This WaPo piece on the foreclosure crisis and the complete and total mess the banks have made of things is infuriating:
Kevin Matthews, a Gulf War veteran, was initially rejected when he applied to his lender, USAA, for a modification of the mortgage on his Baltimore rowhouse. But when a housing counselor contacted USAA on his behalf, the lender invited him to reapply, Matthews said. The counselor filled out a 70-page application for Matthews in early May.
The lender did not respond to this new request until after his home was taken away in a foreclosure sale two weeks later, he alleged. He was evicted in June while he was away on school-related travel.
Roger Wildermuth, a USAA spokesman, said his firm was no longer responsible for Matthews’s loan because it had been sold to GMAC, though GMAC employees in his case would have identified themselves as USAA workers “to create a seamless customer experience.” James Olecki, a GMAC spokesman, said his firm “put forth every effort to pursue all alternatives in this case.”
Matthews is now suing the foreclosure attorneys. If he loses, the tab for his defaulted loan would fall on taxpayers because his mortgage is guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
No one knows who owns what.