Long Mortgage Battle with Fannie, Chase and Seterus Ends Favorably

MORTGAGE MODIFICATION WOESDan and Karen thought their long fight for mortgage help was over when they entered into a trial period plan with their loan servicer in 2011. Little did they know that their battle was just beginning. For over a year, they religiously mailed in their monthly payments to Chase Bank. However, the statements they continued to receive were conflicting as to the mortgage balance, the interest rate and the payment required. Six months after they thought they had the matter straightened out, they received a letter which seemed to ignore their agreement altogether. Finally, they decided to stand their ground by stopping their payments. After that, they had to wait for another two years for a move to be made.FORECLOSURE SHOE DROPSFinally, the shoe dropped and foreclosure was filed against Dan and Karen by Fannie Mae in September, 2015. Fannie, essentially a government owned entity, claimed it owned the loan that was once serviced by Chase. In the meantime, a new loan servicer, Seterus, entered the picture, replacing Chase. It was at this stage that Dan and Karen came to see us. Certainly, the treatment received they received with respect to their mortgage provided plenty of good material to defend them in the foreclosure, and even support a counterclaim against Fannie.THE END RESULTI'm not sure that it can ever be said that any result is worth going through five years of trauma in a struggle to save your home, but we believe the end result in Dan and Karen's case at least makes it a close call. Despite it not being their fault, they did not make a mortgage payment for 3 ½ years. Even so, the balance under the new agreement is effectively reset to where it should have been in 2012. Their interest rate is sliced in half, from 7.37%, to 3.62%, and their monthly payments, which were $650, dropped like a rock to $369. Even though it took far too long, we believe that Fannie finally saw the error of its ways and came through with just recompense for Dan and Karen in the way of a great mortgage modification.Note from the author: If you have questions or comments- regarding this or any Foreclosure Story article or should you like to have a "free mortgage analysis", please visit www.mcgookeylaw.com, visit us on Facebook or call us at 419-502-7223 or 844-661-7942.Kathryn Eyster contributed to this article.