______ v. Bank of America
Feb 13, 2013OUTCOME: Won home from foreclosure
San Francisco Homeowners Win Back Their Home From Foreclosure! In a San Francisco Superior court case, Bank of America returned the home to borrowers a year after the foreclosure. Bank of America ... has been sanctioned for its abusive foreclosure practices in the past, but the sanctions did not serve as a deterrent. After jumping through many hoops, Juan and Lidia received a loan modification from Bank of America in the summer of 2012. But little did that help as they still lost their home because Bank of America refused to honor their loan modification agreement. However, Juan and Lidia fought back and their fight paid off! Juan and Lidia are immigrants from Mexico who now live in San Francisco. The couple runs a home cleaning business. In 2011, they found themselves strapped for cash as the hard economic times had a devastating impact on their business. Hiring a paralegal based out of Los Angeles, Juan and Lidia applied for a loan modification with Bank of America. When they applied for a loan modification in 2011, they were already behind of their mortgage. In June 2011, Juan and Lidia received a trial payment plan from Bank of America. They were supposed to make 3 monthly trial payments and go through financial evaluation to qualify for a loan modification. Bank of America promised that, after Juan and Lidia successfully completed the 3-month trial payment plan, their loan would be permanently modified. The trial payments were $2,676 per month, which was a significant reduction of their $4,000 mortgage payment. Juan and Lidia made the trial payments in July, August, and September of 2011. However, after the trial plan was over, Bank of America told them to continue the trial payments as their application was not yet reviewed. Juan and Lidia made trial payments for the coming 8 months. In May 2012, Juan and Lidia finally received the promised loan modification agreement, which reduced their mortgage payment to $2,700. They signed this agreement in front of a notary, as instructed, and mailed it back to the bank. In June and in July of 2012, Juan and Lidia paid $2,700 to Bank of America, which payments Bank of America had accepted. In August 2012, however, Bank of America told Juan and Lidia that their modified mortgage payments would no longer be accepted. At the end of August 2012, their home was foreclosed. The paralegal who was helping Juan and Lidia with their loan modification told them that she could help them sue Bank of America. She wrote a complaint in broken English, which made no sense, and charged them $800 for it. The complaint was filed with the court, but it was never delivered to Bank of America. Many months went by and nothing was happening. Juan and Lidia attempted to call the paralegal, but she did not answer the phone. They drove to Los Angeles to speak with her in person. When they arrived, they saw that her office was closed. When Juan and Lidia came to the Bay Area foreclosure attorney, Ekaterina Berman, in February 2013, they were devastated as they didn’t know what to do and who to trust. A new lawsuit was filed against Bank of America on February 13, 2013. Bank of America responded in 2 weeks trying to get the case dismissed. Arguing in front of the judge, Attorney Berman got the case moving forward. We made our position clear to Bank of America at the outset: we will not take ‘no’ as an answer. On October 9, 2013, Bank of America cancelled the foreclosure and returned the home to Juan and Lidia. Now, the objective is to get Bank of America to honor the loan modification that Juan and Lidia received in 2012.
