Consumer complaint received 2015-04-08
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: HI
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
We applied for a loan mod in XXXX. Because after the economic downslide in XXXX, we could n't afford our mo. payments at 7 % int. ( equaling over $ 15K mo. with impounds ) ; especially with interest rates half that amount at the time. But we were denied. We repeated the application a couple of years later only to find out that our original mortgage company ( XXXX ) had gone bankrupt and that we 'd been paying a service provider, Select Portfolio Services , Inc ( SPS ). We hired attorney, XXXX XXXX and his researcher, to find out who owned our loan. They found proof that our mortgage had been sold on the stock market multiple times, that Mers was involved with Robo signing, notaries signed docs whose licenses had expired, and that our loan had been transferred to US Bank 3 yrs after XXXX went bankrupt. XXXX XXXX said that we MUST stop paying our mortgage to make them sue us, because only then they 'd have to prove they owned our mortgage. So we did. We wound up hiring another attorney, XXXX XXXX in XXXX and went to court with our case. The judge ( XXXX XXXX in XXXX ) asked the opposing side ( US Bank, which SPS serviced ) to prove that they owned the loan. They could NOT prove it, said that " It was too erroneous ''. ( " Erroneous '' means it 's above the law ), in other words they could n't prove it and do n't have to prove it. XXXX XXXX said that he did not know how to rule and then ruled in THEIR favor!!? The attorney for US Bank was on the phone - did n't even show up in court. So after the ruling, although we did NOT believe that they owned the loan, we continued with the loan modification process with SPS and tried to get our loan reinstated. After getting lots of " run-around '' and eventual denial, we went into foreclosure status, with a commissioner assigned to sell our house. This is our family home and where we office. So we were advised to file Chapter XXXX BK to halt the foreclosure process. Our new BK attorney ( XXXX XXXX ) charged us $ 20K to create and file a plan for Chapter XXXX. We left it up to him because we assumed he had the experience/know how. However, our plan and our BK was denied and as soon as it was, the foreclosure threat became active again. Simultaneously throughout this entire time, we had another attorney ( XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX ) VERY actively trying to negotiate a loan mod for us with SPS. He was asked to send, resend, and resend the same paperwork over and over ; then only to be told that they needed to be updated. NOTE : What we did n't realize back when we stopped paying our mortgage is that our interest was going down from 7 % to 2.5 % as of XXXX XXXX. Too bad we did n't realize that back then. Anyway, we 've since offered SPS to make monthly payments at our legal current interest rate of 2.5 % and to even pay part of the arrears off and to put the balance of the arrears ( which had grown to over $ 400K ) on the back end just to end this. SPS told us repetitively that things look good, that it 'll be any day, any day and that we should hear back by XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. Then our original attorney, XXXX XXXX ( who took our case to court and lost ), called and said that with the commissioner who was assigned could sell our house now that we were out of BK. He could say they tried to reach us and did n't, and the next thing we would hear is that we have to vacate. This has caused us tremendous stress, so I am reaching out for HELP. We obviously have always intended to pay whoever owned our loan and to get a fair interest rate. It now seems VERY unfair ( even criminal ) that no one can prove who owns our mortgage, yet US Bank has the ability/the right to foreclose, even when we are trying desperately to make a fair payment structure and to reinstate our loan. We have n't known where to turn, so I am hoping that you can PLEASE HELP, or help us understand how to get help

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation