Countrywide lawsuit moves forward

Countrywid can take your payments & place the to misc. account. They do this in preparation for Pre-Foreclosure review. I have been trying to workout a loan modification since Dec. 07,worked with Help Dept & loss mitgation. Bogus Dept. they don’t help you! My house is under forclosure & I am still dealing with Mediation in the courts trying to get a lesser afforable payments. 3 court dates still no documents. Be-careful, I am trying to sell my house now! I don’t trust them. BEAWARE-Misc accounts are set up for the legal fees your encountering!

i just went on line to make sure my house payments went through according to the site i havent made a payment since june, i just call them and they said my payments where in a in another account and not applied to my loan why are they doing this, and since my payments are not being applied to my loan can i loose my house???? can they do that???? what can i do?????

Everyone isn’t understanding the whole picture. I was a 10 year veteran for one of the wholesale branches,as an underwriter as management. CHL was always the first to come out with fraud & flipping checks before any other company. Remember Countrywide was the biggest servicer for many loan companies. They purchased in large bulk, within those loans were many that were either fraud or may not of been of the highest quality. Yes, each employee out in the branches worked many long hours and long weeks & it was never enough. I do feel that upper ownership/directors had some insight & they took their profits out ahead & left some of us that had our hard work savings/CFC stocks just go down the drain.

I would also like to find out how I can get answers. I am trying to refinance my house because I have a 80/20 mortgage and balloon rate. Well the title company called countrywide and out of nowhere they come up with $11,000 in interest fees and say that I am behind. I’m not perfect, I did fall behind on some of my payments which lead me to Chapter 13, so all of my past due payments were put into Ch13, now that I’m trying to refinance they are saying that I owe them $11,000 in interest fees. I financed for 83,000

ask for an FHA refinance. The requirement are not a tough and you can but a little in the hole with equity.

Yikes! alot of upset people. Well I just wanted to add to all of this. Hey I really like the fact that my mortgage was with Countrywide initially. Customer Service was very good. Well. I had a fixed rate loan of two years. I tried to refinance to get a better loan after one year. They said no you need to wait another year to refinance. I said okay. Well I did have one payment i screwed up on two months before my two contract would have been good for a refinance. I was about 10 days late. Well a month after my 2 year fixed. I tried to Refinance. CW said no. You need to show about six months of steady payments. Well @ this time they doubled my mortgage, I struggled to pay it. It was a complete nightmare. Finally after six months I tried to refinance again. They just should have said Hell no! Because all the excuses i got were ridiculous. They wanted me to pay another year of a doubled mortgage before a refi. Well at this rate money was going really fast in this mortgage. I new I would run out before the year was up. Two months I could not pay it. Naturally I went to the workout department to get an adjustment. The adjustment was approved. I waited for my workout adjuster to call. She left me messages, Each time i called her back and left her messages to return my call. Once I called 10 times back to back. Well I finally got someone to that told me they would give this matter to her supervisor. Well the supervisor assigned it to another adjuster. I had to give her my info all over again, She came back to me and said I wasn’t approved for a adjustment. Dam! So I go into my 401K to pay all these late fees and get completely caught up. This really killed me because the taxes killed you by withdrawing the funds out of a 401K. Plus at the end of the year you are taxed again for doing this. Anyway after I got caught up. CW said no we can’t adjust this mortgage. “It looks like you just got money to catch up”. You need to pay six months on time from this point. Well I said I’m not going to be able maintain this mortgage. Of course I run out of cash from a double mortgage. I’ll try one more time to get this adjusted. I swear I tried for 3 weeks to talk to the HOPE department this a joke. I just said these guys are just not reasonable at all. Needless to say they sold the house on auction. I could have filed Chapter 11. But the way things were going I felt they would’ve still took the house eventually. Because if CW doesn’t want to communicate with the buyer. You can cancel christmas. Because they will just block you out and not have a live person available for you.

I bought my house with 20% down and was given an adjustable mortgage and a prepenalty for 2 yrs. When the time came to refinance, I didn’t have a job & ask my mother to do, being that her name was on the account. Countrywide ran held for 5 months ran her credit 18 times, which brought it down 100 points and then turned around and said they could refinance my house, for which I was never late. After that I tried something else and no one could help now because the credit score was too low. To hear from the shout, I should have never gotten an adjustable mortgage or prepenalty after putting down 20%. After trying with others for 2 months and not having any luck or job, I had no choose but to sell my house. Thank God I’m still able to stay there, but I have to pay rent on my first home. I want to know if its too late to join the lawsuit?

where can i get help to get more information about countrywide. I feel that my loan was inflated after i refinance i lost my job and never paid late or missed a payment. Countrywide modified my loan and now instead of seeing my loan go down its going up. I need help for someone to look at my loan.

I am a recipent of one of CW’s, revolving lines of Credit(Second Mortgage). I have always paid my bills on time (and always extra).
Last week I got a Letter from CW, stating, “We have elected to suspend further draws against your Account. We appreciate that you have handled your home equity account responsibly, and want to make sure you know this change is being made simply because your home’s value has declined”. The Original Appraisal - the one they charged me $500 as part of the $1000 Closing fees (1 1/2 years ago) - no longer applies. They just dropped me with no warning. I know for a fact, I have a atleast, a bare bottom amount, of $40,000 in Equity. I am Self-employed and this was meant to be a cushion through rough times. I feel my chances of future foreclosure just doubled, through no fault of my own. The biggest joke came, when I called CW to complain - I was told I could put in another Loan Application, for a lesser amount. I about lost it!
I hope BOA does but CW. I have been dealing with them for years with no problems.

Can someone say Enron. Put Anthony and the crew in prison.

Adding my $0.02…
I worked during the peak years at a top Countrywide branch. The stretching of the rules of stated income loans during those times certainly led to much of today’s mess. However, there was a philosophy in our branch that our sales reps had “always had good borrowers”, i.e. their borrowers paid their loans, and therefore conditions got waived, alternate means of qualifying were found, etc.

I’m no longer with the company, and I don’t know what the status of these “good borrowers” is. But I see that a woman from my hometown is front-page news on CNN.com today, sleeping in her car after losing her condo. Did I help fund that loan? I hope not.

I moved on from the industry before the current crisis, and I don’t place blame with any one segment - it was a joint fall. But as no one side can take all the blame, neither can we expect one side to do all the heavy lifting in fixing the problem!

Steve, thanks for the comments.
Most of the comments on this thread try to explain how the process created the crisis. The truth is - real estate carried the economy, banks and conduits relied on automated underwriting and credit scores. Loans flew through the system based on credit score and stated information. Loans that were originated with documentation were severely scrutinized when common sense would have predicted repayment of the debt. Lenders and their automated systems were relying on property values to save them. I didn’t happen.
Today it is much more profitable for lending institutions to borrow from the discount window, invest in treasuries and enjoy a spread of 1.5 to 2% without hiring anyone, paying employee benefits or making a real estate loan. In doing so the fed has created a conduit for the treasuries that are being dumped on the market from overseas and the new issues.
THERE IS NO INFLATION - THE RISING COST OF GOODS AND OIL IS A TAX ON THE AVERAGE AMERICAN - WHO HASN’T HAD AN INCREASE IN EARNINGS FOR OVER SEVEN YEARS. THE FEDS STATED CONCERN FOR INFLATION WON’T BE VALID UNTIL WE SEE REAL ECONOMIC GROWTH - THAT MEANS REAL JOBS WITH A LIVING WAGE HERE IN AMERICA. THE GOOD JOB CONTRACTS ARE GOING TO SAUDI ARABIA - HALIBURTON… - WE’RE PRODUCING A LOT OF GOODS AND SERVICES FROM THIS COUNTRY - THEY’RE JUST NOT IN AMERICA.

Matt,
You are absolutelty right. Brokers do originate by gathering all pertinent info to send to the lender, but they have no say whatsoever if a prospective borrower’s loan is accepted and funded. That responsiblity lies soley with the Lender. They (i.e. CW) in this case underwrites the loan.

Daryl

The reason the Fed will approve this merger is complex. Lets just say Bof A had 2 billion already int he pot, and they had more during the end of Countrywide. If they let it fail ( I think they should ) it will send the Stock Market into a downfall….The short version

When is the info going to be disclosed concerning CDSs on the CDO’s

WHY would the government approve a merger of an entity, to become the countries largest mortgage lender, when there has been a history of the entity not performing well in terms of financial performance and legal performance?

Steve,

I think you may have made a mistake in your last response by saying “MORTGAGE BROKERS DO NOT ORIGINATE LOANS.” I see what you are trying to say, but I am going to clear some things up for you. By definition, a mortgage broker is the middleman who brings mortgage borrowers and mortgage lenders together, but do not use their own funds to originate mortgages. Mortgage brokers gather the necessary paperwork and application from the borrower and passes it along to a mortgage lender for underwriting and approval. This process alone of gathering the paperwork and application is technically considered part of the “origination” process in the primary mortgage market. So, Mortgage Brokers actually can/do originate loans.

DeWayne, you certainly nailed it with that commentary. Well done. The FED was waaaaaaaaay too agressive raising rates between 6/03-6/05. Greenspan recommended these ARMs then pulled the rug out from under these people. 15 rate hikes in less then 2 years..with no signs of inflation and modest GDP. Thanks FED!!

I have worked in the industry for 11 years. Initially for a broker and now for a broker/banker. Regardless if we broker or banker a loan the loans are underwritten to the specific lenders guidelines. If we broker the loan we underwirte the loan initially and then it is always re-underwritten by the specific lender. If we banker the loan we underwrite the loan and then it must be purchased by the end investor. In order for that to happen it is once again re-underwritten by that investor to their specific guidelines. So, for those that are putting the blame on ‘brokers’, you are completely misinformed on how things work. It comes down to the individual LOs, managers, company/shop, lender etc. I have seen just as many ’shady’ things happen on the retail side as the broker side. We, as a company, have signed an ethics agreement, take a great deal of responsibility and pride in what we do, which has resulted in a very successful company.

A lot of people here are forgetting that the borrowers played a huge factor in the blame.
People bought homes like they were shopping for a burger. its sad when people spend more time reviewing the loan docs for a vehicle purchase then they did for their home loan.
This doesnt even take into account the people that took out all their equity for toys, schooling for thier kids, side business and all the other fun things. Now they are upside down and claim victim?
People put blinders on themselves and willingly.
Here is an excerpt(cant remember where i got it) for our govts help in the mess.
Mr Mozilo, Countrywide, and the rest of the froth on the mortgage finance market were doing just what both parties in government wanted. Early in his presidency, George W. Bush announced that he wanted every American family to have a home.
In saying this, he was just extending what had been a Clinton Administration policy. Not every American family, however, can afford a home, because their income is too low or variable, or because not everyone is responsible enough to consistently service the necessary debt.
So Countrywide and the entire industry were driven by government mandate to engage in a massive, foolish enterprise. When they decided to lend money not on the basis of provable income, but on the prospective collateral from future house price appreciation, the House, Senate, and administration were leaning over their shoulders saying: “Yes, do it! And then do it again!”.
Its a cake people and everyone is plays the role of a slice of that cake

i used to work for full spectrum lending, fsl…countrywide home loans fsl…i was out on the island and our manager and rvp would always push us to make the sale even if it didnt have a financial benefit to the customer…all they cared about was getting paid…their slogan was “smile and dial”…have us in the office from 830am-9pm…our quota was 6 deals a month and the comapny quota ws 3…so they pushed us to our breaking point…our branch alone had 25 people leave in 8 months…and our branch had 35 people…they brain wash u to screw people over by telling them it a bandaid loan…and by the way rumor has it that angelo mezzilo has a tanning bed in his corporate office.

This is actually quite telling. Just take a look at the confusion in these 20+ posted comments about who is “responsible” for originating a loan and/or determining if a borrower is qualified. And these comments are being posted by brokers, correspondents and lenders (i.e., Mortgage “professionals”). No wonder the mortgage lending world came crashing down.

You gotta be kidding me. Angelo created the conduit for mortgage instruments in Europe and on wall street. For that he should be congratulated. The greed of the wall street brokers and the rapid increase of interest rates caused this mess. Historically adjustable rate loans were sound investments and good for borrowers - just take a look at World Savings over the years. The fed raised rates too rapidly, mortgage indexes went through the roof and mortage payments reset 4 to 5 percent higher than the start rate - couple this with low paying jobs, increased health care costs, fuel and grocery costs and you have a disaster in every sector of the market. Coming soon to your neighborhood - the credit card crisis.

Bob, Can you back up that claim with some fact? Let me say this again..MORTGAGE BROKERS DO NOT ORIGINATE LOANS!! Lenders…i.e Banks originate loans and underwrite, meaning they are SOLELY responsible for checking to see if the applicant is qualified for the loan. Bob don’t regurgiate something you heard on a blog or on the internet as fact. Oh and BTW I am not a Broker I am a Mortgage Backed Securities Trader, so I think I understand the concept of Mortgages and Originations

James G: How’s the Kool-Aid today?

I also worked for Countrywide, in the Wholesale division. Highest morals and ethics were not “vision” of the day. The sales reps ran the branch offices, and branch managers (and everyone above them) allowed it to happen. We were “guided” to (find a way to) fund just about anything they brought through the door.

Ann, Correspondent Lenders or Mortgage Bankers originate loans. NOT Mortgage Brokers. You “worked” for this company and did not know this?

Julius

Brokers are a prime income source to Countrywide…and originate 3/4 of the mortgage loans in this country. While I agree that there are bad apples, they are not all bad. The worst fraud I have seen in my 20 + years in this industry is as stated so well by someone in these comments is from retail shops/bankers/builders who sell under a line and make only a promise that they meet the guidelines.

“think before you write.”

Don’t know who you are referring to, BOB, but we did NOT do any “liar loans” and did not rake in the commissions - I personally would not be able to sleep at night. I live in a house worth less than $200k and drive a ten-year old car. My “peers” working for large brokers bought Hummers, boats and built $500K homes. One such person has now lost his house, his vehicles, and now his wife and kids (to divorce). So, what goes around, comes around. I now originate for a lender with integrity, and no longer broker loans.

Sorry about the typo’s on my last posting. I hope you’all understood my point.

First of All everyone here needs to take a step back. I work on the default area for one of the GSE’s. You have to understand that through the majority of the lending process you have a lot of borrowers who are pushing the envelope trying to make it work. While there is responsibility to be placed on the lender as well the pressure matrix comes down hard on a loan officer. Before coming here I was a subprime loan officer for Wells Fargo. The term shady deal and fraud has become the center of a media love affair. Everyone seems to think that because they ended up on the wrong side of the fence that they were a victim of fraud. The truth is when you are dealing with high LTV loans and low credit scores and trying to purchase a home or refi out of a mess, you can not just expect a fluffy pillow loan that is meant to ignore the lender’s risk and be a mulligan for the borrower. The default sector is offering enough mulligans out as it is and you do not here enough how hard so many are working to help these borrowers.

So in reality if you have a true issue of fraud it is an individual case. A specific loan officer or underwriter or even branch manager may be guilty. In these events action needs to be taken and in the current market it is being take quickly and fiercely. As a loan officer you are trying to make enough money to get by in a dry market alongside trying to help a borrower out with a refi-fix. If that entails them entering a somewhat risky loan to do so then the borrower is responsible to turn down that risk. If they are forcefed and pushed around by the loan officer they should be making that known to the propery authority and not just waiting till it has gone awry to do something about it. Lenders are not out there making life miserable for everyone. The media often will make it seem to be out that way but it is not correct. Please have your facts arranged properly and keep the subjectivism pocketed.

Why must we categorically place the blame on either side (broker vrs retail)? In the height of making money it could be said that those that would twist the truth, would twist the truth no matter what office they sat in. Are the problems in the secondary market really tied to delequintcy alone? Or could it be that the lenders that came up with products like neg-am, pay option arms, etc…, created a product that while sellable ignored the reality of how people choose to pay on a mortgage when given a choice. Most of this could have been prevented given. Wall Street is calling foul now but were they screaming “Cash Available” not too long ago? I believe that what is going on now is a healthy correction in the overall marketplace, even if I’m loosing my job over it!

Can you believe this joker admitting that he works for a broker??? They are the ones that disgraced the mortgage industry. You could make more money selling drugs and your friends and family would have more respect for you.

Steve, I don’t know what broker you worked for, but when I was originating for a broker, OUR underwriters approved the loan and the company we were selling it to didn’t see it until we shipped it to them. Lots of small shop brokers had in-house processors and underwriters.

Julius - you are so off base and mis-informed, my friend. I worked for Countrywide from 2003 to 2007, and now I work for a broker. Brokers are state licensed LO’s and follow the laws designed to protect consumers. CHL worked for years to become a federally chartered bank that would allow them to ignore the state consumer laws. Also, I have not seen 1 instance of fraud or misrepresentation in the wholesale world, while my time with Countrywide was fraught with constant cases of shady deals.

By the way, who is boss? CHL? Wells? Chase? or someone with the ability to place a customer at any one of these banks and then some.

First of all, as an employee of Countrywide for over 8 years I can tell you in the retail division, we have the highest ethics and guidelines in every loan that we do. I have to agree that it’s the wholesale arena where the majority of these troubled loans are. Lastly, Angelo Mozilo has helped millions of people achieve the American dream of homeownership. He should not be the sole bearer of this crisis.

Countrywide was known in our market as the lender who would make exceptions to the rules….for almost anything. Their sales rep’s were advertising to their broker relationships that if an exception needed to be made to the rules, send it to CW. They approved loans that DID NOT comply with Fannie and Freddie rules. No surprise they are in trouble!!

Julius, you obviously do not have a clue as to what u are saying. The vast majority of “brokers” are just middlemen. They bring the business to the lenders. “Brokers” DO NOT originate loans and sell them to CW, CHASE, WF etc. They submit an application to the lender and THE LENDER underwrites the loan…i.e. THEY CHECK THE QUALITY OF THE APPLICANT. THEY ARE RESPOSIBLE FOR HANDING OUT SHAREHOLDER $$$ TO PEOPLE, NOT BROKERS. GOT IT? Then if the application is accepted and the loan goes through…it is CW, CHASE, WF that sell off their risk to the secondary market. Got it now? Keep your uneducated opinions to yourself.

Missy, Julius and Brian,,

You sound like you all work for Countrywide? Upset employee’s? Blame anyone you can? The obligation of underwriting is Countrywide’s. I feel no loss to a borrower who does not read what they sign and those who put nothing down. I have been selling loans to Countrywide for more than 15 years and I did not sell them any Sub-prime zero down loans,,,or have I ever been asked to buy back a loan.

While I agree that the guidlines should have been tighter you cannot point the finger at Wholesale Brokers alone?

FYI Mr. Mozilo is possibly in the south of France getting his tan redone with his 20 something girlfriend….you all sound surprised.?!!

Hey if Countrywide is not the employer you want to work for this is a free country go work for someone else.

Julius, the broad brushstoke that you give to “Brokers” is sadly overstated. The brokers are only able to sell what the banker is willing to buy. The Bankers in this scenerio became greedy bottom feeders themselves, you cannot blame it on the brokers alone.

Wow Julius you have no idea what you are talking about. It isn’t brokers who operate like that it is correspondent lenders - they are the reason the mortgage industry is in the toilet. You should educate yourself on the differences between the two.

Countrywide’s internal operations basically watches EVERY KEYSTROKE we make. This leaves no margin of error for the “real” Countrywide employees. If there was more quailty control over the wholesale division, which buys subprime loans and ALT-A loans, they they would find the problem and fix it.

The answer to the problem would be to simply shut down the wholesale division and show the mortgage brokers who’s boss. The brokers serve in a limited capacity- probably 60-40 split in originations to Countrywide. The broker network suffers no reprocussions to the fraudulent loans they sell back to Countrywide’s wholesale division. When consumers cry wolf- they point the finger at anyone that will listen. When they call the company that they received the loan from, they simply say- call your lender. We already SOLD OFF your loan to them- being Countrywide, Wlls Fargo, Chase, etc… Brokers SUCK!

why isnt this guy mozilo in jail instead out and about getting another tan!