Help! Just Denied HAFA based on wrong info and Trustee Sale is Tomorrow?

My client just received notice that she was denied for the HAFA program on April 27. No one at CitiMortgage could tell us why, they told us it would be in her letter. She JUST received the letter yesterday, May 9, 2010 and it stated it is because she is not owner occupied. She lives in the property! Hello?? Doesn't she get the opportunity to dispute this decision? She was also never offered the option to pursue HAFA when she was denied for HAMP.

So, we are dealing with a negotiator on their traditional side. On May 4, they countered our offer. We responded same day that our CASH buyer would meet their counter and turned the paperwork around within 24 hours! We had to escalate the file to get the negotiator to call us back. She is telling us she has 147 files on her desk, and 7-10 business days to review the file once she receives it, and she is within her guidelines with this file! She says there is simply no guarantee she can get the Trustee Sale postponed tomorrow. As a matter of fact, they haven't even requested the postponment yet! The loan is being serviced by CitiMortgage for Bank of America, and she needs to get the order for postponement from BofA. It is not a Fannie, and there is no MI company.

I don't get it. We met their counter. Why not postpone at least to finish reviewing the file?? Does anyone have ANY suggestions, contacts at BofA or CitiMortgage or feedback?

Thanks for your time!

Well, you guys aren't going to believe this, but they postponed the sale MINUTES prior to the auction!!! Wonders never cease. We now have another month to work through this! I spent over two hours on the phone last night with the borrower and the MHA escalation team. I was shut down immediately when I called BofA as they are the investor, not the servicer of this loan. Unfortunately, I had the BofA executive contacts but not much for Citi. This morning, I called Citi and simply asked for the office of the President, and proceeded to email their office and anyone else who I had an email address for with the following email:

Subject Line: ***URGENT! SOS!! Sale Date = 5.11.11! HAFA guidelines NOT being followed!!! xxxxx3778 - BROWN

Please Help! I am urging you to please postpone the sale date so that this file can get the proper review that it deserves! The Trustee Sale is in 3.5 hours.

We escalated this file to HOPE and then the MHA escalation team yesterday as there has just been too many suspicious thing happening with this file. May not save the house, but hopefully the investor will see all the things that occurred on the file by the servicer.

Ms. Anderson applied for MHA September of 2009. She was pre-approved and put into the trial payments program. She made trial payments October through December of 2009. Then, after she made these payments on time, she was given a verbal decline after calling in to check on the status of her final approval. They could/would not give her a reason, and she never received a letter or notice of the decline in writing. EIGHT months later, August 24 of 2010, she finally received a letter that acknowledged that they failed to send a denial letter! This letter STILL failed to provide a reason for denial in it!

So, just to recap, Ms. Anderson:
1. Was pre-approved for HAMP and made three trial payments & complied with all program guidelines
2. Was then denied for HAMP verbally and given no reason for the denial
3. 8 months later she was sent a letter acknowledging that she was never sent a denial letter
4. This letter still failed to provide a reason for denial
5. Was not offered HAFA at that time.

And, it just keeps getting better! Regarding her HAFA/short sale application, all the documents were emailed to Josephine James on 4/22. The borrower spoke with her on 4/20 and did a full intake on the phone and then sent her a complete package on 4/22 per her instruction. She did not acknowledge receipt. We emailed on 4/27 to confirm receipt and no response. Only after the borrower answered a collections call did she get the collections person to IM Josephine and get her on the phone. She then went back and "found" our emails from 4/22, plus we resent everything.

So the file sat with your intake person for 5 extra days. Based upon your denial, it sounds like those days were valuable days lost.

On top of that, the borrower just received a letter that was dated 4/28/11 form Citi stating that she was denied HAFA. She was denied based upon the fact that the property is supposedly not owner occupied? She lives in the property and always has. Kind of weird that she could be denied in one day when Josephine acknowledged only looking at the file on 4/27 and for such an erroneous reason.

The file was sent to your traditional side for short sale review, and was also just denied because there was not enough time to review the file prior to sale!

Again, probably won't save her house today, but the MHA escalation team has all this information and is working on it now.

I am sure based on the opening bid the property will not sell at auction (it is too high for an investor to buy and flip), so the investor will be the proud owner of another asset - when they could have sold via short sale.

I am urging you to please postpone the sale date so that this file can get the proper review that it deserves!

Jessica Sulliman
Ashby Realty Group
602-677-7977
jsulliman@hotmail.com

Many Kudos go out to our negotiator, Montrice Williams, who also was persistent with the investor to get the postponement granted even after she informed us of the rejection/denial. My efforts helped put the pressure on, so, as a team, we got it done! It just goes to show that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and to never give up....even up to the 11th hour! Once in awhile, it will work out!!

Thanks so very much to everyone here who helped with their suggestions and contacts....and if nothing else, encouragement to fight the good fight! Cuz, you can't win if you don't fight/play, right??

www.shortsalediva.com

Replies

Jessica Sulliman May 11, 2011 at 12:11pm

Well, you guys aren't going to believe this, but they postponed the sale MINUTES prior to the auction!!! Wonders never cease. We now have another month to work through this! I spent over two hours on the phone last night with the borrower and the MHA escalation team. I was shut down immediately when I called BofA as they are the investor, not the servicer of this loan. Unfortunately, I had the BofA executive contacts but not much for Citi. This morning, I called Citi and simply asked for the office of the President, and proceeded to email their office and anyone else who I had an email address for with the following email:

Subject Line: ***URGENT! SOS!! Sale Date = 5.11.11! HAFA guidelines NOT being followed!!! xxxxx3778 - BROWN

Please Help! I am urging you to please postpone the sale date so that this file can get the proper review that it deserves! The Trustee Sale is in 3.5 hours.

We escalated this file to HOPE and then the MHA escalation team yesterday as there has just been too many suspicious thing happening with this file. May not save the house, but hopefully the investor will see all the things that occurred on the file by the servicer.

Ms. Anderson applied for MHA September of 2009. She was pre-approved and put into the trial payments program. She made trial payments October through December of 2009. Then, after she made these payments on time, she was given a verbal decline after calling in to check on the status of her final approval. They could/would not give her a reason, and she never received a letter or notice of the decline in writing. EIGHT months later, August 24 of 2010, she finally received a letter that acknowledged that they failed to send a denial letter! This letter STILL failed to provide a reason for denial in it!

So, just to recap, Ms. Anderson:
1. Was pre-approved for HAMP and made three trial payments & complied with all program guidelines
2. Was then denied for HAMP verbally and given no reason for the denial
3. 8 months later she was sent a letter acknowledging that she was never sent a denial letter
4. This letter still failed to provide a reason for denial
5. Was not offered HAFA at that time.

And, it just keeps getting better! Regarding her HAFA/short sale application, all the documents were emailed to Josephine James on 4/22. The borrower spoke with her on 4/20 and did a full intake on the phone and then sent her a complete package on 4/22 per her instruction. She did not acknowledge receipt. We emailed on 4/27 to confirm receipt and no response. Only after the borrower answered a collections call did she get the collections person to IM Josephine and get her on the phone. She then went back and "found" our emails from 4/22, plus we resent everything.

So the file sat with your intake person for 5 extra days. Based upon your denial, it sounds like those days were valuable days lost.

On top of that, the borrower just received a letter that was dated 4/28/11 form Citi stating that she was denied HAFA. She was denied based upon the fact that the property is supposedly not owner occupied? She lives in the property and always has. Kind of weird that she could be denied in one day when Josephine acknowledged only looking at the file on 4/27 and for such an erroneous reason.

The file was sent to your traditional side for short sale review, and was also just denied because there was not enough time to review the file prior to sale!

Again, probably won't save her house today, but the MHA escalation team has all this information and is working on it now.

I am sure based on the opening bid the property will not sell at auction (it is too high for an investor to buy and flip), so the investor will be the proud owner of another asset - when they could have sold via short sale.

I am urging you to please postpone the sale date so that this file can get the proper review that it deserves!

Jessica Sulliman
Ashby Realty Group
602-677-7977
jsulliman@hotmail.com

Many Kudos go out to our negotiator, Montrice Williams, who also was persistent with the investor to get the postponement granted even after she informed us of the rejection/denial. My efforts helped put the pressure on, so, as a team, we got it done! It just goes to show that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and to never give up....even up to the 11th hour! Once in awhile, it will work out!!

Thanks so very much to everyone here who helped with their suggestions and contacts....and if nothing else, encouragement to fight the good fight! Cuz, you can't win if you don't fight/play, right??

www.shortsalediva.com
Patsy Clevenger May 10, 2011 at 6:56pm

Try this email bryan.bolton@citi.com You might also want to try the office of the President for B of A. Not sure what they can do since Citi is the servicer but you know the saying everything works nothing doesn't. I use every avenue I can to stop sales. The Office of the President number is 877-779-9344 try ext 6653

Good Luck

This reply was deleted.