Jane Powell, the author, not the actress!

I have been collecting letters to send to the Public Relations office at GMAC- I don't know if they give a damn about bad PR at this point but one should leave no stone unturned (or no stern un-toned- that is a joke for the benefit of some of my old friends...). People signed letters at the benefit and also at the Arts and Crafts Conference, but I thought that those who were not at either of those places might also like to have the opportunity. Now, clearly one could compose a letter of their own, but who has time for that? That's why online petitions were invented. I would certainly encourage anyone so inclined to write their own letter, but for everybody else, I am providing a lovely pre-fab form letter, because the banks SO like to send form letters, I thought we could return the favor. So copy and paste at will, add your own comments as desired, and mail off to the lovely Susan Fitzpatrick (which reminds me of another really bad joke...) ASAP.



February 17, 2012

Re: loan # 0601691236;  2708 Sunset Avenue, Oakland, CA94601

 

Susan Fitzpatrick
Ally/Global Communications
1100 Virginia Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034

Dear  Ms. Fitzpatrick,

Modify Jane Powell’s mortgage now!

Jane deserves a permanent modification of her mortgage currently serviced by GMAC. Her historic home in Oakland requires a good steward to return the home to its former glory. A responsible hard working individual who is burdened with a serious disease, Jane should not lose her home to the high cost of her combined medical and mortgage costs.

As a nationally known author on the subject of restoring homes like the one she currently owns, modifying Jane’s mortgage would send a clear public message that GMAC is not just another heartless mortgage company. I, along with many others, am aware that she has spent years trying to work out a reasonable modification with GMAC, and to this point no agreement has been reached.

Step up today and permanently modify her mortgage to terms that will benefit both sides.

Sincerely,

 

Every time GMAC tells me they have all the paperwork they need, I don't believe them, but I can never get them to cop to it. Instead, two or three days later I get a letter asking for something else. The latest they wanted was IRS Form 4506T- this allows them to order  copies of my tax returns. I did, of course, send them a tax return in the original packet, but clearly I must have cooked the numbers on that one, conspiring with my tax preparer to do so. (Well, she is my sister.) Anyway, I called them today to make sure they received the 4506T, and to ask if they needed anything else. "The application is complete," said the GMAC rep (still not the mysterious and elusive Nicole Nesby). "That's what you told me on January 4th, yet two days later I got a letter asking for the 4506T, as well as for the three separate months of Profit and Loss statements, which I had already sent," I replied. More checking. She comes back to the phone, says, "You're scheduled to start a temporary modification on February 2nd." "What?!!" I said, "No one has said anything to me about a temporary modification."  So it turns out that once again they sent a letter instead of calling, and it was mailed last Friday, thus it is not here, due to the MLK holiday.

Don't get excited- this is all part of the game. The idea behind HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Program) is that if you faithfully paid the temporary payment for three months, you would then get a permanent modification. Except it's not really permanent, it only lasts five years, and I'm not at all sure that anyone really knows what happens at the end of that time. That was the theory- here is the reality. You pay the reduced payment for three months, or six months, or a year, or however long the servicer wants to dick you around, and then, at the end of that time, they announce that you don't qualify for the permanent mod, and by the way, here's a bill for all of your previous arrears, plus the difference between the modified payment and the original payment, and that totals, oh, twenty thousand dollars or so, and it's all now due and payable in a lump sum. Oh, you can't pay it? Well, then we'll just have to start foreclosure proceedings, which is what we wanted to do all along, because seriously, the thousand dollars we get from Treasury for doing a modification doesn't even cover the coffee we have to give our employees to put up with all you deadbeat homeowners whining. The fees from foreclosure are at least twenty times that, maybe more. Everybody gets screwed in a foreclosure except us- the homeowner, the neighborhood, the city, the county (well, we were already screwing them out of billions with the Mortgage Electronic Registration System- we just have to go on pretending it's a big proprietary database that is very complex, in order to cover up the reality that it's just a giant Excel spreadsheet that no one is checking for accuracy).

Needless to say, the benefit is still on. Response has been awesome so far. I am trying to get a page up listing the auction items, but it may be a few days, since tomorrow I'm having a tooth extracted, and I'm thinking I won't be good for much after that. There are some who think I'm not good for much anyway, but those people are not my friends. My friends, in fact, are totally awesome.

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