OK, maybe that's a little melodramatic. But here I was working along today, righting wrongs (at least from my clients' perspective), when this email popped onto my screen:
Company having financial troubles. Not sure if it will survive.
The author -- my mortgage broker -- directed us to email him at home from now on.
Yikes. So, head for Google, and it turns out our mortgage company has been in the news. Its stock tumbled 90% in one day (Friday). It has been having troubles for some time. Today, its CEO announced the company would close Friday.
So, um, what happens to me? I have a contractor who is basically finished the house, and probably would like to get paid.
According to my account manager, there is no money to pay the draw we submitted. The bank ran out of cash.
And now they are closing.
(As an aside, how absurd is it that the only indication of trouble on their website is that they are "no longer accepting mortgage applications." Har.)
I called the customer service line, and the woman answering the phone was, no exaggeration, crying, when she answered the phone. She told me that my customer service agent would be there tomorrow. Somehow, given the news reports, I doubt it.
So, someone call Jimmy Stewart.
4 comments:
If, as the news article suggests, the company is going to liquidate, then I'd expect the mortgages themselves (which, presumably, are all fully secured) to be among the more valuable saleable assets. So your loan will most likely get bought by some other lender -- the sooner, the better from your point of view. The folks who will really get the shaft are the employees, stockholders, and creditors. It sounds like there won't be much, if anything, left to pay them off.
True, with two exceptions: (1) my loan has not been fully paid out. The builder has built, but not been paid becuase we were waiting on AHM. So there is a large liquidity problem. (2) I am supposed to be locking in an interest rate. Who is going to do that?
Dang, sorry to hear that. I saw this in the news. All those sub-prime mortgages coming home to roost. Hope you get some resolution with getting the builder paid. Damn.
I'd call Mr. Stewart but I think he's, ah, not available at this time? But your call is important to him. Please stay on the line.
Well, from a commercial law point of view, this does present some interesting questions. Though from your point of view, it merely sucks.
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