Order of Protection w/o violence???

[m3by2003]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

After dating my ex-girlfirend for 7 years, buying a house together, we broke up 2.5 years ago. Recently she found out that I am engaged and has apparently set out to make my life as miserable as possible. After she moved out of the house, I began making the payments on the house (which I still live in) and paying for every aspect of the property. Due to financial hardship, I had fallen behind on the payments and been working with our mortgage company to receive different hardship solutions. The mortgage company sent me a hardship offer that had a place for both the primary borrower (myself) and the co-borrower (her). I sent her an email asking if it was ok for me to sign for her where is stated co-borrower on the form from our mortgage company. I didn't go into detail as to what the form was for, nor did she ask at the time. She just stated, "that's fine." Last month she found out that the mortgage was behind on payments and left me a message threatening to call her attorney and a real estate agent. While I recognize that she could file for a partition for action and force the sale of the property, I haven't ever disagreed to place it for sale if she requested it.

I waited about a month and hadn't received anything until a day or two ago. I received am email stating, "wow...nice forged signature. The "forberance" is going to be voided. Hope you have boxes ready to pack." She had called our mortgage company and told them that I forged her signature on the document, despite the fact that I still have the email proving otherwise, and she asked them to foreclose on the house immediately. She also filed a police report, which I will address tomorrow, stating that I had committed forgery on this document. Which by the way, kept her house from being foreclosed on and had no negative impact on her at all. She is just upset that the deliquency has affected her credit too and that I didn't tell her sooner. You can probably gather why calling her would have been a futile conversation anyway! In addition to the above, she called my parents to inform them that I was behind on the mortgage and had forged her signature, as well as sent text messages to all of our mutual friends letting them know that I was behind on my mortgage payments.

MY QUESTION:
Has she committed defamation of some sort?
Would a judge issue a Restraining Order if no physical harm was ever threatened?
If no, is there any other course of action other than the R.O. that could protect me from her contacting me, my family, or any other party that she has no business contacting for any reason other than to cause issues? i.e. my school.

On a side note, the mortgage company told me that I never even needed her signature anyway on the form. I could have just written a letter stating that she is no longer living at the property and has no financial responsibility for the property, and is unwilling to sign.

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

defamation would be stating LIES. The truth is that you ARE behind in the mortgage, right?

[m3by2003]

Yes, I am behind on the mortgage. That really wasn't the part that felt defamatory. It was she is telling people, the police included, that I forged her signature on a mortgage document, and I can clearly prove that she gave me written permission to sign for her.

Don't get me wrong, I am not the type of person that is going to run out and file a defamation suit anyway. I just want to know the law regarding this and if a restraining order won't keep her away, then maybe a defamation suit will be necessary. I truthfully just want her to move on and stop obsessing what is going on in my life.

[Ohiogal]

Originally Posted by m3by2003

Yes, I am behind on the mortgage. That really wasn't the part that felt defamatory. It was she is telling people, the police included, that I forged her signature on a mortgage document, and I can clearly prove that she gave me written permission to sign for her.

Don't get me wrong, I am not the type of person that is going to run out and file a defamation suit anyway. I just want to know the law regarding this and if a restraining order won't keep her away, then maybe a defamation suit will be necessary. I truthfully just want her to move on and stop obsessing what is going on in my life.

You did forge her signature. SHE needed to sign the paper. NOT YOU. You can prove that she gave you permission to sign that particular forebearance form even though you hadn't told her what you need the signature for? Seriously? You have issues. You NEVER should have signed the mortgage paperwork with HER name. You had NO LEGAL RIGHT to do so.

[m3by2003]

So even though I specifically asked her for her permission to sign on her behalf on a document that was being sent into our mutual mortgage company.....and she agreed that it was fine with her.....I can get in trouble?

According to the mortgage company, I didn't even need her signature as it was. It figures that I go out of my way to get permission, and she is able to turn this around on me all because she is bitter and looking to cause me problems. That is nuts! I probably would have sent it to her to sign if I hadn't spent the last two months fighting her to return a $155 that she refused to return to me. I finally had to threaten small claims court and two days later the money showed up. Having her to agree to let me sign on her behalf was nothing short of a miracle at the time!

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by m3by2003

So even though I specifically asked her for her permission to sign on her behalf on a document that was being sent into our mutual mortgage company.....and she agreed that it was fine with her.....I can get in trouble?

According to the mortgage company, I didn't even need her signature as it was. It figures that I go out of my way to get permission, and she is able to turn this around on me all because she is bitter and looking to cause me problems. That is nuts! I probably would have sent it to her to sign if I hadn't spent the last two months fighting her to return a $155 that she refused to return to me. I finally had to threaten small claims court and two days later the money showed up. Having her to agree to let me sign on her behalf was nothing short of a miracle at the time!

In order for you to have been legally able to sign for her, she would have had to give you a notarized Power of Attorney.

An email doesn't cut it, legally...particularly when the email didn't specifically address what needed to be signed.

[not2cleverRed]

Um, yeah, she's bitter - her credit rating is being affected by an EXboyfriend aka Peter Pan.

Yeah, she should have gotten her name off the mortgage when you two split, but since she didn't, at the very least you should have notified her about your inability to make payments, etc. I'm willing to bet that she'd want you to sell long before foreclosure was even mentioned.