Victoria A asked:
About a year ago I thought about refinancing my house. I called a mortgage broker and asked him what my payments would be. About 2 weeks later he called me with some figures that were a little too pricey for me so I decided not to proceed. A few weeks ago I received a letter from an attorney representing the appraisel company telling me I owed $400. Now I knew nothing about this appraisel nor the fact that they were trying to collect money from me. I had moved out of my house 6 months ago and have been faithfully receiving my forwarded mail. I never received a bill nor had I been informed of an appraisel being done on my house. I never signed anything with the mortgage company, which as of now has gone out of business. I tried to tell this attorney that I was unaware of this debt but they said I was still responsible. I was just recently discharged of a chapter 7 bankrupcy which obviously didn’t include this debt. The attorney said if I don’t pay they will sue me. What do I do?
About a year ago I thought about refinancing my house. I called a mortgage broker and asked him what my payments would be. About 2 weeks later he called me with some figures that were a little too pricey for me so I decided not to proceed. A few weeks ago I received a letter from an attorney representing the appraisel company telling me I owed $400. Now I knew nothing about this appraisel nor the fact that they were trying to collect money from me. I had moved out of my house 6 months ago and have been faithfully receiving my forwarded mail. I never received a bill nor had I been informed of an appraisel being done on my house. I never signed anything with the mortgage company, which as of now has gone out of business. I tried to tell this attorney that I was unaware of this debt but they said I was still responsible. I was just recently discharged of a chapter 7 bankrupcy which obviously didn’t include this debt. The attorney said if I don’t pay they will sue me. What do I do?
Tags: Mail, Refinancing Mortgage
October 13th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Let them sue. Ask them to show authorization for this appraisal.
I have the exact same thing happen to me. They did not sue me but I got a number of calls before they stopped when I threatened to sue.
The mortgage broker you called most likely ordered this, Tell them to go after him.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
If you signed nothing then its a scam, don’t pay it, I hope you didn’t give them any futher infor like your social security number or your bank.
Don’t have any further contact with their attorney.
If they continue to annoy you contact an attorney of your own and have him threaten to sue for fraud.
If you have signed anything with the mortgage broker then you may have a problem, but it sounds like everything was done by phone and so they would have no way of showing you agreed to anything.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:18 am
as a former debt collector 10 years ago the min balance a bill would need for a suit to occur was $1000.
They could report it as a collection account to a credit bureau tho.
And how did they appraise your house without coming inside? I would think it would be difficult to ID you have mold or plumbing problems without seeing the interior.
If you want further info on the law concerning collections google The Fair Debt Collections Act and you probably could report the appraiser and broker thru whatever agency handles mortgages. They could also have BBB complaints filed against them. Your threat to make complaints could also solve the problem.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Report the attorney to the state bar for what he is doing. It does not sound legal at all. Especially if you did not sign or agree to anything.
The “attorney” could get in serious trouble. If the person isn’t a real attorney and they are acting like one, they could be charged with a crime.
The state bar will take action on stuff like that. So look for it in whatever state you’re in, on the internet.