Consumer complaint received 2017-11-14
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (CA)

Following upon my recent and still open complaint ( # XXXX ) against OCWEN, I am filling a second complaint to now document the predatory business practices and intimidation techniques that OCWEN is pursuing to attempt to foreclose on my home despite the fact that they have no legal right to do so. 

Let me start by saying that I have been successful in being granted and agreeing to the trial period for mortgage modifications 2 times over the last several years, have been made predatory lending offers which I could not accept 2 more times, as well as having applied and been denied 3 or 4 additional times. And throughout all this effort spanning 3-4 years, OCWEN consistently sends what can only be intentionally intimidating communications to both threaten and enact initial foreclosure proceedingswhich are in total contradiction to the communication you simultaneously receive from OCWEN through its Customer Relationship Managers, Escalated Case Management Specialists, or Consumer Account Analysts in the Office of the Consumer Ombudsman. 

The resulting affect is a profound level of uncertainty and confusion amongst its most vulnerable costumers, an environment in which OCWEN is better able to aggressively pursue its predatory foreclosures. I have repeatedly addressed this with people at all levels at OCWEN over the years, wondering how hard it would be, once a client has entered the Mortgage Modification pathway with them, to stop their very intimidating and misleading foreclosure communications, including robocalls that at times occur 4-5 daily. But the reality I think is that they are nothing more than a huge automated foreclosure mill where actual employees often take a backseat to the automated actions the company takes. 

So its within this context that yet another version of this is all playing out again. Despite 1 ) failing to answer the questions that I posed ahead of the deadline and which I need answered to move forward, 2 ) thus far ignoring my request for an extension, and 3 ) in the past, over many years, being very vocal that these deadlines were flexible as needed and that one had only to ask for additional timeOCWEN had nonetheless cranked up their automated foreclosure machine yet again. 
I have now received in the past week 1 ) a formal letter ( " Decision on Your Request for Mortgage Assistance '' ) falsely claiming to document that I failed to respond to their offer before the deadline, 2 ) a huge packet to re-apply for their Mortgage Assistance Program as though I have not already done this and a resolution pending, 3 ) an " Initial Due Diligence Letter '' or " Notice of Default '' claiming my account is past due, threatening foreclosure, and attempting to trick me into paying them to bring the account currentwhich amounts to extortion, and finally 4 ) a " Pre-Foreclosure Referral Letter ''. 

This final communication however suffers from several misleading claims which I believe are intended to obfuscate and confuse : A ) that " the last full mortgage payment on [ my ] account was XX/XX/XXXX '' ( NOT TRUE as I paid them again on XX/XX/XXXX the {$2500.00} amount that I was instructed to by them which was the same amount I had paid each month of the trial period ), B ) that " the account is paid through XX/XX/XXXX '' ( NOT TRUE as I have in fact paid them 4 additional mortgage payments since then for approximately $ XXXX/month, and totaling approximately $ XXXXfurthermore, this claim would seem to directly contradict their first claim that I made a XX/XX/XXXX payment as well at least ), C ) that the accounting numbers they provide are in fact an accurate financial reflection of my current account status ( NOT TRUE as nowhere in these numbers do they give me credit for the approximately {$10000.00} I have additionally paid them during this same timeas though it never happenedallowing them to now somehow claim that I owe them {$7100.00} to bring my account current, despite my making every payment on time, when in fact the only amount they might be able to legitimately claim I have not paid is the approximately {$300.00} each month that OCWEN chose to lower my monthly payment during this period for the trial modification, amounting to something like {$1200.00} over these 4 months ). 
But the insanity of this only becomes fully visible when we recall that 1 ) I only needed this second mortgage modification and went through all of the tr
ouble to get it completed because of OCWEN 's acknowledged error in neglecting payment of my property taxes through the escrow account they maintain on my behalf, putting the property at imminent risk of immediate seizure by the government, 2 ) that I had not requested a lower monthly payment and had indeed stated the opposite that I did NOT need them lowered, receiving one from them irregardless of these facts, and in so doing making it even possible that there would be any discrepancy in the amount of my payments during this period.
To then follow this updespite all of my good faith efforts to help them to correct their mistake and ignoring for the moment their history of predatory treatment of me as a customerby failing to respond to my timely and necessary questions and instead stonewalling me with zero response for 2 straight weeks now and simultaneously pursuing foreclosure, starts to look a lot like entrapment.