Consumer complaint received 2018-06-15
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC (NY)

We are trying to get our mortgage company Specialized Loan Servicing to work with us so that we can save our home. We had a hardship due to health issues a few years ago and have been trying to get them to work with us. This has been very difficult. They will not let me contact a XXXX speaker, they will not open a review of our financial information and they will not assign a point of contact to work with us. This whole process is hard and complicated and we want to fix this. Between my retirement, XXXX XXXX and rental income and the contribution from my son we have the means to afford a reasonable payment. However, SLS is trying to auction off our home instead of working with us. 

My family ( XXXX family ) has occupied this property for nearly 30 years. I live in one of the  units, my son lives in the other and the third unit we rent out to a tenant. In XXXX we were convinced to refinance and were steered into a negative amortization loan and were told it was in our best interests for the loan to only be in my son XXXX 's name. We were naive and were primarily XXXX speakers and feel that we were duped and steered into a predatory loan that was bad for us. The interest rate was high and we did not understand how the negative amortization and minimum payment worked and the fact that it would increase our balance if we paid the lowest payment. We survived the increasing rate and payment through the recession until I had major health issues in XX/XX/XXXX. I had been XXXX XXXX working as a XXXX for a XXXX XXXX XXXX for over 30 years and also XXXX and XXXX a XXXX XXXX XXXX for 20 years. In XX/XX/XXXX I began to have major health issues and soon was unable to work. This ongoing crisis resulted in major financial losses and we ended up defaulting on our mortgage payments. 

We began trying to get help and applied for a loan modification. We were eventually offered a workout program, but it required a substantial down payment. We were not in a financial position to pay the down payment at that time and ended up being unable to accept the modification. We began trying to negotiate and see if there were other possible options but could not make any progress. We felt like we were talking to a brick wall so we hired an Attorney to push back and see if we could get a negotiation going. My son works as a XXXX XXXX  and his business is growing and steady. Between my retirement, XXXX XXXX and rental income and my son 's contribution we have the means to afford a reasonable payment. However, our Attorney was unable to get SLS to initiate any type of review and instead of working with us towards a solution we were put into foreclosure. 

We have continued to request help to open a review for homeowner assistance programs with SLS but have been obstructed and denied access. We have requested assistance from a XXXX speaker but are ignored. I feel taken advantage of. We were put into a tricky loan and then when we needed help we did not receive anything reasonable. There has been little to no communication even though there were many government programs available to help people. We are now facing a foreclosure sale date when we have sufficient income to resume making fair and reasonable payments.