Got a Change.org petition for the following...

Summary: Woman's mom died. Daughter wanted to continue paying her mom's mortgage to keep the house. Bank refused to accept payment from daughter of dead homeowner. Bank tried to foreclose house and only after filing the paper work attempted to "negotiate" to allow the chick to keep the property. Only catch was she would have to accept an increased interest rate and drastically higher monthly payment.

Some fucked up shit if you ask me. Knew BoA did a lot of shady crap to squeeze every nickel and dime out of its victims customers but this is kind of ridiculous.

Quote :

" Bank of America: Stop refusing to accept my payment. Be a leader and help change this practice. By Rebekka Mackey Miami, Florida Sign Rebekka's Petition I need help getting Bank of America to stop from taking my home. My situation is far too common, but not discussed. The law should be fixed to prevent this from hurting anyone else. My mama got sick almost 5 years ago and passed away just 2 weeks after we discovered she had cancer. At that time, she had a mortgage. I thought I was doing the right thing to call and inform the bank of her passing and letting them know that I would be assuming her $800 monthly mortgage payment. But I never should have told them. From that point on, they absolutely refused to accept any payment. By law, as the heir, if I had tried to pay off the mortgage in full, they would have had to accept it, but if the heir can only afford to continue the payments, it is up to the bank's discretion as to whether or not they will accept payment, or foreclose on the home. In my case, they chose to take my home. I tried everything..I tried paying over the phone, they refused. I tried sending in a check, they returned it. I begged and pleaded and screamed at them for 3 months. They didn't care. It was not until after they officially filed foreclosure that I understood why. This is when they called trying to arrange a deal, after I was backed into a corner with no way out. This "deal" included higher interest and a higher payment (more than triple), which I just don't have the income to afford to agree to. It is a common "deal" they try to force on people who find themselves in my situation. I have not been able to grieve in all this time because my stomach has been so wound up in knots worried about my future, where I will go, what I will do. The home has been in my family since it was built. It is full of the memories I shared with my mom. This home is so much more to me than just a house. I am not asking for a handout. All I want is for the bank to stop this foreclosure and let me pay the same $800 monthly mortgage payment my mama was paying. That is what I have been fighting for the whole time- the right to assume my mother's debt and pay it. My mama took the homeless and unwanted into her homes (she had 2, I already lost the other. The bank bought it at the foreclosure auction in September..it was used purely to take in folks down on their luck, and help them get back on their feet, housing as many as 11 people at a time)......"

12/1/2013 10:41:32 PM

The bank loaned the mom the money not the daughter. The moms estate can pay for the house, if not the mom obviously can't keep making payments. I believe the estate could sell the house to the daughter (who would need a mortgage on her own) this is effectively what BoA has proposed. BoA has done tons of shady shit but they seem in the right in this one.

12/1/2013 11:13:17 PM

This seems pretty normal. When my mom died my sister and I, as the executors of her estate, sold her house and paid off her mortgage and bills. There's no way we would have just been able to keep the house and pay the bill every month. When someone dies their debts have to be settled. You can't just keep a mortgage in a dead person's name for the next 20-30 years.

12/2/2013 12:17:58 AM

I highly doubt BofA even owns the loan anymore. It's likely been sold to Fannie/Freddie and chopped up into securities.

12/2/2013 1:00:37 AM

if the bank doesn't get word of the death, they will continue to accept payments

I had a buddy just keep sending checks, as long as the check is good, they usually don't even check to see if the person on the check is related (I think this was GMAC)


personally, I talked to BoA about my mortgage, I told them another bank had made a better interest rate/closing cost offer, and instead of trying to compete with it, they proceeded to insult the other bank and say how the deal wasn't good

12/2/2013 6:51:05 AM

Fixed-rate mortgages have a market value at any given time. The estate should be compensated for this, because it is an asset like any other asset.

Everyone here keeps assuming the mother had lower interest rate b/c of her credit. No. You don't know it works like that, and it probably doesn't. It's more likely that she entered into the contract with a favorable rate, better than what you can get now. People ITT are arguing for "free money" for the bank.

[Edited on December 2, 2013 at 7:12 AM. Reason : ]

12/2/2013 7:12:33 AM

I wouldn't mind mortgages working like this, but AFAIK, they never have. Sorry for the girl, but this just isn't how mortgages work and it's not really "wrong" for BOA to not give her someone else's mortgage. Now, if they refuse to work with her on accepting payment from the estate while this woman is trying to get things in order (sell or buy the house), then that is wrong.

12/2/2013 9:44:26 AM

So how do you propose settling the obligation?

A bank can't just walk up to a mortgage holder and demand the "principle" back at any given time, obviously. If they could, they would do so whenever a market shift made the payments worth less than the principle... obviously. This would be approximately 50% of the time. There are two directions for rates to go - up and down.

In this case, it sounds like the mother had a good deal with her mortgage. If not, her heirs would simply look into financing it on their own.

If you issue me a bond, you can't just take it back at the stated principle because interest rates fell.

12/2/2013 10:26:20 AM

no one except the OP is suggesting this or asking the bank for free money

12/2/2013 10:49:25 AM

I have wondered about something like this myself. My great uncle killed himself about 7-10 years ago after his second wife died of cancer. When he did his estate passed on to some other family (stepkids maybe) but he lived right down the street from my house and my grandparents. Ever since that time the house is still listed in his name on the county property tax search. Not sure how a home can still be in the name of somebody who has been dead almost a decade unless maybe the people are doing like you said and just have not notified anybody and continue to pay the taxes and mortgage (if any).

12/2/2013 3:31:37 PM

So a quick look around the Internet, it sounds like in your typical mortgage, when a person dies, the mortgage on the property comes immediately due. The estate then is responsible for paying back the mortgage: they either have to pay back the debt (normally by selling the property or securing another mortgage) or let the bank foreclose on the property.

I am a bit curious as to why the interest rates and monthly payments shot up that much however. Was there something unique about the loan that her mother took out that the daughter was unable to take advantage of? Is the daughter not credit worthy? There's some facts that are missing that would better explain this situation.

The whole situation is tragic however, and I hope she's able to figure out something that'll help her with her situation. According to the change.org site, apparently she did get a response from the bank on this (maybe finally noticed by someone outside the processing bureaucracy or perhaps trying to nip a PR nightmare in the bud), and hopefully they will be able to work something out.

12/2/2013 4:54:38 PM

This is the same bank that tried to foreclose on a man for not having homeowners insurance on his vacant lot. . . .

12/3/2013 12:22:45 AM

Link? I looked and couldn't find one

12/3/2013 12:30:16 AM

http://www.change.org/petitions/bank-of-america-stop-refusing-to-accept-my-payment-be-a-leader-and-help-change-this-practice

Original link to Change.org petition if anyone is curious.

12/3/2013 9:53:21 AM

As the recipient of a house with a mortgage through inheritance, I suspect this person didn't follow the procedure. The bank can't just foreclose on a property because the owner passes. When a person dies, the property goes into estate management, where the estate must pay the mortgage until the property is assigned to the heirs. It is up to the heirs to continue making payments at that time, or not accept the property.

In my case, I received multiple properties with only one carrying a mortgage. It doesn't even show up on my credit record, and I continue to pay it (thankfully, it will be paid off in 3 months).

So, the short of it is that this smells fishy, and this person didn't properly manage the estate.

This article summarized it:

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/happens-inherit-property-mortgage-6001.html

[Edited on December 3, 2013 at 10:48 AM. Reason : .]

12/3/2013 10:47:07 AM

I could totally see this as really the person mismanaging the estate BUT i've known BoA to be involved in a lot of sketchy unethical shit when it comes to shaking people out of their money/property/accounts payable.

12/3/2013 11:57:08 AM

Agreed. But none of this passes the 'smell' test. Foreclosing costs the bank a lot of money. If you have someone willing to take over the mortgage, that makes the best financial sense. You still have the option to foreclose if that person doesn't make the payments.

The credit cards definitely want you to assume the debt of the creditor. When I was closing out accounts, they all 'offered' to let me assume the credit debt. I just laughed. They ended up settling for less than 50% of the amount owed through playing executor hardball. The worst creditor for negotiating was Discover. I made them wait a full year before they got a payment.

[Edited on December 3, 2013 at 1:48 PM. Reason : .]

12/3/2013 1:48:01 PM

sorry - don't see any problem with this. the dayghter is a different person, with different credit risks and different histories. you don't get an interest rate just based on what time of year it is.

$180k mortgage at 4.5% would be around $800 a month over a 30 year mortgage. you would have to have an interest rate of around 18.5% to get that up to $2,400 a month. and if that's how bad her credit is (I seriously doubt any bank would lend to someone whose credit requires a 18.5% rate anyway), then the bank is absolutely correct to do this

signing a petition like this is like saying you want to be responsible for someone else's shitty credit and high risk loan

fuck that

12/3/2013 8:26:44 PM

This one will tell you all you need to know about B of A and foreclosures.
http://www.propublica.org/article/bank-of-america-lied-to-homeowners-and-rewarded-foreclosures
If you think they do not like to foreclose on people read up on them some more.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bank-america-florida-foreclosed-angry-homeowner-bofa/story?id=13775638

12/4/2013 12:14:19 AM

God damn. Nationalize this industry already

[Edited on December 4, 2013 at 3:12 AM. Reason : banks]

12/4/2013 3:11:52 AM

^ yeah, that way we can ALL stand in line for three months to talk to a mortgage rep from the gov't! I can't wait!

12/8/2013 4:11:54 PM

Dealing this a mortgage lender these days is about as pleasant as going to the DMV.

12/8/2013 6:18:12 PM

Quote :

"Rebekka"

12/8/2013 6:19:08 PM

Her mother didn't own the house. The bank did.

This is how mortgages work.

12/9/2013 9:39:17 AM

Depends if the state is a lien theory state or a title theory state.

12/9/2013 12:23:01 PM

Ok in Florida her house has a massive lien on it.

12/10/2013 11:22:44 AM