mortgage broker fraud

[carlminnick]

i am in the process of refinancing with a mortgage brokerage firm, one week ago i spoke with the man handeling my account he made it clear tome there was no out of pocket money needed this was the understanding through all of the conversations up to this point. on friday 11/17/00 i spok again with the man handeling my account again he he asked me for two checks one written void across it just so he could get my tracking number for my checking account,[we are going automatic payment , biweekly.]and another check for 795.00 dollars to cover expensies for the biweekly paper work. i asked him again about no out of pocktt expense and he reidderated the fact there were going to bo no out of pockett money, that i just needed to write this check and he would hold it until the day of closing. so the check was written, turns out he deposited the check the following monday, to our surprise on tuesday my checking account was empty 0 no money now i have checks bounceing all over the place due to this act, we are left scrambling for money to get us through the week. we have contacted the brokerage firm seveeral times withno answers, now we have to wait for monday and hope we get some answers. my question is what legal recourse do we have if any ?


carl minnick , from pa
p.s the brokerage firm is from ohio.

 

[HomeGuru]

Wait for David Miller to respond.

 

[David J. Miller]

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner. Had electrical problems at the homestead. Been working on fixing that for the last couple of days. Mission accomplished.

Anyway, to your question. The reason for the $795 is what I question. Normally, bi-weekly's are set-up after the loan closes or at least it could be. Perhaps you have some feature that requires bi-weekly payment plan.

In any event, if you have not closed yet, I would contact the loan officer and explain the circumstances. Explain that you offered the check with the understanding it would not be cashed. Since it was cashed, you would like reimbursement for the NSF charges. Advise him if you are not satisifed you will not be closing your loan.

I think "fraud" in this case might be a little stretch. Probably what happened is that he stapled the check to the file and in his hast forgot to affix a note saying do not deposit or he did write the note and the processor (person that processes all of the paperwork) ignored it and sent the check through anyway. It has happened to me.

Your leverage in this situation is the fact that you have not closed your loan. I would also go over in detail all of the numbers.

Have him prepare a Good Faith Estimate itemizing all of the costs of closing including the payoff amount of the loan being paid off and any hazard insurance, real estate taxes (if you are going to be escrowing for these items.)

Since you are paying the $795 now, your bottom-line figure should show you getting $795 back at closing, if the costs are financed into the loan amount and not the interest rate.

Let us know how this works out for you or post back with any other questions.

 

[HomeGuru]

David, lectrical problems at the homestead? All this time I thought you were celebrating the Vikings win over the Cowboys.

 

[David J. Miller]

I fit a little of that in there too. That's probably why it took so long to fix the electrical. Like water, beer does not mix well with electricity.

 

[HomeGuru]

That's why I tell my friends don't drink while hanging Christmas lights.