Econintersect: Ana Casas Wilson of South Gate, California, claims that her home is being foreclosed by Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) unnecessarily. Wilson said that after she and her husband fell behind on payments in 2009 when she was receiving cancer treatments, they were ready to catch up on the arrears and resume payments but the bank refused to accept them. She says that the bank also denied her a loan modification and proceeded into foreclosure. Thursday (26 April 2012) Wilson was arrested when she, accompanied by 80 supporters, attempted to deliver her mortgage payment directly to the home of Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan at his San Marino, CA home.
Last fall MSNBC reported how a similar situation with another mortgagor had ended up with a last minute reprieve after protests of mistreatment resulted in a mortgage modification that enabled the home owner to remain in her home. That case involved a mortgage held by Fannie Mae and serviced by OneWest Bank. Fannie Mae implementing the final modification. A spokeswoman at OneWest had no explanation why the mortgagor could not get resolution with them, except to say “it was impossible to find a contact to work with at Fannie Mae, the lender.”
Editor’s note: The excuse that a servicer cannot pursue mortgage modification is disingenuous when many analysts have reported that servicer income is greater for completing a foreclosure than for arranging a modification.
Many cases of misconduct have been documented, including a New York Times article 7 January 2012 and reports and analysis going back to at least 2010.
Sources:
- Woman fighting foreclosure arrested in appeal to Wells Fargo CFO (Kari Huus, MSNBC, 27 April 2012)
- Homeowner taps Occupy protest to avoid foreclosure (Kari Huus, MSNBC, 17 October 2012)
- From East and West, Foreclosure Horror Stories (Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, 7 January 2012)
- The Mortgage Mess (Yves Smith, GEI Analysis, 13 October 2010)
- Bar probing foreclosure misconduct allegations (Kimberley Miller, The Palm Beach Post, 27 October 2010)