Post-foreclosure Anagnorisis

Hi Paul, the story started back in 2005. I had a friend who had a bad credit rating due to failed business. He was working fine and earning money and asked me to help him in purchasing a house.

We helped him and put the house on my wife’s name based on his promisse that after 3 years he will be able to put it back on his name. To make a long story short, he paid for 2.5 years and then he defaulted and the house was foreclosed on my wife’s name back in Feb 2008. He was evicted in August 2009.

In Sep 2008 we started getting mortgage statements from a collection agency “Real time Resolution” for a mortgage balance of $76,000 using the same loan number as the original lender which is IndyMac bank. I called, and wrote and waited on the phone line trying to get the story from IndyMac bank about this collection only to get answers as they don’t know what that is.

Eventually I got a letter from the REO department at IndyMac stating that they did not follow collection based on a recommendation from the law firm office that handeled the foreclosure, however, they suspect that the mortgage loan was sold as an insecure debt to the collection agency and advised me to contact the collection agency to find out…

I have put my wife thru the most devastating experience to help out a friend who turned to be so selfish and put us in all this mess. Is there an advise to do before I contact this agency, I am afraid that i will do a legal mistake that would open doors on us later.

Do you recommend a format to communicate with this collection agency..My friend assured me that after foreclosure my wife’s credit will take a hit for 2 years and back to normal if she kept paying her bills, but what about this collection. i tried to contact him and have him pay for a lawyer to get us out of this mess but he is not replying to my calls now, and we are stuck to solve this issue ourselves. Please help.

Jim

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Hello Jim,

I’m guessing that IndyMac loan was a second mortgage.  Based on what you’ve described, Real Time Resolution is a debt collector and subject to the FDCPA. 

I would begin by sending CMRRR letters to IndyMac labeled as Qualified Written Requests and ask for these types of docs.  You’ve got until your February 2009 foreclosure anniversary date for the requests to still be considered QWR.

It sounds like she may owe something, but maybe not as much as they claim.  If so, that’s a violation of the FDCPA.  Your question tracks Pay For Delete My Second Mortgage very closely.  I’d suggest reading that article and then all of the others that have to do with the FCRA, FDCPA, RESPA, TILA, and then look into the licensing of this debt collector and prepare your counterclaims or identify causes of action for bringing your own lawsuit.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they can’t obtain the original note on this 2005 transaction.  This could mean that they are unable to prevail in a lawsuit to obtain a judgment.  So, quite possibly, all they can do is pester you and plague her credit report. 

They can pester you, but it might end up profiting you with statutory awards with the consumer statutes described above.  You can click on the links under ‘Categories’ on the right side of this blog to see what might apply to your situation or visit the Broken Credit Blog Library.

I can see this as a conversation between a collector and the consumer:

Collector: I want to know what you are going to do about the money you owe us.

Consumer: I want to know what you are going to do about the money you owe me.

Thanks for the questions and for everyone else it’s another example of The Dangers Of Consigning.

Paul

This author is not an attorney and this information should not be considered legal advice.  Please consult an attorney for legal advice.