“My dad and mom are seniors and now you’re placing them out of their house,” stated Nina Greene, 44, a retired New York Metropolis Police Division (NYPD) police officer who’s bodily disabled from a line of responsibility damage. She labored with town’s proof assortment workforce, a skillset that has proved helpful in her battle to attempt to maintain her household house.
Regardless of her efforts, the Greene household has misplaced their years-long battle to maintain their home from foreclosures. Greene claimed that her dad and mom have been swept right into a rip-off once they have been unable to maintain up with mortgage funds or get authorised for a mortgage modification, and have been summarily denied assist from a protracted checklist of servicers that shuffled across the observe to their mortgage. The housing courts disagreed and dominated in favor of the banks.
Her father, Larry Greene (Larry G.), 76, a now-retired Port Authority officer, and her mom, Sherry Greene, 75, bought a two-level multi-family house in Lengthy Island for about $550,000 in 2007. They initially hailed from St. Albans, a largely Caribbean and African neighborhood in Queens.
The household determined to settle in Freeport, the same village in Hempstead that’s composed of predominantly middle- to upper-middle-class Black and Hispanic households. In 2023, the median property worth there was over $470,000, and the homeownership fee was about 70%, based on DataUSA. Jamael Romans, a Black mortgage officer at United Mortgage Corp. in Woodbury, Lengthy Island, estimated that properties are most likely going for nicely over $700,000 in that space now.
“They’ve a great faculty district, so a whole lot of households need to be in that space,” stated Romans. He added that Freeport, Baldwin, Hempstead, Uniondale, Elmont, and Westbury have been all areas of middle- to upper-middle-class Black and Brown communities, however it’s additionally very aggressive for first-time homebuyers to interrupt into.
Exterior the Greene household house is a lavish tree with pinkish blossoms, and an angel figurine within the yard is shrouded in greenery. Greene doesn’t fairly describe that type of tranquility inside, although. Along with her and her aged dad and mom, her brother, his spouse, and his new child daughter additionally lived in the home. To not point out their 4 rescue canines and one cat.
Tranquil, it most likely wasn’t — however it was theirs.
The problems started with their authentic mortgage holder, Countrywide Monetary, stated Larry G., who was the principle individual in command of making funds on the mortgage on the time. He was denied a mortgage modification when the corporate went below, and he had a brand new mortgage servicer.
“When the crash got here [in 2008], I obtained a discover that Financial institution of America could be taking up, so I began telling them that I wished a brand new deal so far as the mortgage went, a decrease rate of interest, and so they stored giving me the runaround,” he stated.
For the reason that housing market took an financial nosedive in 2008 on the behest of unscrupulous firms, like Countrywide, the Greene household is way from alone in feeling the affect.
In response to the Heart for Moral Organizational Cultures at Auburn College, Countrywide was the biggest supplier of house loans in the usin the early 2000s. It was additionally the first supplier of house loans to minorities within the nation. The corporate’s expansive progress was due largely to subprime loans, a lending technique that finally led to its and the nation’s downfall. Principally, a subprime mortgage depends on lending to low-income or non-traditionally certified debtors however fees them increased rates of interest. One of many instruments of those loans is an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), the place funds could begin out low however balloon to exorbitant quantities over time.
Larry G. confirmed that he was paying solely the curiosity on the mortgage, not the principal quantity, for the primary 10 years. “I didn’t notice, which I ought to have to start with, that the mortgage was a predatory sort mortgage,” he stated.
Financial institution of America (BOA) supplied to purchase Countrywide for $4 billion in 2008 — an acquisition that shops like NPR known as “a unending authorized and monetary nightmare.” Countrywide was below quite a few investigations, together with from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), for misconduct and misrepresentation.
Within the midst of all that chaos, Larry G. wished to contest the corporate’s authorized proper to his mortgage in court docket and had stopped making funds as a result of he couldn’t get a much-needed mortgage modification. In 2013, he went to court docket in Nassau County to search out out who held the observe on the mortgage. His complete sum then was $417,000, based on court docket paperwork.
In the meantime, BOA’s Countrywide unit had been discovered responsible for defrauding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that very same yr. The federal authorities had sought $864 million from BOA for losses from faulty loans that Countrywide offered, however ended up with an enormous settlement.
Larry G.’s lawyer on the time stated that BOA legally had 5 or 6 years to show they held the mortgage and resolve the case. Within the interim, the Greene household mortgage was assigned to a sequence of different servicers, first to GreenTree Mortgage Servicing, one other servicer whose guardian firm, Walter Funding Administration Corp. (WAC), merged with one other WAC subsidiary, Ditech Mortgage Corp, in 2014. Washington shops reported in 2016 that GreenTree had didn’t honor lots of the mortgage modifications in place when BOA offered them loans, leaving folks pissed off and in debt.
The Greene household mortgage went to the U.S. Financial institution Nationwide Affiliation, which had purchased two of BOA’s securitization and belief companies in 2010. Now it’s been with Rushmore Mortgage Administration Companies, LLC/Mr. Cooper, a registered service mark of Nationstar Mortgage LLC, since 2021, based on court docket paperwork.
“Mortgages … don’t keep throughout the similar firm over the lifetime of the mortgage. The cash has to constantly flow into throughout the economic system,” stated Romans. “That’s simply the best way it goes. And a brand new servicer is gonna deal with the mortgage, as a result of sometimes mortgage firms don’t deal with servicing. Servicing is in command of paying the property taxes, the house insurance coverage, the principal and curiosity. When you had a fantastic mortgage officer, they’d have an operations workforce, and they’re going to all the time know who the servicer is being transferred to.”
After years of backwards and forwards, the Greenes have been dominated towards of their preliminary case and filed for attraction in 2019. The household stored making an attempt to get a mortgage modification with every servicer and stored getting denied, they stated.
By 2020, the COVID-19 disaster had severely delayed all court docket proceedings. After they resumed, the funds the Greenes owed had snowballed. In response to paperwork, they needed to pay greater than $900,000 ($962,283.15) with curiosity on the observe fee from March 1, 2011, to July 30, 2022. This determine doesn’t embrace extra court docket and lawyer charges.
The Greene household tried switching legal professionals twice to file new motions and get a mortgage modification, however they have been finally dismissed. They stated they have been instructed by Rushmore that they have been in need of qualifying for a mortgage modification by about $14 a month. Their house was foreclosed on and was set for the public sale block in December 2024. The court docket additionally dominated for the dismissal of any future arguments that might be made within the case.
In a last-minute bid, Sherry G. determined to file for chapter that month to stave off the public sale till a minimum of after the vacations. An public sale can’t transfer ahead till a chapter case is concluded. “My mother thought this was her endlessly house,” stated Greene. “She was simply making an attempt to do no matter she might do to carry it off, to see if we might discover somebody to assist us, or no matter, and that didn’t pan out.”
Greene additionally tried submitting complaints with the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau (CFPB), the New York State Legal professional Basic’s workplace, and Senator Siela A. Bynoe’s workplace.
“I feel what occurred is that this downside was so widespread — trillions of {dollars} in mortgages all through the nation,” stated Larry G. “And I feel the issue with them holding all people to the regulation is that it might have been such an enormous financial blow that the courts stopped holding them to the letter of the regulation and folks slipped by way of the cracks. And all of the stuff I used to be listening to about, I think about lots of people simply gave up and stopped combating and perhaps by no means even put up a struggle.”
The Greene household’s chapter case wrapped up final month, and the public sale date was resumed for June 30, 2025. To avoid that, the Greene household opted for a brief sale.
Romans stated a brief sale is when an actual property dealer is available in to work with town to promote the house and negotiates a worth, normally below worth, to assist relocate the occupants. These are greater than probably money patrons, which helps the home promote sooner, he stated.
“If a mortgage has change into unaffordable for an individual, it’s greatest to succeed in out to the mortgage firm and allow them to know that you just’re going by way of a monetary hardship and also you need to a minimum of place a forbearance in your mortgage, the place they pause the mortgage cost for a minimum of three months and it received’t negatively have an effect on their credit score rating,” suggested Romans. “All through that point, you may deal with a recreation plan, or you may cut up the mortgage in two and make a cost twice in a month, or do a mortgage modification.”
Romans added that with foresight, the Greene household might need had a chance for a cash-out refinancing choice. “Particularly on this case — their house was in Lengthy Island within the Freeport space. The properties are very excessive worth,” he stated. “In the event that they have been capable of catch it in time and so they knew they have been tight on funds, they may’ve tried to refinance, took out sufficient cash that they wanted to have the ability to get again in a extra snug place.”
BOA’s senior vice chairman of media relations confirmed by way of e mail that Amsterdam Information’ inquiry was obtained and stated that her workforce was “nonetheless investigating” the inquiry and couldn’t get an official assertion by press time. Within the interim, she pointed to the publicly obtainable authorized court docket paperwork for readability.
The media relations workforce Highwire Public Relations additionally confirmed receipt of the Amsterdam Information inquiry by way of e mail, and stated they have been “wanting into this” as nicely.
