment to the appropriate account, I have 3 little words for them. NO WAY JOSE!
This little saga continued for the next 5 months, and if you think what I have shared so far is scary then sit down, buckle up, and hold on tight because we truly have only just begun...

Truth In Lending?

The formal definition of Truth In Lending is simply this: A federal law requiring to fully disclose in writing the terms and conditions of a mortgage, including the annual percentage rate and other charges. You may also know it by a term also known as Regulation Z. In a perfect world Truth in Lending is exactly that, but what happens when your mortgage is sold 5 times in less than 1 year? Truth In Lending or the Regulation Z rules seems to no longer apply.
When we purchased our home back in 2006, we were not exactly thrilled with the terms of our financing but we accepted it and went along with what was presented to us with the hopes of refinancing in the near future. We had some really good companies that had decided to purchase our mortgage note and some that, for lack of a better word, sucked. We got to the point that by the time I wrote out the check for the next month's mortgage we received another letter in the mail directing us to send our payments somewhere else. Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it.
Fast forward to December 2007 when we decided to refinance. All went seemingly smooth, we had a mortgage company that was ranked in the top 10 of the 'who's who' in mortgage lending firms. Full disclosure, paperwork in tact. Ah, life is good. And then it happened, exactly 8 months after we closed on our mortgage refinance paperwork with Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, the lender that acquired $35 billion in residential mortgage loans in 2007 (including our home), ceased operations on August 5, 2009 following a suspension by the Federal Housing Administration. FBI agents raided the headquarters of Taylor Bean & Whitaker on August 3, 2009 in what appeared to be an investigation related to TB&W's acquisition of a majority stake in Colonial BancGroup, a now defunct bank holding company out of Montgomery, AL. TB&W had signed a deal on March 31, 2009 to become the majority owner of Colonial BancGroup in a $300 million equity stake. Apparently the feds didn't think that was a wise way to be spending their money.
Sadly, this is just the beginning of our truth and lending nightmare...