Posted on: 25th Jan, 2010 09:27 am
We signed a contract with a builder and our lender in May 05. The lender had us sign a direct disbursement agreement authorizing them to pay the builder directly. The contract included a draw schedule of 10 draws to be paid upon completion percentages.
The bank did not always do inspections, and always paid way over the inspectors percentage. They gave the builder money for deposits when our contract clearly stated that they could not, paid way over our agreed upon line items without any change orders, funded for a letter signed by only our builder that our contract price had increased, an invoice for a drywall deposit for another property, etc., etc.
Needless to say, it is now easy after seeing all the evidence of wrongdoing when we requested our entire loan file, our home is 60-65% complete and over 95% of the construction to perm loan funds are gone. When we received this evidence, we tried to work with this lender to find a solution only to be told "get a lawyer".
We had $900,000 in equity when we began the project, and have paid about a million more out of our pockets.
We are going after the builder criminally, and we have since found out that our builders operations manager who just happened to be our project manager, is a convicted felon currently serving time in federal prison. He was a DEA agent that got caught embezelling confiscated drug money and he used that money to purchase a home. This person was "dear personal friends" with our loan administrator and was the notary on all the paperwork. After the public records showed a federal indictment with a lien for foreclosure on that property, this same lender gave him over a hundred thousand dollar equity loan on the property. Does this sound fishy to you?
We found all this out almost a year ago and brought it to the banks attention. We continued to make our interest payments as we have always done, until the last payment of the construction period was ending and the bank told us to get a lawyer.
We were "golden" customers with an 800 plus credit score and a 65% LTV. We made every payment in a timely manner and now we are financially ruined. I am a mother of two young children and I cannot begin to tell you the harm they have suffered because of this mess. We had to borrow money from my sister to hire an attorney and if that is not bad enough, the money was from my nephew's combat death benefit from his brave service in Iraq. Our attorney's thought we had a great case, but instead of filing a lawsuit, they tried to mediate with the bank to no avail. We do not know where to turn and would appreciate any advice.
The bank did not always do inspections, and always paid way over the inspectors percentage. They gave the builder money for deposits when our contract clearly stated that they could not, paid way over our agreed upon line items without any change orders, funded for a letter signed by only our builder that our contract price had increased, an invoice for a drywall deposit for another property, etc., etc.
Needless to say, it is now easy after seeing all the evidence of wrongdoing when we requested our entire loan file, our home is 60-65% complete and over 95% of the construction to perm loan funds are gone. When we received this evidence, we tried to work with this lender to find a solution only to be told "get a lawyer".
We had $900,000 in equity when we began the project, and have paid about a million more out of our pockets.
We are going after the builder criminally, and we have since found out that our builders operations manager who just happened to be our project manager, is a convicted felon currently serving time in federal prison. He was a DEA agent that got caught embezelling confiscated drug money and he used that money to purchase a home. This person was "dear personal friends" with our loan administrator and was the notary on all the paperwork. After the public records showed a federal indictment with a lien for foreclosure on that property, this same lender gave him over a hundred thousand dollar equity loan on the property. Does this sound fishy to you?
We found all this out almost a year ago and brought it to the banks attention. We continued to make our interest payments as we have always done, until the last payment of the construction period was ending and the bank told us to get a lawyer.
We were "golden" customers with an 800 plus credit score and a 65% LTV. We made every payment in a timely manner and now we are financially ruined. I am a mother of two young children and I cannot begin to tell you the harm they have suffered because of this mess. We had to borrow money from my sister to hire an attorney and if that is not bad enough, the money was from my nephew's combat death benefit from his brave service in Iraq. Our attorney's thought we had a great case, but instead of filing a lawsuit, they tried to mediate with the bank to no avail. We do not know where to turn and would appreciate any advice.
banking department of your state? have you made any effort to contact them? attorney general's office? have you made any effort to contact them?
you ended up with a crappy lawyer, too, i guess.
this is a terrible situation, and the bank and its employees need to be made responsible. if you were in connecticut and dick blumenthal got wind of it, he'd close down the bank as quick as he could. and get your money back, too.
please do some or all of what i've mentioned. also, find a consumer advocate in the local media or elsewhere and have that person go live with your story - tv, radio, newspaper, etc. write a letter to the editor to expose the crooks. but please take the legal steps you need to take - banking commissioner and attorney general, as i said. if they advise you to lay off accusations in the media, then you'll need to follow their direction.
you need relief, and you deserve it, from what you've said.
you ended up with a crappy lawyer, too, i guess.
this is a terrible situation, and the bank and its employees need to be made responsible. if you were in connecticut and dick blumenthal got wind of it, he'd close down the bank as quick as he could. and get your money back, too.
please do some or all of what i've mentioned. also, find a consumer advocate in the local media or elsewhere and have that person go live with your story - tv, radio, newspaper, etc. write a letter to the editor to expose the crooks. but please take the legal steps you need to take - banking commissioner and attorney general, as i said. if they advise you to lay off accusations in the media, then you'll need to follow their direction.
you need relief, and you deserve it, from what you've said.
Thank you George. I will be taking your advice along with going viral on the social networking sites and speaking to my elected representatives. We contacted the AG office about the builder, but at the time we had no idea of the mismanagement of our loan. They referred us to our local authorities because they stated that the case was not multi-jurisdictional. We have since found other families that have similar circumstances with the same builder and loan officer, and they are in a different district than us.
We are still hoping that the bank will not force our hand and will just want to correct the situation, naive I know. We are just wanting to get our life back!
We are still hoping that the bank will not force our hand and will just want to correct the situation, naive I know. We are just wanting to get our life back!
