From: http://www.ncrc.org/pressandpubs/press_clippings/2004/ocwen2.php
Palm Beach PostApril 21, 2004By Jeff Ostrowski
Flooded with complaints by borrowers, consumer advocates and class-action attorneys, mortgage company Ocwen Financial Corp. has stopped its most-criticized business practices.
West Palm Beach-based Ocwen entered a nine-page "supervisory agreement" with the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, the company and regulators said Tuesday. The regulatory action follows hundreds of consumer complaints and several proposed class-action suits against Ocwen, a federal-chartered thrift.
Plaintiffs accuse the mortgage company of imposing unjustified fees, then ignoring consumers' gripes about those charges. The Palm Beach Post revealed in January many of the complaints and suits pending against Ocwen. At that time, Ocwen President Ronald Faris called the suits "misdirected and baseless."
Now, Ocwen said it:No longer will charge borrowers for letters notifying them they've defaulted on their mortgages. Ocwen had called the $95 charge a legitimate cost of doing business.
Will take "reasonable actions" before forcing homeowners to pay for pricey insurance policies.
Will include "only supportable and actual fees and charges" when it tells borrowers how much they owe.
Will "improve the manner and reduce the time" it takes to respond to consumer complaints.
Has set up an ombudsman's office to handle customer complaints.
"We are grateful for the insights gained from our ongoing dialogue with OTS and consumer interest organizations, and will continue to strive for ways to better serve our clients," Ocwen Chairman and Chief Executive William Erbey said in a statement.
As a mortgage servicer, Ocwen collects payments on behalf of lenders. Ocwen handles about 350,000 mortgages, most of them held by borrowers with spotty credit.
Shares of Ocwen (NYSE: OCN, $10.90) fell 3.4 percent Tuesday, but one analyst called the regulatory action good news. Rules for so-called subprime mortgage servicing companies have been unclear, said Jim Fowler of JMP Securities in San Francisco."It's good that they sit down with their regulator and come to a conclusion about things they can do and can't do," he said.
Consumer advocate David Berenbaum of the National Consumer Reinvestment Coalition said the regulatory action doesn't go far enough. Ocwen should offer to repay borrowers who have been charged fees unfairly or who have lost their houses, he said.
And because the regulatory agreement doesn't compensate past customers, Berenbaum expects lawsuits to continue.
"Is it going to buy Ocwen peace from its critics? By no means, because we still have hundreds of consumers who have been wronged by Ocwen," Berenbaum said.
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3 comments:
I really need help;
THIS IS THE KIND OF CRAP THAT OPRA WINFREY SHOULD TRY TO STOP..MY DAUGHTER (7 YEARS OLD) AND i WILLBE OUT IN THE STREET IF OCWEN GETS AWAY WITH THIS..SOMEONE OUT THERE IS READING THIS AND CAN HELP, PLEASE COME FORWARD.
I am starting to think that my X is involved in this too. The loan 32831927 is only under his name. Alexios Alexander, but the property is under both of our names Esther Rios-Alexander and Alexios Alexander. We owed about 237,000.00 , first mortgage and there is a lot of equity here. Then in September 2007 I filed for a divorce, he moved out in October and had the mail sent to his p.o. box, I never received notice of the “trustee sale” and when I did finally see it, my name was not on it . It reads the following: pursuant to Deed of Trust Recorded on 06/13/03, book 20030613, page 1549 of “Official records” in the office of the Recorder of Sacramento ALEXIOS ALEXANDER a married man and his sole and separate property as trustor……This is not his sole and separate property and LaSalle bank (Doug Brown, the bank doing the foreclosure) stated that he processed the foreclosure based on the trustee deed that Ocwen provided, well the idiot failed to look in the recorder that the same day in the same hour in the same city another trustee deed was filed in book 1550 with both our names on it…therefore by law (from my understanding) they are required to notify me of the sale. Ok so in Nov 07 a trustee sale was going to take place on the 29, 2007 however on the 20th of Nov. the amount past due (not all of the fees) $5,400 was paid so the auction was postponed. Again the X receiving the mail and my fault for not verifying that a payment was made in Jan. and on Feb 28, it was sold at an auction…all this equity…my X new the property was going to be sold on Feb 28. I think he and his buddies (tweeks) pitched in??? still none the less our daughter (7years old) will have no place to go, she and I still live in the home, he asked the judge to order a sale…to split the proceeds..judge said NO (thank God) but since neither of us can afford to live it right now,now now (but I will) I decided to sell it before we lose it. I would love to stay in my…anyhow buttom line is that it was not posted two weeks prior to the sale (illegal anyway), a note was not posted on the property, and my name is on the trustee deeds and this is not Alexios Sole property….I am so so P.Oed, at my X more than anyone…and at Ocwen for telling LaSalle bank the wrong information on purpose. Please..help me with this dilemma, I just want this to go public to aware everyone out there about these scan less people and maybe some attorney out there and federal and government agency will help me fight these heathen, life sucking, racketeering scum.
WARNING..my mortgage is with Ocwen, I begged to have them set up escrow in the beginning and they never did, this was 4 years ago. Since then I've had hip replacement a couple months ago and I'm a couple weeks behind paying mortgage but not 30 days late. So far I've rec'd 2 letters from Ocwen telling me they are going to pay my property taxes (after not contacting me to set up escrow NOW they are wanting to pay taxes).. then they will refi my mortgage and add the property tax fees to my mortgage with whatever interest? they decide. When I contacted my local property tax people she told me that they are starting this just lately. Apparently they find people that are a little behind on Property tax, (if they can't get you with late mortgage) and Ocwen will send the tax money in to pay it,then FORCE YOU to refi the loan with a mystery interest rate, making your payment HIGHER and then they come in for the kill and FORECLOSE if you can't pay the new monthly mortgage payment...!!! I want EVERYONE to know this is happening. I'm not even 30 days late on my mortgage payment so they can't get me that way, so they are trying to go after my home by paying my prop taxes and then billing me. This is Soooo wrong no wonder people are foreclosing like crazy, we're all being swindled. I had hip replacement and I'm trying to do my very best to pay within 30 days I haven't been late, but its not enough apparently, now they are coming at me from another angle. PLS BEWARE!!!! Thank God I was able to leave a note on the computer at the county tax office that REFUSES Ocwens money!!!! I will pay my taxes in payments by MYSELF and the tax office is fine with that. BEWARE OF OCWEN SCAMS and THREATS!!!
OCWEN STOOL MY MONEY AND MY HOME
I had a HOME, In the late 80's about 1989 I was going throw some old mail as many people do weeding out what you don't need and I found a statement that just did not seem right it was my mortgage statement so I called the mortgage company that I had at that time. Simple enough that's when life throws you a curve. So I continued to try to fix the problem with my account calling all the time copying papers and mailing them in to the company you would think if you have canceled checks that would be enough but it's not. Each time I would get to a point where I thought my account would be fix, and my loan was sold and I would have to start over with a new loan company. Again with first calling than mailing or faxing. And the calling was bad enough because you could be on the phone for hours. One time I was so determinate I stayed on the phone on hold for three hours and then transferred and still got know where. As the years moved on and life went forward it continued to take up more and more of my time and my life. I did everything I could to fix what was wrong with my mortgage but the more I dug the more I found wrong and the mortgage company and /or serving company was not going to fix it. Know one cared how many canceled checks I had and/or any other papers I had they where not going to fix my account. Of course as the years go by your account gets worse and worse. And the letters from the mortgage company that they will be taking your home become more and more and you become scared that you will lose your HOME. So you continue to fight even harder and you start looking for help.
Well let me tell you there is NO! Help. If you can't get it done on your own it will not happen. The people in government will not help you they will just pass you along until there is know where else to go for help. You can for get a lawyer because YOU do NOT have a right to one the criminals do, but you don't. If you do not have money, a lot of money you will not get help that's how things worked for me. I filed complaints everywhere you could think of and NO! Help. The facts of my case are as long and as twisted as a fictional story you read about in a book but its a true story. And there are many things that could have been done to fix it but it just was not done. My story is one of fraud, thief, crimes against the state laws and the county laws where I once lived, crimes against the laws of the land, as well as the Constitution of the United States, the bill of rights, personal property laws, tax fraud, falsifying records, defrauding the courts, legal abuse of the worse kind and I could go on but lets get to the rest of the story and the facts of my story.
After many years and many mortgage company's and/or servicing company's I ended up with Owen Bank I had know control over who serviced my loan. If given a choose I never would have chose Owen Bank. You call they hang up on, they will put you on hold if you do get someone to talk to they transfer you around until you are disconnected. And you than start over getting know where this will go on for days weeks and months. The more you try the worse it gets I copied all documents and sent them in and months later I got one sheet of paper back so than I had questions so you start calling again and it takes weeks to get a phone call back if you get one at all. Just to found out you need to send more papers to them. At the same time you are getting foreclosed on and you get scared and start doing everything they ask.
In my case I kept trying to work out the problem and I gave Owen Bank large amounts of money until I had no more money one payment was for 21,409.00 to caught up my illegal default that I know I did not owe but I was scared and I wanted to keep my home. That did not help Owen took my money and still took my home. At the time I had a refinance done and the trustee's office refused to take the money to pay off my home. When a mortgage company or servicer hires lawyer called a TRUSTEE it's like a pit bull with a bone that lawyer makes a lot of money and they will do what it takes to help steal your home that's my opinion.
In my case the trustee wrong doing very illegal, refusing to take money to refinance my to pay off my debt, no certified return receipt notice not once but twice, holding surplus proceeds for the last 15 months, no notice of sale after auction and possible collusion conspiracy with the bidders I guess some people are above the law. After my home was auctioned the first notice I got was a Writ of Possession I was Not notified by the bidders,the trustee, the court, the servicer or the mortgage company that my home was auctioned. The Writ gave me 30 days to move out of my home or go to court.
So I went to court when the court decided against me in this matter I appealed to the Court Special of Appeals the matter was stayed, while still on appeal I was evicted from my home along with my family that lived with me at the time, if that was not enough the bidders, David and Sharon Wuest that bought my home at the illegal auction took 3/4ths of everything that was in my home while the sheriff watched. On June 10,2008 midday the Sheriff came and severed an eviction notice for June 17,2008 at 10:00 am. He was early and did not look to see if the job could be completed in one to two hours as noted on the Sheriff's Anne Arundel County web page as the sheriff's functions on evictions. David and Sharon Wuest did not hire to enough movers to do the job and complete it, in the time frame it should have been done in as out lined on the sheriff's web site and know care was taken to remove personal property china was thrown in bags and broken on purpose things where kicked down the front steps, by some of the movers or just never came out of the house, dumpsters where brought in and what the bidders or the movers did not want was put in the trash, one dumpster was placed in the driveway on private property where I was not aloud to go.
Six days was not enough time for me to move my property by myself as my son was gone the weekends, I am a disabled widow my mother was 80 years old at time and I have a minor child in the home. With a 26 foot truck in front of the house that was being loaded when the sheriff came I would think I would have the right to get my personally property. I asked David Wuest for 24 hours and was told NO!!! There was no good reason why I should not have been allowed to remove my personal property as the legally law allows. We were told the moving truck had to be move so they could bring in another dumpster as well as my pickup truck also had to move giving use no choose but to leave while my property was trashed or stolen. The sheriff did not seem to care who did what and let them violate all my rights which the sheriff should have been there to up hold the law just as a officer of the court and/or county.
I am a victim of fraud, thief and the system did not work in my case I had no protection at all, I was violated on a personal and a mental level. If the sheriff can not do his job in the manner of the law he should be removed from his post. The Sheriff wrong doing was he just watch as they broke,stole,trashed just about everything I had. The bidders David and Sharon Wuest should go to jail for there crimes of thief over hundred dollars, malicious destruction of private property,violation of landlord tenant laws, possible collusion and conspiracy with the trustee.
That was the day myself and my family became homeless with no money and three quarters of everything we own gone we will never forget that day as long as we live. To this day still some what homeless living in a campground we have moved up in the world from living out of my truck and sleeping in tents to a camper. And the home that was stolen from me is still empty just sitting there. The trustee still has the surplus money from the illegal auction and myself and my family are still some what homeless living some where in the U.S.A. To this day I still have all documentation, canceled checks and ALL files that I had to prove my case I kept everything.
Janet Purdy
oowocwoo@aol.com
443-739-2848
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