Consumer complaint received 2017-07-07
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Cashing a check
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (NJ)

A building I own had a major fire on XXXX XXXX XXXX. The city required, I have, of whats left of the building tore down and on XXXX XXXX XXXX I was left with just land ( no more building ). My home insurance company issued me a check for XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX required me to put the XXXX I received from the insurance in a escrow account because XXXX held my mortgage and wanted to insure this money will be put to rebuild the building. I hired a contractor ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) to start the project and rebuild the building. The contractor reassured me, he was going to take all responsibility of getting my building back up and rebuilt ( including and not limited to hiring a architect, city permits, and everything involved in getting the building built ). The contractor ( XXXX ) told me he believed that the insurance did n't give me enough money that he could get me more money because it not enough money that I would need close to $ XXXX to because of the new laws and restrictions, and reassured me that if he ca n't get me more money that he will build the building the for the XXXX I received from the insurance company. Contractor ( XXXX XXXX ) told me for that reason, he needed to contact my bank, explaining to me that its the banks responsibility to get the most I could get from the insurance company because they hold my mortgage and they have a lot of lawyers to go after the insurance company. The contractor also told me he used to be a insurance adjuster and that he was SURE he will get me more money if only he could speak to my bank ( of course that was all a lie ). I then trusted him thinking this man knows what he 's doing. So a few times I would get to SPEAK WITH XXXX. I did n't know they had all that money for 5 month or any money at all! So my next question was " was n't my name on those checks? '' BOA answered " yes, both my name and XXXX XXXX XXXX was on the checks ''. That means the a 3 way call with ( XXXX XXXX ) the contractor and BOA. BOA would ask me if I would give permission to them to speak to XXXX, of course I said yes. Before XXXX started speaking to BOA he told me I could hang up now, so I did. This happened a few times. In my mind I 'm thinking he 's speaking to them about the insurance company ( like he told me he would ) and about getting more money ( from the insurance co. ) because XXXX was not enough. XXXX 's communication with me was great. Every time I called or text him he would give me ( what I thought ) the updates on whats going on with the city approving the project to get the building built. Five months go by and he continues to tell me stories on why the city is taking so long to approve the project. At this time I 'm thinking the contractors want to get this approved just as bad as I do so they could get started and get their money. I decided to call the city anyways myself and plead with them to speed up the project. In my surprise, when I called the city, they told me THEY HAD NEVER HEARD FROM THIS COMPANY ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) AT ALL! WHAT?! So I called up XXX to ask if the contractor was even getting anything done on their side. XXX tells me THEY ISSUED THE XXXX XXXX XXXX 2 CHECKS EQUAL TO XXXX SENT DIRECTLY TO THEIR ADDRESS 5 MONTHS AGO! XXX never sent me even a single letter telling me they sent these checks. I NEVER gave XXXX permission to give these contractors any checks, I ONLY gave permission to speak with the contractor. XXXX XXXX XXXX FORGED MY SIGNATURE and cashed it at Chase bank 5 months before I found out!!! I put a police report right away in XXXX police department with detective XXXX XXXX. I find out later that this same contractor was convicted of stealing $ XXXX ( {$65000.00} ) from another homeowner just a few months prior to doing this to me! The owner of Universal Consultant ( XXXX XXXX ) has many prior convictions including another case for {$300000.00} from another customer. I contacted XXXX List where I found this contractor and XXXX XXXX told me this contractor was kick out of XXXX XXXX because they got a lot of complaints. A lot of complaints of taking the home owners money and not doing work for them. Im not the only victim that XXXX XXXX stole from. They were many before me and many after me!