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With foreclosures mounting, and late and missed home mortgage loan payments becoming more common, it is no surprise that some homeowners are dropping through the cracks. But just because things are awfully busy for home mortgage lenders and servicers, does it mean it’s right to foreclose on those that are trying to save their homes?

One couple, at least, has decided to fight back against foreclosure proceedings initiated by home mortgage loan servicer Washington Mutual. Boston.com offers a quick look at the lawsuit against WaMu:

In the suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Lori and Mark Pestana of Westford allege the loan servicer was unresponsive to their repeated phone calls and to their applications to negotiate an arrangement that would have allowed them keep their house out of foreclosure. …

“I feel like we were just sucked in and caught in a vortex that we couldn’t get out of,” Lori Pestana said about trying to prevent Washington Mutual, or WaMu, from foreclosing on a $275,000, fixed-rate mortgage.

And when you look at the basics of the case — as alleged by the couple — it really does look like they were rather badly railed in this one. Here is a stripped down look at some of the transactions that led to the foreclosure:

• In August 2007, the Pestanas missed their home mortgage loan payment.
• In an effort to get current (by dipping into savings), they called WaMu to work something out.
• WaMu told them they had to be 50 days late in order to work something out.
• The couple stopped paying until they were exactly 50 days late and then applied for help in October 2007.
• The Pestanas claim WaMu told them they would receive and answer in four or five weeks.
• On Nov. 13, 2007, WaMu sent notice of foreclosure proceedings.
• The couple tried repeatedly to find out a final amount to stop proceedings. Their calls were either ignored or no amount was given.
• The Pestanas offered up $12,000, which was rejected. (They were only then told they needed $15,000.)
• The couple repeatedly called WaMu, only to deal with constant telephone looping.
• The Pestanas are being evicted from their home.

If this chain of events is a faithful narration, then there is something seriously wrong. A home mortgage loan servicer should be interested in helping its customers before things get desperate. This whole waiting 50 days to help thing is ridiculous. The Pestanas obviously wanted to resolve the problem, and were obviously trying to do what was needed in order to save their house.

And all they got was the runaround.

Tags: mortgage lenders, mortgage servicer, home mortgage loan, lawsuit Washington Mutual,
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