Consumer complaint received 2018-04-10
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (OH)

Approximately six/seven years ago I drove to Chase Bank and paid my mortgage payment through the drive through. Days later I received a check from them for the exact amount of money as my house payment. I called thinking maybe I had not written the correct account number, or something, and they were returning it, no t knowing what to do with it. I immediately called the mortgage department and was told our home was in the foreclosure process and they could not accept any more payments from us. We could not figure out why we would be in the foreclosure process, having made payments for YEARS!! I called and spoke with numerous people with Chase Bank, ensuring me they would help. No one ever did. Lots of paperwork, faxes, modifications, etc. Dozens upon dozens of people because every time I called in they assigned me to a new person and despite the " These calls may be monitored for quality assurance .... '' and people assuring me they were making notes to our account, no one ever knew what I was talking about and I would have to start at the beginning of the story all over again. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Fast forward several months and we have a court date. We meet twice on two separate occasions with the magistrate. On the final date for final/actual hearing, Chase Bank sends a rep to say " oops, our mistake, we can't find where you didn't pay '' and we are directed to report to local Chase Bank, who has our loan paperwork, to sign the papers to reinstate our loan. We, already completely paralyzed with fear, thinking our child is going to have to home, sign the paperwork. It is not a continuation of existed loan, it was a completely new loan starting all over again! Albeit, we should have payed closer attention, but we were so relieved to not lose the home, we basically did whatever they said. PREDATORY LENDING. Fast forward three years, I am paying the house payments and becoming more and more behind with everything else in life because of the ridiculously high dollar amounts of the payments ( {$2200.00} dollars a month on a house we paid {$160000.00} for with {$20000.00} down AND making payments on for 16 years!! I told my husband we were committing financial suicide. I went to the local Chase Bank and explained my situation to a mortgage lender at the bank. He ( the only person at this point to act like a caring human being ) asks, " You still have children in the home? ", I answer, " Yes. '' He says to me, shaking his head, " I am so sorry. You are so underwater with this you are never going to win. You need to take your son, find a nice home to rent and move on with your life. '' I called into the home mortgage department and told the same story to a representative named XXXX. He told me the best option was to fax a statement to the bank saying we wanted to release the property, deed in lieu of foreclosure. He assured me this meant we could give the house back to the bank, " no one will come after you for payments '' and it would not go through the foreclosure process and no court dates. He even gave me the exact words to use for the correspondence. Fast forward another eighteen months - two years, Chase Bank did file for foreclosure, we have been out of the house for two years now. We had a court hearing today with the magistrate. It is our understanding they have filed judgement against us for possible money if they can not get the full amount of the loan from auction/sheriff 's sale. So, in summary, we have paid for the same house, LITERALLY TWICE NOW in house payments, given the house over to them and now they want money they probably will not make on a sale because our original {$160000.00} home now has with fines, etc a {$240000.00} plus price tag. DO NOT EVER DO BUSINESS WITH CHASE BANK. IF YOU ARE ALREADY DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM, DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY SAY. Our credit is ruined, we have been humiliated and are at an age that I do not know how we will ever financially recuperate from this.