This is the story of someone facing a mortgage foreclosure, someone who is trying desperately to work with the mortgage company to work out payment. The problem is the mortgage company is unwilling to bend at all. Let me give you the details.
My sister purchased a home in Spring Hill FL a few years back before her husband decided to get a drug problem and skip out on her and the children. This was her second marriage. Her first husband was killed by a co-worker some years back. Through two marriages she has 7 children. I know that is just insane and it is no ones problem but her own that she was so irresponsible to keep having children that she simply could not afford. That fact means very little in terms of this discussion. She has been making her mortgage payments every month but had not paid her taxes which she believed were part of her payments but her contract called for her to pay the taxes directly. This put her behind two payments. She was not aware of this fact until after the first year of non tax payment. The mortgage company paid the taxes and she had her payment increased to cover the tax escrow. They included the first years unpaid tax as well as escrowing for the second year. She began making the higher payments by taking on a second job but has been unable to get caught up. Each month she is late they continue to pile on late charges and they threaten her daily with foreclosure. Today she asked me to talk to them. I agreed to help her out financially to get her caught up. My conversation with Chase Mortgage Services was less than productive. In fact it was down right frustrating and disheartening.
I told them I was willing to help her get caught up and asked how much they had piled on in late charges. The late charges were close to $500.00. Since her pay periods are such that she can only pay at the end of each month late charges are assessed every month. I asked if they could change the due date so she could avoid all the late charges, that was refused. I asked if they could waive the late charges so that she would be able to get caught up more easily, that was refused. At that point I asked what I could do to get this matter resolved. I was told the only way to avoid her being sent to foreclosure was to pay $1200 immediately or it would progress to the next level. That would mean legal fees and additional charges and for sure this would lead to foreclosure. I offered to pay half of that immediately and then $500.00 monthly until the account was caught up. That would be in addition to the monthly payment that she has been making every single month. My offer was refused. I told them that the house would never be sold since there are foreclosures all over the area that she lives. I asked why they would want another foreclosed property on their books when they were receiving payments every month. My sister, in prior conversations with Chase Mortgage Services said that she would make up the entire balance with her tax refund that she would receive in February. Now remember she was making a monthly payment at the higher rate this whole time. In my discussions with Chase it was revealed that they were also charging her for homeowners insurance which she pays herself on a monthly basis and it is one bill that she is not behind on. This was an obvious Chase mistake and I pointed that out. Again I was told it didn't matter that they needed a payment of $1200 now or they would start foreclosure proceedings. We went to them willing to do what was necessary to get this mortgage caught up. All we asked was that they meet us half way. I told them my sister was a single mother with seven children and that meant nothing to them. The prospect of a homeless family fell on deaf ears.
My sister has two jobs and one doesn't provide health care and the second job the employee costs of the plan are too high and therefore unaffordable. She is one of the 47 million uninsured. Her children would benefit from SCHIP but she was recently told that she earned too much to have them qualify. Her children would have been covered under the bill vetoed by that moronic fool we call President Bush. Her story is certainly not unique. It is a story shared by millions while those at the top continue to gain an ever larger percentage of the pie. When will this madness stop? We are a country will a shrinking middle class an ever expanding deficit. We spend more on defense than all the nations of the world combined yet are losing two wars simultaneously.
If anyone knows of any legal recourse we have to stave off foreclosure that would not involve heavy legal fees please let me know. This situation has left me so angry I could spit nails. Here you have someone who is saying I am not avoiding paying what I owe I just need some flexibility to allow me to get the payments caught up and the flexibility is not there. Hell human decency doesn't even seem to be there on the part of Chase Mortgage Services. This situation seems like a perfect campaign issue for any of the Democratic hopefuls especially John Edwards who has made poverty a major focus of his campaign. If any member of the campaign staff happens to see this we would welcome the opportunity to take this story national. This is the type of situation that can happen to almost anyone struggling to make ends meet.
This incident has made me want to turn this site into a movement. My sister is one of tens of millions of working poor who are being destroyed by the corporate culture that permeates every part of our government. I want to build Save The Middle Class into a not for profit aimed at helping the middle and lower classes stand up to the systematic elimination that has been happening to them since the early 1980's.
It is time to make our voices heard loud and clear. It is time that we say enough is enough and demand fundamental changes to our political process. It is time for us to say that we will no longer sit by and watch as everything we have worked for is gobbled up by the wealthiest among us. We will not exist solely to service the rich and be grateful for the scraps they wish to throw our way. We will not let the working poor replace the middle class in this country which is happening at an alarming rate. We must demand that our Presidential hopefuls pay more than lip service to the plight of the middle and lower classes. It is an issue that can be agreed upon by both liberals and conservatives. It is an issue where mutual cooperation could be achieved. Please recommend this story so that we can start the process of saving the middle class and taking back our country.
