I Paid, But Can’t Get No Mortgage Satisfaction
— -- Dear ABC News Fixer: Ocwen Loan Servicing took over the servicing of my 30-year,-fixed-rate home loan last November. I had been making timely payments without any problems for 25 years, and so had no plans to pay off the loan early.
Then in February, Ocwen tried to increase my required monthly payments by $500, effective March 1. In spite of the extreme financial hardship, I decided to pay off the mortgage in full.
Although Ocwen acknowledged in writing the receipt of my entire payoff amount, to this date -- despite my repeated written requests -- they have failed to file proof of mortgage satisfaction with the county where my mortgage is recorded. This means I don’t have clear title to my property.
It has been five months since I paid off the mortgage. I have run out of patience. Can you help?
- Nokteh Taheri, Irvine, Calif.
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Dear Nokteh: The ABC News Fixer sympathizes. Here you are, minding your own business, making your mortgage payments – and then even paying off your loan – and you still get the runaround.
What made this even weirder was that initially, Ocwen had told you there was no lien to be released. When you presented them with proof that there was, they sent you another letter apologizing for the mix-up. That was a month before you came to us, and yet the lien release documents still hadn’t been sent in.
We got in touch with Robert Kaltenbach, director of the ombudsman’s office at Ocwen, and asked him what gives. He promised to investigate, and about a week later he said the documents were delayed as they waited for a signature from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. He promised it would be fixed soon.
Over the next week, we got to be good pals with the nice supervisor woman at the Orange County Recorder’s office as we kept calling to check on it, and finally we got some good news: The county got the documents and recorded them. You’ve since been sent both .pdf and paper copies of the certified documents, finally proving that you own your house.
Congratulations!
- The ABC News Fixer
