'Octomom' Nadya Suleman Staves Off Foreclosure, For Now

Nadya 'Octomom' Suleman has been offered two avenues of income to help her avoid foreclosure on her home: PETA and porn.

The 34-year-old mother of octuplets, who owes $450,000 on her home in Southern California, has accepted a $5,000 offer from PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- to post a sign in her front yard proclaiming, "Don't Let Your Dog or Cat Become an Octomom. Always Spay or Neuter," according to the Associated Press. The payment will buy Suleman time not only to stay in the home, but also to file a lawsuit against the former owners for allegedly failing to disclose major problems with the house.

At the same time, Steven Hirsch, head of one of the world's largest purveyors of adult films, has offered to pay off the entire mortgage if Suleman agrees to star in a porn film. Although Suleman has not publicly responded to the offer, her lawyer Jeff Czech indicated she rejected it out of hand, according to the AP. "No porn. Just PETA. Nadya prefers animals over men," Czech said.

Fed Up Homeowners Taking It To Court

For homeowners struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments, their best hope may be negotiating a lower, more affordable monthly payment while they try to get their financial houses back in order. That's the aim of the government's Home Affordable Modification Program, which encourages lenders to modify loan payments. It sounds simple: To modify your mortgage, you fill out the paperwork and move forward, right? Don't count on it, say some homeowners who have been there, tried that. Lenders, if they do anything to help you at all, might accept you into the temporary mortgage reduction program, but what happens when you've made those reduced payments and your lender renegs on the deal and on the home anyway?

HAMP officials have been tightening the rules for lenders to make it harder for them to string borrowers along. But in the meantime, many homeowners are fighting back, the American way: by suing and screaming. More people are taking their lender to court or contacting their congressman, or sometimes both. We looked at some homeowners who have chosen one of these routes -- and won.

Some lenders and loan servicers believe they can make more money by foreclosing on a home than by modifying a mortgage, so they give excuses for not doling out permanent modifications while trying to appear as if they're trying to help. For others, they just give homeowners the "runaround."That's exactly what retired "Real Housewives of Orange County" cast member Jeana Keough was probably feeling before she launched a campaign against her lender.Keough says her 7-bedroom, 9-bath Coto de Caza home (left) finally has been saved from foreclosure through a loan modification. But it wasn't easy, as the banks didn't comply until she made a lot of noise, reported the Orange County Register. She says of her efforts, "I am more than a bimbo on a Reality TV show." (Plus, she knows how to leverage her status).

After acknowledging her financial woes last summer, Keough originally listed the home for $5.5 million, about a half-million dollars above its then-value in an apparent attempt to help buy her time as she fought the system. But once Keough's home had been scheduled for auction, it was last listed on various online services at $3.9 million, reported the Orange County Register. "With the possible sale of my house at auction, and the crazy people coming out of the woodwork to buy my $4.5 million dollar house for $1.3, you find out who your friends are," she wrote to Jon Lansner at the Register. WaMu/Chase had originally denied accepting her into the permanent home mortgage modification program after she says she worked with them for six months. "They said I didn't fit the program, I am a fighter so I called my friend Jason Cougenhour at HUD, our illustrious Congressman, and our Governor's office, and found out that 75 percent of the people in loan mod's weren't getting accepted. That incensed me. I talked and wrote, harassed, gave speeches, encouraged people to write email blasts. ... I am happy to say Chase has stopped foreclosure, and made my payments affordable."Now, we all aren't living in multi-million-dollar homes and able to broadcast our woes on a reality TV show to get action done, but that isn't to say you also couldn't complain to your state representatives.Las Vegas Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his office has handled hundreds of calls from homeowners complaining about lenders' unwillingness to work with them. They gripe about the difficulty of reaching lenders, reported the Las Vegas Review Journal.

"One of the biggest complaints I get from people fighting to stay in their homes is that they can't get anyone on the phone to talk to them," Reid said. "These people are just looking to get someone on the phone who can help navigate these troubled waters."Reid said he knew he wouldn't be able to help everyone, so he sent letters to lenders urging them to be more responsive. The senator's efforts resulted in 19 Nevada homeowners getting a loan modification or workout plan from the bank; another 40 or so have been assigned to a workout negotiator.Gloria Lucas, who lives on a retirement pension with her husband and two teenage grandchildren, says Reid's efforts helped her. She had gotten no where after calling Wells Fargo and Wachovia almost weekly seeking help in lowering her $1,322 payment. So Lucas called Reid's Las Vegas office. Within three weeks she was receiving phone calls and documents from the bank. Her payment was reduced to less than $800 a month with 18 percent, or a little less than $30,000, forgiven on the mortgage balance.But if political clout doesn't work, you can always sue.At least four Boston-area homeowners are suing Wells Fargo and Bank of America, claiming the banks haven't done what they promised.One lawsuit claims that the plaintiffs followed all the Federal rules and guidelines set by the lender to lead to a permanent mortgage modification, "only to be given the shaft at the end of the mandated trial period," reported Charles Feldman for Walletpop.

"When a large financial institution promises to modify an eligible loan to prevent foreclosure, homeowners who live up to their end of the bargain expect that promise to be kept," the homeowner's attorney, Gary Klein, said in his complaint obtained by the Boston Globe. Although the cases for the Bostonians are still ongoing, many Californians have received positive results from their legal pursuits.Federal lawsuits over the Truth in Lending Act or wrongful foreclosure in California have skyrocketed in the past five years, from just 29 in 2005 to 1,395 last year, reported the San Jose Mercury News.

Two weeks before their Sunnyvale home was to be auctioned off, Sonia Leverman and her sons seized on a desperate David-vs.-Goliath legal strategy and won after everything else had failed.The Levermans' saw the monthly mortgage payments on their three-bedroom, $655,000 ranch home jump from $2,500 to $4,353 when the rate changed--right on the heels of the husband losing his job and the sons' work hours cut back, reported the Mercury News.The family entered a temporary modification plan with the lender, but filed suit after Litton Loan Servicing refused to grant them a permanent loan modification. The loan servicer claimed their third trial payment was late - even though the Leverman's had a Western Union receipt showing it arrived on time. As a result, the Levermans finally hired an attorney who filed suit in California's court system against Litton, alleging breach of contract. As a result, the family is back on track for a permanent modification. However, they owe more than the house is now worth and they're out $5,000 to attorney Los Gatos lawyer Wendell J. Jones. But I am sure they see that as money well spent. "Only when I got involved and filed a lawsuit did the lender come to the table," Jones said.

Quality Staff At Bank of America Illegally Seizes House and Luke, The Parrot

Bank Sorry for Taking Parrot
by James R. Hagerty
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wall Street Journal

BofA Believed Woman's Home Was Vacant, Padlocked It and Kept Bird Over a Week

PITTSBURGH -- Bank of America Corp. apologized after its local contractor entered the home of a mortgage borrower when she was away, cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot, Luke.

Angela Iannelli, 46 years old, alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the October incident -- which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot for more than a week -- caused so much "emotional distress" that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.

A Bank of America spokesman said Wednesday a bank employee erroneously believed the house was vacant and sent the contractor there with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise "secure" the property. The bank spokesman said those instructions were inappropriate because Ms. Iannelli wasn't in default and the house wasn't vacant.

Mortgage lenders have struggled in the past three years to hire and train enough people to deal with the biggest wave of foreclosures since the 1930s. Nearly eight million households, or 15% of those with mortgages, are behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process.

Many borrowers complain they get the runaround when they call their lenders for help, receive contradictory information from different employees and are required to repeatedly fax the same documents.

At the same time, suicide threats from distressed borrowers are so common that one lender, OneWest Bank Group in Pasadena, Calif., had to establish procedures for alerting the police. Lenders' call-center employees are under heavy pressure. "These people make $14 or $15 an hour, and we ask them to move mountains," said a OneWest executive at an industry conference last month.

In her civil suit filed in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Ms. Iannelli said a contractor hired by Bank of America entered her house about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh in mid-October when she was away. According to the suit, in an "invasion" of the home, the contractor stopped utility services, cut water lines and electrical wiring, damaged flooring and finishings, poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets, and "stole" the parrot.

Ms. Iannelli, who owns a diner and works part-time as a bartender, said Bank of America representatives weren't helpful when she called in to protest. They first denied knowing where the parrot was, and later told her she could go to the offices of the contractor, about 80 miles away, to retrieve the bird herself. Ms. Iannelli said bank representatives also told her they were "tired" of hearing from her, hung up on her and advised her to seek help from the police.

Her lawyer, Michael Rosenzweig, a partner at Edgar Snyder & Associates in Pittsburgh, said Ms. Iannelli was seeking damages of more than $50,000. The amount of any damages would be decided by a jury if the case goes to trial.

A Bank of America spokesman said the bank would "quickly review the allegations in the lawsuit, the actual events that led to them and the causes of those events, and consider any hardship that resulted."

Mr. Rosenzweig said Ms. Iannelli had missed one payment around the time of the incident but quickly caught up and was now current on her loan.

After she drove two hours to reclaim her parrot in October, the bird initially seemed nervous, Ms. Iannelli said in an interview Wednesday. "He's doing very well now," she said.

Note from Webmaster: Stories like the one above are reported to our office often. This is NOT a one time event. We receive numerous calls and reports from families that have been wrongfully kicked out of their homes by B of A and incident reports to B of A management mostly lands on deaf ears.

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