It all started with a $500 late fee….
Yes, a $500 late fee that led to a long drawn out fight with the national bank who bought the little community bank that we signed a mortgage with in 1987. The case is ongoing and has taught us lessons about “allowed abuse,” how to report abuse, how to file complaints and the complex ways banks operate that may violate rules and laws that we aren’t expected to know about or understand.

We knew we were paying late. We knew a late fee, as written in our original mortgage, was due. That original agreement says if we were late, we’d be charged no more than 3% of a monthly payment and states that this is reflective of state law. We were shocked to see a $500 fee added to our statement as a “late fee.” That was in 2007. We refused to pay that fee. The bank continued to add fees because we refused to pay. They claimed by not paying those fees we were in default, threatened us and in 2008 began seven years of abusive treatment while adding fees and fines that now total over $6,000 – money that we do not intend to pay.

We’ve watched the laws change and learning watching the process of change, that what has been done to us by this company is in fact, illegal. But we live in a non-judicial foreclosure state and when a bank retaliates by filing documents that suggest foreclosure, even if you are someone – like us – who makes your mortgage payment on-time every month it’s up to us to take the case to court.

The bank and their staff of lawyers can file and file and file and make your life miserable. They don’t have to go before a judge to do so in a non-judicial foreclosure state. So, even if there is information in the filings that is untrue, it’s up to us, the consumer, the mortgagor (not mortgagee as you’d expect) to file legal action to get the case before a judge, to stop the abuse. And, banks know that filing would mean hiring a lawyer and most of us aren’t going to pay a lawyer when it may mean more than the fees and fine, or even worse if we are people already in financial trouble.

But – I firmly believe it is our responsibility to complain to the regulatory bodies that over see banks when we believe rules and laws are being broken. So I do. Often. This bank doesn’t like me because more than once they’ve been slapped on the wrist because of complaints I’ve filed.

One lawyer we went to for help began by telling me, “You’ve created an adversarial relationship with this bank.” Like complaining about the bank abuse was wrong – I insulted the King, didn’t curtsey to the Queen, spoke before I was spoken to and so on…. If that is creating an adversarial relationship then; damn right I have!

And in reality, the bank is the adversary here – they broke rules and laws and violated policies in their attempts to make money by charging illegal fines and fees. They even violated our original mortgage contract. (wait, their name isn’t on that contract and the contract was never transferred … more to come on this!) So OK – we’ve complained and because of that, they’ve had their wrists slapped more than once. Whose fault is that? (Turned out <em><strong>that lawyer</strong></em> is someone we need to file a complaint about – he should never have agreed to represent us if he was going to take actions and give advice favoring a bank that breaks the law – he didn’t understand the laws- I knew/know more than he does.)

And so, on it goes. I’ll be writing more about the history of our case up to where we are now, and how we’ve decided to file legal action on our own (with some legal advice) to finally bring this to an end – hopefully – 2 years before the end of our 30-year mortgage. At this point many details will be held close to the vest because we will be filing action. Stay tuned!