C
cats
Guest
My husband and I obtained a $150K mortgage on our newly constructed house in spring 1998. We refinanced at a much better rate again for the full $150K in July 1999. The old mortgage was supposed to be assigned to the new company to allow us to avoid NYS mortgage tax. The deal took from April until the end of June because the new bank kept dropping the ball. In one of the three signature sessions it took to close, I noticed there were two mortgages, one for about $2600+ and one in the $147K range.
Neither our lawyer nor we ever got a closing package over the next couple months. Meantime we received the payment book on the 150K and began to pay. We received a quarterly statement on same. I then contacted the new bank in Oct. 1999 and asked them what happened to the closing package. They sent us one in Nov. 1999. It contained a HUD stmt for $150K mortgage refinance, and a mortgage and note for the $2600+ amount. The loan numbers on this $2600 mortgage and our payment book matched. Their computer records on the same loan number reflect the full 150K minus payments to date. I contacted them again by phone mid Dec. 1999 and pointed out we were apparently missing the rest of the paperwork. They said they'd open investigation. I never heard back. In late Jan. 2000, I wrote them a letter to formally let them know there was a big discrepancy between their computer records of our outstanding balance and the mortgage and note we'd received, and to please either produce the paperwork substantiating the larger figure or give us a payoff letter and refund. Haven't heard back yet.
Meantime I went to the county offices. The old mortgage is still on file as a lien. The new company filed the $2600+ mortgage only but no assignment papers. I contacted the old bank and asked them if they'd been paid because it wasn't clear. They said yes, but they'd not been sent assignment papers by the new bank...they said one would think they'd have asked for the signature before they sent the check. The old bank said they could not discharge the old mortgage yet though because the intent was to assign this. However at my request they said they'd send us a letter saying we didn't owe them anything.
We figure that the larger mortgage was either lost or misfiled. We already paid two lawyers for a closing. If the new bank asked us to close again at their cost, we'd be happy to do so, but we're not about to go out of our way on that when we already had to chase the closing so much to get it to happen in the first place. If they get nasty, we'd like to know what are our rights at this point? Do they have a legal basis to foreclose if we stop paying and they've lost the paperwork? Is there a verbal agreement here of a 150K loan, or have they given us a gift and do we now owe the IRS a big gift tax?
Neither our lawyer nor we ever got a closing package over the next couple months. Meantime we received the payment book on the 150K and began to pay. We received a quarterly statement on same. I then contacted the new bank in Oct. 1999 and asked them what happened to the closing package. They sent us one in Nov. 1999. It contained a HUD stmt for $150K mortgage refinance, and a mortgage and note for the $2600+ amount. The loan numbers on this $2600 mortgage and our payment book matched. Their computer records on the same loan number reflect the full 150K minus payments to date. I contacted them again by phone mid Dec. 1999 and pointed out we were apparently missing the rest of the paperwork. They said they'd open investigation. I never heard back. In late Jan. 2000, I wrote them a letter to formally let them know there was a big discrepancy between their computer records of our outstanding balance and the mortgage and note we'd received, and to please either produce the paperwork substantiating the larger figure or give us a payoff letter and refund. Haven't heard back yet.
Meantime I went to the county offices. The old mortgage is still on file as a lien. The new company filed the $2600+ mortgage only but no assignment papers. I contacted the old bank and asked them if they'd been paid because it wasn't clear. They said yes, but they'd not been sent assignment papers by the new bank...they said one would think they'd have asked for the signature before they sent the check. The old bank said they could not discharge the old mortgage yet though because the intent was to assign this. However at my request they said they'd send us a letter saying we didn't owe them anything.
We figure that the larger mortgage was either lost or misfiled. We already paid two lawyers for a closing. If the new bank asked us to close again at their cost, we'd be happy to do so, but we're not about to go out of our way on that when we already had to chase the closing so much to get it to happen in the first place. If they get nasty, we'd like to know what are our rights at this point? Do they have a legal basis to foreclose if we stop paying and they've lost the paperwork? Is there a verbal agreement here of a 150K loan, or have they given us a gift and do we now owe the IRS a big gift tax?