Annie’s StoryToday I spent an hour on the phone and helped Texas Annie. She is a elderly person with Parkinson disease and on disability. She needed some home repairs and she was "flipped" refinanced twice by Ameriquest. She got behind on her payments when due to her Parkinsons she had to go on disability and got behind on her mortgage. Then when her disability came through and she could catch up she offered them $1500.00 ( that’s all she owed 3 months mortgage payments at $500 per month) and they refused her payment because they would rather foreclose. I found her in a blog on the internet looking for help.
Why? Because they need to sell off as many mortgages as they can and recoup as much cash as they can. They have been hit with so many fines and lawsuits they need the cash not the notes. Their lines of credit from wall street investors who buy mortgage backed securities have been closed or severely restricted and these lenders are also being held liable for the practices of the lenders.
http://www.consumer-ion.org/radar/articles/brokerage_held_liable_in_predatory_mortgage_loans/.
They have to now hold the loans they never intended to hold, just originate and send off to the investors. With many Wall Street investment companies like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and others suing lenders to buy back loans they've already bought, the only feasible option for these companies to survive is to foreclose on as many as they can. It's now not in their best interest to hold loans. They need to get out of as many as possible.
Annie is in Texas, where some of the worst laws for foreclosure in the Nation exist. A lender can foreclose with only 27 days notice and there is no right of redemption. The debate over National standard for all kinds of laws is raging, but maybe we could just settle on the government making minimum standards and still leave states with the option to set additional standards if they want. This is fair and just. States like Texas need Federal intervention while others have stronger laws then the Federal laws.
So Annie would have lost her home that she has been in for years, and been homeless, she told me. She was only two weeks from losing all her rights against her lender. The statute of limitations is 3 years. Her lender, Ameriquest now AMC was pushing to foreclose. Right now if you go on Pacer and pull up court documents there are over 13,000 people are in bankruptcy because of this lender nationwide trying to save their houses and thousands more not in bankruptcy just in the foreclosure pipeline like Annie thinking they have no recourse. More have filed civil cases against them. I helped her find the information she needed to get help.
I think about the thousands of people I could help by just sharing information with them. To many will just fall through the cracks because they don’t have the ability or ENERGY to fight. Like Annie. People like Annie will have their homes stolen from them by unscrupulous lenders. How can Ameriquest/AMC already be convicted ( I'm sorry "fined" and they admitted no guilt) of all of these issues yet people like Annie just don’t know what to do?
The biggest investment most Americans will make is now the target f one of the country's largest financial scams and labeled: "The Perfect Crime." When fully exposed, this will make Enron look like a parking ticket.
"ANNIE'S WONDERFUL LENDER"
A story you must know.
http://www.usnewslink.com/rolandarnall.htm
Attorney General CURRAN ANNOUNCES AMERIQUEST WILL PAY $325 MILLION AND REFORM ITS LENDING PRACTICES TO RESOLVE STATES’ INVESTIGATIONS
Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran announced today that Ameriquest Mortgage Company, the nation’s largest sub-prime lender, has agreed to pay $295 million to consumers and make sweeping reforms of practices that states alleged amounted to predatory lending. Maryland borrowers will receive more than seven million dollars to reimburse transactions made between consumers and Ameriquest. Ameriquest will also pay a total of $30 million to 49 states and D.C. that are participating in the settlement agreement for costs of the investigation and consumer education and enforcement. "This is a huge settlement, but we believe Ameriquest did a lot of damage to consumers," said Attorney General Curran. "With this agreement in place Ameriquest’s practices will change." The $325 million payment ranks as the second-largest state or federal consumer protection settlement in history, after the $484 million predatory lending agreement reached in 2002 between most states and Household Finance Corporation.
Curran’s Consumer Protection Division worked with the office of Commissioner of Financial Regulation Charles Turnbaugh and with Attorneys General and state banking regulators from around the country on this multistate investigation. Consumers do not need to contact the Attorney General or the Commissioner of Financial Regulation at this time. Consumers who may be entitled to restitution will be identified from Ameriquest’s records and contacted.
In the agreement, Ameriquest denies all the allegations raised by the states, but the company agreed to a battery of new standards to prevent what the states alleged were unfair and deceptive practices. Curran’s office believes that Ameriquest employees deceived consumers as part of high-pressure tactics to sell mortgage refinances and that these high-pressure sales tactics were used to reach desired sales levels and high monthly individual sales quotas. These tactics were induced by a lopsided commission structure. Astronomical growth over the last few years has made Ameriquest the nation’s largest sub-prime mortgage lender. Ameriquest primarily makes refinancing loans to existing homeowners who are hoping to consolidate credit card and other debt into their new home mortgage and come out ahead with overall monthly savings. Borrowers who don’t have the best credit ratings may turn to sub-prime loans, which often have higher interest rates and other costs.
Injunctive Relief: About half the 49-page agreement with the states spells out "injunctive relief" – wide-ranging reforms of the company’s lending practices to resolve the concerns of the states. Under the agreement, Ameriquest is required to:
? Provide the same interest rates and discount points for similarly-situated consumers.
? Not pay sales personnel incentives to include prepayment penalties or any other fees or charges in the mortgages.
? Provide full disclosure regarding interest rates, discount points, prepayment penalties, and other loan or refinancing terms.
? Overhaul its appraisal practices by removing branch offices and sales personnel from the appraiser selection process, instituting an automated system to select appraisers from panels created in each state, limiting the company’s ability to get second opinions on appraisals, and prohibiting Ameriquest employees from influencing appraisals.
? Not encourage prospective borrowers to falsify income sources or income levels.
? Provide accurate, good faith estimates
? Limit prepayment penalty periods on variable rate mortgages
? Not engage in refinancing solicitations during the first 24 months of a loan, unless the borrower is considering refinancing.
? Use independent loan closers.
? Adopt policies to protect whistle-blowers and facilitate reporting of improper conduct.
This is great going forward - But what about the poor souls already in mortgages from them! I don't see any oversight for the foreclosures against borrowers they've already duped.
The agreement also provides for appointment of an independent monitor to oversee Ameriquest’s compliance with the settlement terms. The monitor will have broad authority to examine Ameriquest’s lending operations, including access to documents and personnel. The monitor will submit periodic compliance reports to the Attorneys General during the next five years. Ameriquest will pay the monitor’s costs. Today’s development culminates about two years of investigation by the Attorneys General, state banking regulators and local prosecutors -- and a year of settlement negotiations. The settlement with the states includes ACC Capital Holding Corporation (the holding company), and its subsidiaries Ameriquest Mortgage Company, Town & Country Credit Corporation, and AMC Mortgage Services, Inc., formerly known as Bedford Home Loans. The company is based in Orange, California, near Los Angeles. Consumers who have loans originated by one of these companies between January 1999 and December 31, 2005 may qualify for restitution.
Law enforcement officials and regulators initiated their investigation after receiving hundreds of complaints from Ameriquest customers across the country. The ensuing investigation uncovered consumer protection problems in areas governed by the settlement.
The alleged improper practices included: inadequate disclosure of prepayment penalties, discount points and other loan terms; unsolicited refinancing offers that did not adequately disclose prepayment penalties; improperly influenced and inflated appraisals; and encouraging borrowers to lie about income or employment to obtain loans.
When I think about all the Annie’s out there, I will be fighting for them. I'm lucky enough to be working with one of the top law firms in the country who is representing me. I told Annie how to find a lawyer for herself. For people like Annie she didn't know who to turn to for help and I pointed her in the right direction. I directed her where to research what lawyers in her area may already be handling other claims against this lender and I also told her where to find a template if she needed to file a complaint on her own. I told her she was desperately close to losing all her rights due to the statutory law and should get something filed by April 22 no matter what. As I go forward in my own fight I will be haunted by Annie's story.
