A lawsuit filed in Lake County Florida in March of 2013 alleges that the wife/homeowner, Mrs. Davis, became disabled and unable to work and made application to Bank of America for a modification of their mortgage so that they would be better able to satisfy their financial commitments and, most important, keep their home. Mr. and Mrs. Davis provided Bank of America with all of the documents that they required in order to obtain the modification. The application for modification was made pursuant to he Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) which, according to the Bank of America’s website: “is one of the federal government’s Making Home Affordable programs. The government’s goal for modifying your loan is to help you get a more affordable and sustainable monthly mortgage payment.”
According to the lawsuit, in connection with the application for loan modification, Bank of America represented to Mr. and Mrs. Davis that if they successfully made all of their Trial Period Plan payments, they would receive a Modification Agreement explaining the changes to their loan terms and that once this document was been signed, notarized and returned to Bank of America, the modification would become permanent.
On or about February 16, 2012, Bank of America approved the Plaintiffs’ loan modification request and, according to Bank of America, the modification would become permanent.
After receiving approval for their modification, Mr. and Mrs. Davis continued to timely pay to Bank of America each and every monthly mortgage payment required under their modified mortgage.
It is alleged that on or about February 20, 2013, at 7:50 a.m., Mrs. Davis received a telephone call from an employee of the Bank of America by the name of Gabby, who informed her that they were $17,000 behind in their mortgage payments. The fact and content of the early morning telephone call was a complete shock to the Davises because they had faithfully made all of their payments to Bank of America for over 11 months under the terms of the modified mortgage. In the February 20, 2013 early morning telephone conversation, Gabby told Mrs. Davis to look at her statements from Bank of America and that she would see the basis for the claim of arrearage of $17,000. Mrs Davis immediately looked at her statements but saw no arrearage. During the February 20, 2013 telephone call, Gabby also told Mrs. Davis that Bank of America was going to file a foreclosure action against them.
At the time of the February 20, 2013 call from Bank of America threatening foreclosure, the father of Mrs. Davis had recently passed away and she was in a state of mourning.
Fortunately, Plaintiffs had maintained all of their records relative to the balance of the modified mortgage with the Bank of America and all of these records indicated that their mortgage with Bank of America was current. However, according to the lawsuit, a few days after the threatening phone call, Mrs. Davis checked her online account with Bank of America to again verify financial information, outstanding balance and list of payments previously made to Bank of America under the modified mortgage. To her shock, Mrs. Davis discovered that Bank of America had manipulated the online financial information in Plaintiffs’ account to show that the Plaintiffs’ mortgage was not current but was in arrears.
Plaintiffs have demanded a trial by jury.