Consumer complaint received 2015-07-17
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: ID
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure

Complaint:
After marrying a man with XXXX children I bought a house big enough for us on my own because of his recent bankruptcy. Due to delinquency of his kids I had to quit my job, which was not a hardship, because of his income and my child support. After one of his children XXXX he divorced me. In order to salvage the situation, I got a job several XXXX miles away, rented out the house, and Washington Mutual was very gracious in making a restructuring agreement with me, contingent on my making timely payments for six months. A few months into this probaitonary period, Washington Mutual was taken over by Chase. I was repeatedly told by Chase personell, to NOT WORRY, Chase would honor the agreement, and that the only change I had to make was to change my payments from automatic payments from my WaMu account to cashiers ' checks. I did this, and called Chase at the end of the six months. They told me to NOT WORRY, that all the red tape of transitioning the WaMu accounts over to their system was taking a long time, and to just continue to make the same payments through a cashiers ' check, which I did for month 7. Shortly thereafter an eviction notice was taped on my renters ' front door, and a realtor told my renters to stop paying me and start paying them. On my behalf, the person who had worked with WaMu for me spoke directly to this realtor. The realtor told him that this was not part of her job description, that she was being forced to do it against her will, and that some of her colleagues felt that this new practice was dangerous, as some folks being foreclosed on were being threatened physically by those they were attempting to deal with. My representative also spoke with the renters who decided they wanted to avoid being caught in the middle of a situation wherein they were required to make such decisions, and my renters vacated the premises. 

All of this happened during my employment evaluation, and ultimately, it cost me my job. By the time I was finally able to get to the property, the locks had been changed and there was a sign stuck to a window from which I learned that thousands of dollars of my gardening equipment, furniture, extension ladders, power tools, etc., had been taken to the dump. 

Shortly thereafter the property was sold. I had a lot of equity in the home, and the house was sold for around {$20000.00} more than I had owed on it. The banks made a profit, and I lost my life savings, which I had put into extra payments on my principle. 

Now, half a decade later, I discover that there is a claim that I still owe over {$20000.00}. I only found that out today because I applied for an apartment, and the application was denied. All these years I have thought that the tidy profit the bank made on the house certainly was cold in the grave. 

Had Chase been up front with me and told me that they would not honor the agreement WaMu had made with me, I would have not been justified in complaining, but they were deceitful, and during the period they were breaking that promise, I spent hours on the phone, being transferred from one associate or computer to another, only to end up speaking to the same associate I was talking to two and a half hours before. I was going through this and trying to get my renters to continue to work with me during my yearly professional evaluation, and it cost me my job. 

I did not fall under the category of people who had not been informed that restructuring was an option. I was informed, I had a restructuring agreement, I held up my part of the bargain, but the bank did not, but threw my case into the same database with those who had NOT been offered a restructure, and was treated as such, despite numerous reassurances on the part of Chase that I had NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. 

Now, all these years after the economy died, being able to have a place to live is still a problem.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation