Wells Fargo meeting today with Philly homeowner who "foreclosed" on them.

[Spike]

There's some great info in the article regarding how to deal with an unresponsive bank when there's an error with your mortgage.

Quote:Wells Fargo is meeting today at noon with the Philadelphia homeowner who \"foreclosed\" on them, The Consumerist has exclusively learned. Patrick says he \"received a call from upon high\" late yesterday and that he now has an appointment, \"with a very senior Wells Fargo person.\" It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But how did Patrick go from embattled and ignored homeowner to seated across the negotiating table with leverage? I spoke with him to find out more about both how and why he did what he did. His story is an inspiration to anyone who's dreamed of going toe-to-toe with the big banks and winning. Turns out that armed with persistence, and a little legal know-how, Davids can take down Goliaths.

BACKGROUND

All Patrick, pictured above along with his house, wanted was for someone from Wells Fargo to talk to him. A single, white, goth and industrial music event promoter who declines to give his age, he wanted someone to explain why they were doubling his premiums and requiring him to insure his century-old house for its full replacement value instead of the market value. Wells Fargo wanted him to take out almost a million dollars worth of insurance in the event his house, a 6-bedroom, 3 bath Tudor he paid $180,000 for in 2002, was reduced to rubble and needed to be rebuilt stone by stone to standards from over a hundred years ago. Though he's diligently paid his mortgage on time for the past seven years, he couldn't afford the jack-up in premiums, nor did he see a reason why he should have to accept them.

...

HOW IT STARTED

About two years ago, after Wells Fargo stopped responding to his letters requesting more information, Patrick boned up and learned about a law called the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). The law was enacted to safeguard homebuyers from anti-competitive and collusive behavior among the companies and agents involved with buying and selling real estate. One of the protections involves the \"Qualified Written Request,\" or QWR.

WHAT'S A QWR?

The Qualified Written Request is a specific kind of letter that you can send to your mortgage servicer when you believe there is an error on your mortgage account. You have to make sure to follow the rules for formatting it, but the servicer is bound by federal law to respond within a certain period of time. If they don't, you can go after them for actual damages, costs and attorneys fees, plus $1000 of additional damages if there is a pattern of noncompliance.

Full article at http://consumerist.com/2011/02/how-this-...fargo.html

Looks like Wells Fargo picked the wrong guy to try to screw over.

[bertman]

Maybe this should become a routine approach with Legal Assistance Offices.

Thanks for posting this info, Spike.

[TheCrone]

This is indeed very good information to have.

Thanks for posting this.

[Andrea]

Read the whole article. It will make you smile. Got to love this guy!

[Spike]

(02-18-2011 09:51 PM)bertman link Wrote:Maybe this should become a routine approach with Legal Assistance Offices.

Thanks for posting this info, Spike.

Good point. Yes, it should definitely become the routine for Legal Assistance Offices.

Note that from the article,

[Spike]

(02-18-2011 10:22 PM)Andrea link Wrote:Read the whole article. It will make you smile. Got to love this guy!

I think my favorite part was where he went to banking sites to find out what (bogus) reasons they were using to reject QWR's. Nice!!

[Political Heretic]

Man that article cheered up my day.

[BeeBee]

A score for our team!

[jotsy]

As some here may know, this particular limb of the corporatocracy is a bit of a bee in my bonnet. Interestingly enough, this Wednesday and Thursday, at the Oregon Convention Center, the defendant in the aforementioned case is playing host to its customers at a 'home preservation' workshop. It only came to my attention a few days ago, and though I hadn't thought much of it at the time, the gentleman in Philly makes me wonder if the company is just trying to slip in their own alternatives before others can follow the example he has set.

My fourteen year old wants to go protest the event, I think I'll make a few copies of the forms Patrick made use of, cuz I believe I do too! After a few phone calls of course, like to the radio station and other local progressive newsies.

[mikita]

This is simply the happiest post I've read in a while!