Consumer complaint received 2016-12-07
Product: Mortgage — Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure — 
Company: FCI Lender Services Inc. (NJ)

I am facing foreclosure on my wife 's family home that they have owned for 50 years! I feel that I am a victim of unethical lending and servicing practices by the mortgage company FCI Lender Services in XXXX, CA. They claim that since they are a private company that they are not bound by any type of federal or regulatory guidelines that govern mortgages and have refused to fairly negotiate with me. They have added on thousands of dollars in junk fees and disputed escrow fees and are telling me that I owe them {$520000.00}, even though my original 1st loan amount was only {$300000.00}. I have been battling them the best I can but now they have set a foreclosure date later this month. I need help to level the playing field to get them to the table to work with me. I am XXXX but receive a decent monthly income and my wife is working. We could make a reasonable payment. We even offered them a {$30000.00} down payment to try and get them to work with us but this was rejected. 

The problem began at origination. I was convinced that my best bet was to consolidate debt and refinance into an adjustable rate loan. I was told that before the rate and payment went up, my value would go up so I could just refi again. That was in XXXX, and I was in a 7.45 % adjustable rate loan that I did not fully understand that immediately began going up. This coincided with a couple of things ( the market crash and the huge drop in property values as well as the recession ). I also got injured and this greatly affected my ability to earn a living. After a few years I was declared XXXX and forced to retire. 

I began struggling and missing mortgage payments and then would get caught back up. It was a difficult time. Finally in XXXX I went before a mediator and came to an agreement with the lender at the time, XXXX Mortgage to restructure the loan with a new affordable monthly payment that was to include escrow. I made this payment as agreed for one year, then was presented with a past due bill for escrow payments that had already been made. This once again led to a huge dispute, and XXXX refused to accept my payments unless I paid the full past due escrow amount ( which I had been led to believe I was already paying ). I tried to negotiate with them but could make no progress. They always had an excuse as to why they would not work with me. They could provide no answers as to how and why they violated our agreement at mediation. Eventually the loan was transferred to FCI Lender Services. They bought my loan for cents on the dollar and they specialize in foreclosing on hard money and subprime loans. So it seems their main intent is to get the property back into their name. They began piling on junk fees for all kinds of things ( inspections, questionable and extremely high late fees ) and also greatly inflated the delinquency due for past taxes and insurance. They claimed that I was so far in debt to them that they could not work with me. I told them that they were required to work with me because the government has programs in place to help struggling borrowers. They told me that they do not have to follow the government regulations because they did not take bailout money and because they are not regulated by the government. I tried to reason with them and offered a lump sum down payment of $ XXXX to try and get them to come to the table and figure out a compromise. They refused. 

I have a sale date set for XXXX. My wife and I do not want to lose our home and we make sufficient income to fit into guidelines for retention programs. However FCI Lender Services thinks they are above the law and answer to no one but their bottom line and profit margin. Any help would be appreciated.