Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:21 am Post subject: Recourse against title company for not paying mortgage off?
Hi All - Would anyone know any recourse that I can take against a title company for not paying our mortgages off until 14 days after closing resulting in 30 day lates on our credit reports? We live in Ohio. Closed loan on 2/22/07 - recision period ended 2/26/07 - Funded per new mortgage company 2/27/07, but checks were not cut from title company until 3/5/07 resulting in negatives on my hubby's credit report. Is there anything we can do? He just had 2-60 days go over a year to get his credit back up because we were struggling winter '05 and he was late on mortgages. Those were a year old in 2/07, but now we have 2 new 30 day lates on credit report which is messing us up with him trying to finance some equipment for his business. Any suggestions? We already contacted a lawyer, but that was 2 weeks ago and we still haven't heard back from him. Am I crazy for thinking that someone should be held accountable for not doing their job?
There must be some confusion here. You're not crazy for thinking that someone isn't doing their job the right way. But why would a title company pay your mortgage just after closing.
The closing is when you sign document and receive the cash from the mortgage company. And, then if you default, the title company may pay you because of the insurance policy you may have with them.
Please correct me if i am wrong but that is what i understood from your post.
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 12:13 am Post subject: RE:
Hi Aqk,
You mean the mortgage isn't paid off by the title company. But what has closing to do with this. I am saying this, because closing is the process when a borrower signs legal papers related to the loan and the lender provides him with the cash. If your mortgage company is offering the loan, then how come the title company gives you the check? The check should be offered by the mortgage company itself.
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 12:58 am Post subject: RE: delay in loan payments
Hi Aqk,
Welcome to the forum.
I can get what you are trying to say. You are probably trying to pay off an existing loan with the new loan. And just because there has been some delay by the title company, it has led to a late payment being recorded on the credit report. And, that is why you want to take some action against the title company.
Usually prior to the closing, the title company informs the lender about the date of closing and receives the loan proceeds from the lender usually through a bank wire transfer. The title company then cuts checks to all parties involved in the loan transaction. Such parties include the appraisal company, title company, County recorder, the seller etc.
It is true that you have gone through late payment just because of the title company getting delayed. You can consult an attorney and bring a legal action against the company. Or else, the attorney can negotiate with the company such that it pays you cash equal to the late payment amount.
As far as the late payment being reported is concerned, well that will remain on the report for quite a number of years. But once you pay it and request the lender to report it to the bureau or you do it yourself, slowly and gradually it will get eliminated from the report.
Sorry it took so long to reply, but my computer was down for a few days. According to the lawyer I spoke to the recission period for a refinance in Ohio is 3 days. Does that mean that they don't actually fund the loan for three days or that the loan was funded and that we have 3 days to back out if we want to? Regardless, there were no checks at the closing.
Basically, when we closed our loan, the title company's agent told us they were responsible for sending the payoffs to our original lender (which they had the wrong amounts might I add resulting in us having to pay additional money a few weeks later to completely close the accounts). We've never refinanced before, so we just figured that was the way it was supposed to be. When we received the letters from our original lender that our account was past due, we started checking into things. Low and behold, when we called our new lender to find out when they transferred the funds, they said they did not fund the loan until 14 days after we actually signed the documents because of delays from the title company. This delay resulted in the late payments with the credit bureaus. I am fully aware those are going to be on there for a long time, which is why I am po'ed. We were late awhile back, but since it's been over a year, most creditors have not been holding that against us since it was a one time incident. But now, we have these 2 new late payments (both 1st and 2nd mortgages) showing on our credit, it is causing us difficulties and it just doesn't seem fair. I know there are laws against brokers, but would this be an issue against our broker for not following through and making sure that things are completely taken care of, or the title company, for not doing there job in a timely manner. Are there any laws that the title companies have to abide by, or shouldn't the broker have followed through with the title company that he insisted was "reputable" to ensure that the funds were transferred when they were supposed to? It just seems to me that we should be able to go after someone for smearing our credit again after we've been working so hard to restore it.
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:35 pm Post subject: RE: Late payment on credit report
Hi Aqk,
Welcome back.
It is true that some legal action should be taken against people because of whom there has been late payments recorded on your credit report. There must be laws against title companies and brokers. But I feel an attorney would be the right person to speak about such laws.
However, the right of rescission refers to the rights of the borrower going for a refinance of the first or second mortgage to cancel the contract. On cancellation of the contract, the borrower gets refund of the fees provided the mortgage has been offered against the borrower's primary residence.
The borrower retains the right of rescission for three business days after the closing or 3 days after he receives all loan related forms and disclosures whichever occurs last.
Your best bet to clear up your credit would be to write a letter to the CEO of your previous mortgage company and ask for a good will adjustment. Send them a copy of the settlement statement along with the proof from the title company that they recieved the funds on time and a letter from the title company stating it was there error that your loan was paid off late more often than not the previous lender will make the adjustment. _________________ Cedric Kalvesmaki
***Professional Disclaimer***
While I am a Mortgage Professional, this advice is generic in nature only.
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 3:50 am Post subject: RE: clear credit report off late payments
That's right ckalvesmaki. Aqk should contact the previous company and request them to try and remove the late payments being recorded in his credit report. A letter from the title company will help him to convince the previous mortgage company to remove the late payments. _________________ Mortgage Shopping made easy with booklet
Yes, I did contact a lawyer and he said he cannot find anything in the law that would hold up against the title company, which I find hard to believe. He also said it would extremely difficult to prove what damages would be against us for this type of an issue. If anyone by any chance knows any laws that may have been broken, please let me know. I don't know if it would necessarily be against the title company or the broker who we went through though either. Isn't the broker you hire responsible for over seeing everything, including payoff?
I had already contacted our previous lender, and while they originally said that they would remove the negative items, we received a letter a few weeks later saying that they would not remove them after all (with no real explanation as to why). I'll try to write the CEO of the company and see if he/ she can assist. Thanks.
I hate to rain on your parade....however the reality of it is that you as an individual are responsible for your monthly mortgage payment....Based on your original post you closed on the 22nd of the month so your payment was late allready....you should have made that months payment.....no one is responsible for that but you. The broker has no control over the loan proceeds and assumes that the lenders closing instructions would be followed..... _________________ Cedric Kalvesmaki
***Professional Disclaimer***
While I am a Mortgage Professional, this advice is generic in nature only.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:58 am Post subject: RE: remove negative items from credit report
Hi Aqk,
It's getting tough for you as I see. Ok, you can try out as much as is possible for you - just send alter to the CEO of the company and see if he can do something for you. The fact is that the previous company does not want to consider that you were late in paying because you received the check a bit late. They perhaps believe in getting what they have invested and they feel it was your responsibility to pay them in time no matter what happened.
At the same time, it's not your fault as if you would have had the money, you could have made up for the paymnets. Just that you needed the checks to pay the mortgage company in time.
Now, there's nothing doing, I believe except that you request the CEO to have the negative entries removed from your credit report. Let's hope that things turn out well. But send us the updates on this issue and let's see if anyone here can come up with more suggestions.
Yes, the payment was already 2 weeks late, and not to make excused, but we were supposed to close our loan 3 weeks before. The broker advised us to just hold off on paying it because they would have to get new payoff's from the mortgage company and I that would cause them "difficulties" in the paperwork they'd already filed with the lender. He was trying to get us a better rate through a different company he said so that's why he said that we shouldn't close with the first company. He also said that as long as the loans were paid off within the 30 days after the due date, that the late pays would not be reported. Our fault for trusting our broker that we paid $2000 to I guess because the payoffs did not get there within the 30 days as promised to us. If it was up to me, we wouldn't use a broker. But my
husband is self-employed and has not been established long enough for us to go through more conventional resources. So, we do what we can.
Our situation just keeps getting more complex though. I logged into the loan account this morning to check the insurance information because there was a goof on the insurance check amount the title company originally sent and I wanted to make sure that it was all fixed with the lender. The lender had said to just keep checking in, so that's what I was doing. Needless to say, the updated insurance information did not look right to me, so I called my insurance agent to ask her to verify. She found out that the check that the title company had originally sent her had been returned to the title agency 3/23/2007 because they made the check out to the wrong company and for the wrong amount. Did they fix the situation and pay the insurance like they were supposed to - NO! They kept the check (OUR MONEY - $688 worth) and never notified anyone that the check was returned to them. My agent found this out when she called the insurance company and then called the title company to try to get it resolved.
So, since my broker won't return my phone calls (which why wouldn't he if felt he did a good job), I called the title company directly. All the title agent could say was "Sorry." No explanation, no reasoning, no real apology in my eyes. He pocketed/ or his company pocketed my money and then all he would say is Sorry - tough basically. When I asked him why it took so long for our loan to get funded from the time the paperwork was signed, his comment was that sometimes it just happens that way.
So yes, I am aggravated. I've spent over 40 hours trying to fix all of this the past few weeks and we paid a lot of money (to us at least - we're not by any means well off) to people to do their jobs and it feels like I've done most of it for them.
I'll keep you posted though. I drafted a letter to the original lender with copies of our closing docs so hopefully that'll work. It still just doesn't seem right to me, but I guess this is just the way it is.
I'm sorry also, I don't mean to vent, but this insurance thing just has me fuming even more. And, Cedric, you made me feel like we were being deadbeats, and all we were doing is following the advise of our broker. I just feel like we were taken for a ride, that's all.
Not your fault. But don't worry, just keep going. Right now, it may seem tough for you but trust me, you will get over it. People going through unpleasant happenings have shared their experiences with this community and have later on tried and come out of such troubles.
It happens at times but there will always be a better time. _________________ Procrastination is the enemy of your financial sucess
Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 2:16 am Post subject: RE: payment problems due to title company
I think you're going the right way. It's really unfair that you get late on payments and then the title company also takes away your insurance money. Now that you have sent the closing documents to the first lender, let's hope that he takes the right action.
agk1998
