Mortgage company scamming me!

[yak411]

I just called my mortgage company (GMAC mortgage) to make a payment and was told that I also have charges of $275.00 due because I filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy. I asked for more information and was told that it is labeled as a proof of claim fee. Basically, since they had to file a proof of claim, I am being charged the $275.00. Unbelievable. I am so upset. I have NEVER been late on my mortgage. No late payments were included in the bankruptcy! filed bankruptcy because I was up to my ears in debt. I feel like I am being scammed. Are they allowed to do this?

[imbroke2]

I believe we had to pay an upfront fee of about that amount also. But everything went through my lawyer and he took care of it for us. But we also had late payments included in the 13. If you have a lawyer, I would recommend speaking with him/her about it.

[krielly]

I'll be VERY interested to know how this turns out for you! Please keep us posted.
We are in the same situation. Were always on time with payments, didn't include any arrears in our 13.
They are not asking for the money now, but I have seen a charge for roughly the same amount in the past on some document somewhere.......can't recall now where.........

[HHM]

What I would do to "push" the issue...amend your petition and specifically include that charge on your list of debts and classify it as a general unsecured claim.

[yak411]

Do you think that listing it as a unsecured claim will work? It makes since to do this being this "new debt" is not secured by the home since it was not part of the initial agreement. I will contact my attorney and ask about doing this. Thanks.

[yak411]

Well I spoke with my attorney and was told that the mortgage company can do this!!! I am outraged. He said that I cannot modify my plan because the debt was incurred after I filed! When I asked what the fee could possibly be for he said that some secured creditors will charge this fee because they have to transfer the account to a department that handles bankruptcies. A ripoff!! My attorney agrees but says there is nothing that can be done! Any suggestions??

[HHM]

Per chance, did the mortgage company attach a copy of the contract to the proof of claim that gives them the contractual right to charge this fee.

If not, you could file an objection to the proof fo claim.

Your lawyers explanation sounds a little tenuous...either he has been through this before with other mortgage companies, or he is simply being lazy and doesn't want to go through the hassle of making amendments and fighting the charge.

[bmcmull]

Well I spoke with my attorney and was told that the mortgage company can do this!!! I am outraged. He said that I cannot modify my plan because the debt was incurred after I filed! When I asked what the fee could possibly be for he said that some secured creditors will charge this fee because they have to transfer the account to a department that handles bankruptcies. A ripoff!! My attorney agrees but says there is nothing that can be done! Any suggestions??

You will need to be prepared for this from other entities as well. Do you have a home owners association? I actually put a home owners due balance of $289.00 in my 13. Wheni was charged the same fee as you for $250.00 my atty told me they could not do it. I let it sit on ther bill for 2 years, I paid the association dues as they came but left that balance. Aftre the late fees and interest pushed it over the $500.00 mark they slapped on $1500.00 in atty fees. I then went to there lawyers office and found out I got bad advice from my Atty. As in Texas my atty is no lon ger responsible to me after the filling. That little indescretion cost me $1800.00 for a $289.00 bill. By the way I still ended up paying the $289.00 in the plan.

When someone has a little bill like this they should research what it will cost them to put it in the plan. (If it is secured debt anyway)

[shortee]

This also happened to me with our mortgage company. We never made a late payment with them. So I called and asked what the hell was the $275.00 late /additional charge on our mortgage statement was. She mentioned it was a charge for the proof of claim.

[yak411]

Makes me feel a bit helpless. My attorney did say that only secured creditors can charge this fee. Lucky for me that I have 3 secured accts and only 1 has charged this fee that I know of. I still plan to take HHM's advice and research the proof of claim.

[lrprn]

Our mortgage company tried to say that we were in arrears when we filed when we weren't so they had their local lawyer file an objection to our plan. Their lawyer also added his $275 fee to file the objection to our claims list as well.

Luckily our lawyer was willing to aggresively take on our big name mortgage company and their lawyer. He waited five months after we filed trying to talk sense into them since we could prove with their own paperwork that we weren't in arrears when we filed. They blew him off, so our lawyer filed a motion with the court that told them to prove to the court by a certain datethat their claim was valid. On the court date their lawyer was a no-show so our judge threw out both the objection AND their lawyer's fee to file the objection. SWEET!!

The lenders are counting on you not fighting back, and they get away with it most of the time. But you can fight back against this kind of cr*p. Our lawyer did it and we won.