Consumer complaint received 2015-06-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (CA)

We purchased a home with a GMAC interest only loan ( {$3500.00} ) in XXXX of XXXX for {$760000.00} with a {$160000.00} down payment. Property taxes and insurance were not part of an escrow account for this loan. The California " XXXX XXXX '' burned through our property in XXXX of XXXX wiping out our XXXX XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX we did not pay our property taxes as the XX/XX/XXXX financial collapse, reduction in my work bonus and the income from our XXXX XXXX was reduced to a loss due the XX/XX/XXXX wildfire substantially decreased our income. GMAC notified us that an increase of more than {$2000.00} per month would be required to meet escrow requirements. We had never missed a payment between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX until we stopped making payments due to the increase in the monthly payment. I requested GMAC to supply me with the clause in our contract with GMAC that gives them the right to require this and they were not able to supply me with that clause. I informed them that if they could not come up with a more affordable solution we would have to stop paying all expenses related to this property other than general maintenance. Their response was " do what you have to do, there are no alternatives ''. We stopped making the payments when the higher payment was posted on the GMAC website. 
During the no payment period GMAC and I talked about HARP/HAMP modifications, short sale and deed in lieu options. After a while they agreed to a XXXX month trial period and on the phone they told me that we would be qualified to modify the loan in the price range of the new payments ( {$2400.00} ) if we made the XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and XXXX/XXXX/XXXX payments on time. Only paperwork that we received stated that we could still be denied. During this time Ocwen took over servicing the loan. For a long time there was no communication other than mail telling us of the change. It is my opinion that GMAC started the " trial period '' to generate income knowing that the transfer to Ocwen was coming. At one point with GMAC the paperwork was errantly processed and a foreclosure sale occurred which GMAC had rescinded. 
When I finally was able to get someone that could help I explained where we left off with GMAC. They said they had no information about these conversations or the trial modification and that we would have to start over. So we did. We filled out another modification package and we started over. The response was that we were denied the trial modification took several months to obtain and it was never done in writing. 
Now we are on a month by month foreclosure. It seems this benefits Ocwen and the investors as they can and they do deny short sale offers due to the date is too close to the foreclosure sale date as required by Ocwen ( XXXX days ). This has been a nightmare for us living XXXX on the edge of knowing whether we are going to be forced to move or not. Now it seems they want to really push for a foreclosure. I researched Ocwen and they have a terrible track record with consumers in our situation. The current settlements with the CFPB and XXXX state Attorney Generals seems to make getting us through as a foreclosure as being their most low cost alternative. We feel that we were really never treated properly. Our only goal was to get a loan modification. GMAC and Ocwen did everything in their power to convince us that we did not qualify even though our income had increased during this process. And they did a good job of this as we thought our only option was a short sale. Which they made impossible by overpricing the property to the point that all offers looked like low ball offers when they were actually at or near market value. We would like to be reprocessed as if we were back in XX/XX/XXXX when all our payments were made on time.