Unfortunately, Countrywide Mortgage bought out my mortgage from another company only 2 months after we bought our home. I did not really know anything about being a home owner, but upon inquiry as to why this company now held my mortgage, I was told that this was very common. I did not know to study the documents, to check to be sure that everything was the same as my original mortgage company. I did not check into this, and once it was too late, discovered that we no longer had unemployment coverage, nor title insurance. I wish this was the worst thing that happened, but it is not.

The details

My husband lost his job (another casualty of the tech industry). I contacted Countrywide to find out what paperwork we needed to file for our unemployment coverage. I was told that we did not have unemployment coverage. I had my original mortgage paperwork, and in that loan, we did. They said that they were not required to pick that up. I told them that we would do what we could to keep the payments up. After 3 months, my husband had not found work, and I was in my last few weeks of college. I was hired by a school outside of the area, so we decided to sell the house. Seeing that we were 3 months behind on the mortgage, a realtor would not help us. The house was not worth the kind of money it would take to catch up the mortgage, market the house, and close the deal. One day a man came to look at the house and offered us a way out. He said that he had a buyer for the house (he claimed to be a broker), and asked if we knew about Quit Claim. We did not know so he explained to us...

The plot thickens

He told us that in order for us to get out from under the house, we could quit the claim and he would buy out the mortgage and we would not have any closing costs that way. This sounded perfect, but we were behind on the payments. He said that he would pay the 3 months we were behind, PLUS he would pay the next month in case it took a few weeks to get all of the paperwork done. We agreed that this sounded like a really good deal for all- the buyer could move in right away, and we could move without having lingering business. We met this man down at his lawyer's office a few days later and signed the Quit Claim Deed, and collected a check to Countrywide for our account in the amount of 3500 dollars. We mailed the check, turned over the keys to the house, and we left South Florida. We left a forwarding address and phone number. A few weeks later we learned from a former neighbor who had seen this broker at the property, that the 3500 dollar check bounced, but not to worry, it would be taken care of. We did not hear from him or from Countrywide again.

Say WHAT?!?

I received tax paperwork on the house. I thought that was odd since we did not own the house any more, so I called Countrywide. I asked them what was the status on the account. I was told that I still owned the house and that it had been foreclosed. WHAT? I explained that we had signed a quit claim deed and we did not own the house any more. As a matter of fact, the man with whom we signed the deed, he had the house listed with a realtor and had renter in there! In the course of the move, I lost a box with my important papers in it, and the Quit Claim deed was lost. I asked Countrywide what I needed to do and they told me that as long as I could produce the Quit Claim deed, that I would be absolved from the deal. But they had NO RECORD that I quit the claim. They informed me that there had already been a hearing on the foreclosure. I asked why no one had contacted me- where were these papers sent? They told me that my check had bounced and I had never contacted then again. I asked them if they had attempted to collect on the NSF check, and they told me that they had not. I asked if they had a copy of the check, and they told me that they did not. I told them that I felt maybe I was a victim of a scam, and I needed to speak to someone about my title insruance, and they told me I did not have title insurance.

Now what?

I fell in to a bit of a panic mode when I could not produce this quit claim deed. I did not remember the name of the attorney where we signed this paperwork. We live 6 hours away, I did not even know the man's name who bought our house- he had a nickname that we referred to him as. This whole situation was starting to look grim. I am a bit computer savvy, so I started searching the area, hoping to find the name of this lawyer by referencing the address where we went to sign this paperwork. In the course of my searching, I went to Broward County Court Records. By some stroke of luck, I found a copy of the quit claim deed right there- big as life. Not only did I find the quit claim, I also found record of a lawsuit between Countrywide and "Everett Reynolds" (this was the guy who took over our house!). The disposition of the case was "Notice of Dropping Party Defendants" and it lists my husband and myself and it says that we are "hereby dismissed without prejudice."

Playing Stupid

I called Countrywide after I had the document that I needed to produce. I asked how was it that they had no documentation of this quit claim deed, yet they had the name of the party with whom we signed the quit claim deed. Apparently, no payments have been made, and the 3500 dollar check was not made good- and all of this happened 6 months ago. There has already been a court date and a sale date has been set on the house. Countrywide has a lawsuit against Everette Reynolds, who NOW owns the house, AND a lawsuit against us, who the also say own the house. I told them that I wanted my credit fixed and for them to leave me alone because I had proven what I needed to prove.

So.... what happened then???

To date, I can not get anyone at Countrywide to respond to me. I called them a bunch of scam artists. I admit that there are some shady things going on here and we are not totally without fault as far as following up, but my husband and I did what we thought was legitimate. We handed over all paperwork on the house, and were told that the mortgage was bought out and we no longer had any business with the house or with the mortgage company. The fact that this putz did not make the payments is their problem and his problem! They told me that all I had to do was prove we quit the claim. They are now telling me that the mortgage is not satisfied. What the hell does that mean? How can they have foreclosure proceedings against 2 people over one house?

What to do now....

I really do not know what to do. I have called and asked what to do, I get put on hold and no one comes back on the line. I write and ask what to do, and no one responds. I do not have the money to hire a lawyer, I do not know what to do. All I know is that this company claims to have no record of this deal, yet they know who owns the property now, and they have filed a suit against him and against us. What, are they just waiting to see which one of us is going to be held liable first? These guys are awful..... they do NOT care about customers. They even requested a sale date on the house WHILE I was in the process of getting the information together that they requested. This was our first home, and we are not sure we will EVER buy a home again.

Disclaimer

Before you write and chastize me for being stupid for doing this deal, stupid for not having copies of everything, and following up incessantly to ensure things were handled... I KNOW.. we know.... we have gotten this lecture from both sets of out parents.... and we are in our mid 30's! :)

I will follow up here with another review once this situation is settled.

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