Posted on 12/28/2007 12:27:46 PM PST by shrinkermd
...He and his wife, Lynn, lived in a six-bedroom home in this Cleveland suburb for nearly 20 years when, in 1996, he was served with a foreclosure lawsuit. Rather than turn over the keys, he hit the law books. Flooding the courts with papers, Mr. Davet staved off foreclosure for 11 years, until this past January, when a county sheriff's deputy evicted the couple and changed the locks. They didn't make a mortgage payment the entire time.
"Our four Scottish terriers are buried there," says the 63-year-old Mr. Davet...
Mr. Davet's case is believed to be the longest residential foreclosure of its kind in the history of Cuyahoga County, which is at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis currently enveloping Ohio and many other parts of the country.
A former jewelry-business owner, Mr. Davet and his wife, a former graphic-arts tutor, bought their home in 1978 for $150,000. As its value increased they borrowed against it. They made their mortgage payments, but on one loan, they allegedly made payments late -- 90 times, according to NationsBanc Mortgage Corp., which assessed the couple some $4,000 in late fees.
After the Davets for two years refused demands to pay the late fees, during which NationsBanc began refusing to accept their regular mortgage payments, the company sued for foreclosure. At the time the couple still owed $80,000 in principal, plus an additional $160,000 on a second mortgage on the home. Mr. Davet insists the late fees were erroneous -- he points to a deposition in which a NationsBanc employee conceded that the company couldn't back up its claims for a chunk of the fees. So he began his full-time crusade in the courts to keep his home.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
This guy should write a book—probably make a small fortune.
I guess one way (although one that’s expensive and a pain in the hindquarters) to avoid late fees is to send each payment certified,return receipt requested.
Eleven years without a mortgage payment. Wow is that something to be proud of. Anyone who paid their mortgage on time during that period paid for this creep, and from his word he makes it seem like I should feel sorry for him. Rent free for eleven years? He could easily have saved enough money with interest to buy the house outright.
No rent or mortgage payment for 11 years. That should help the old budget. Ought to be able to save enough to put a pretty down payment on another home.
Not sure anybody’s going to want to give him a mortgage, though. LOL
Stupid.
Even easier is to just arrange for the mortgage payments to be directly taken from your account every month. Just make sure you're never overdrawn
So, basically, the lender’s shareholders and borrowers paid this man’s housing expenses. Nice. I’m sure the sleazebag is proud.
And if this was indeed over late fees, he could have paid the undisputed amount and escrowed the disputed fees pending the outcome. But only honest folks do that.
Two more deadbeats living off the rest of us.
Can't do that. Ya gotta accept pmts irrespective of their inclusion of late fees. Ruh Roh.
Amen!
So if he owed $240,000 on it, and it sold at auction for $410,000 wouldn’t the bank owe him a hefty check for the difference?????
You posted: I guess one way (although one that’s expensive and a pain in the hindquarters) to avoid late fees is to send each payment certified,return receipt requested.
Even easier is to just arrange for the mortgage payments to be directly taken from your account every month. Just make sure you’re never overdrawn
***
We always just sent ours early enough to be sure they would be received on time. Our loan was even sold to Wash Mutual and we never had an issue because we knew the payment was coming due, we sent it in early enough as to be received timely. Never got a notice about being late because we didn’t try to shave it so close. Finally got the loan paid off and we are free and clear of debt...
It does take a little discipline, especially on the front end, not to borrow too much money.
Many years ago I ended up with a flaky mortgage company (my loan was sold to them from a far better mortgage company). I would make my payments on time via home banking and the mortgage company, Matrix Financial, would come back later and claim the payment was late and charge me a late fee.
I’d send an Email to my home banking bank BofA that the mortgage company claimed the payment was late. They had all the records and would straighten it out with the mortgage company with no further action by me and no late fee for either the bank or me.
This happened multiple times.
Without the bank’s electronic records the mortgage company would have gotten away with their false late fees. Needless to say I was a happy guy when I paid the mortgage off and was done with them forever...
They refused to accept the payments he made.
You are assuming the mortgage company is honest.
Not all are.
See post #16.
Keep cancelled checks...
My mortgage company had a thing called speedpay...we would pay the mortgage over the phone for a small fee...much easier than checks and waiting for it to process....well I got a call from the mortgage company saying they were starting foreclosure proceedings...seems we hadn’t paid a payment for 3 months...even though we did...sure enough all that money was still in our bank..the lady was really snotty to me..like I was a deadbeat or something. So now our payments are sent western union...costs a bit more to send...but we now have a receipt of payment.
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