Attorney General Abbott Takes Enforcement Action Against Dallas-area ‘Mortgage Rescue’ Operation Behind on Mortgage’ defendants bilked unwitting homeowners
DALLAS – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today took legal action to obtain restitution for a fraudulent “mortgage rescue” firm’s victims.
Dallas County 134th District Judge James M. Stanton granted an agreed temporary injunction barring Markus and Tyrone Bailey from deceptively operating the unlicensed businesses, Behind on Mortgage and Behind on Mortgages USA at 6060 N. Central Expressway in Dallas. The agreement requires the defendants to either reimburse all customers from whom it collected unlawful fees, or place these monies in a trust pending final judgment.
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Temporary injunction against Behind on Mortgages
The defendants have been subject to a Nov. 2 temporary restraining order halting their deceptive practices that harmed struggling homeowners. While the Baileys never obtained a license as a mortgage broker from the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending, they nonetheless solicited distressed homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments.
The defendants visited homeowners facing foreclosure and pitched a way for them to obtain new loans, renewals, extensions of time to pay and modifications of existing mortgage loans. In return, the defendants required at least $1,000 in advance from homeowners and demanded they have no contact with – or make future payments to – their original mortgage servicers.
The defendants retained homeowners’ fees for services and provided no measurable foreclosure relief, nor did they negotiate with mortgage servicers. Thus, many homeowners who dealt with the defendants ultimately lost their homes to foreclosure action. The defendants even continued to operate unlawfully despite a late-October cease-and-desist order from the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending.
In addition to restitution, the attorney general seeks civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, as well as attorneys’ fees. The attorney general contends the defendants also violated other provisions of the Texas Business and Commerce Code by failing to provide homeowners with a required option to cancel the in-residence solicitation. Defendants violated the Texas Finance Code by failing to obtain a license.
Homeowners who believe they have been deceived by similar fraudulent business practices may call the Office of the Attorney General’s toll-free complaint line at (800) 252-8011 or file a complaint online at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.
Texans may learn more about buying a home and avoiding pitfalls and scams by reading an online bulletin from the Office of the Attorney General at this link: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/AG_Publications/pdfs/home_buying.pdf.
To Whom It My Concern,
My name is Lois E. Wyche and My husband’s name is Nathaniel R. Wyche . We reside at 503 Snapper Cove in Killeen, Texas and are currently financed through Chase Bank. We are writing this letter because at the end of this month our home will go into foreclosure if we do not pay at least one month of our mortgage, which is $2,220.00. We have been trying for the past three years to get help due to our financial situation and we have been unsuccessful so far.
We bought our home in 1995 Through Boatmen’s National. I worked for the Texas Department of Corrections and my husband worked for United Parcel Service. Three months after the papers were finalized my husband was terminated from his work because of a hole that was found in his delivery truck. He was without a paycheck for a month and a half until he was given his job back. This situation caused us to fall behind in the midst of trying to get our loan up to date. In March of 1999 my husband had been with the United Parcel Service for 15 years and was terminated because of another lie, and because of our financial issue at the time we were unable to obtain another lawyer so we lost and he did not get his job back and this was devastating. Meanwhile; our loan was being sold to Bank America, account number102752243, and things began to get very difficult. My husband had a business that he turned to that helped add to the income that I was making so things managed for a while.
In 2002 things began to go on a downward spiral so we refinanced our home with Aames Home Loan Company, account number 20930650, and within about three months we were sold to Olympus # 1001659018. Then, still in 2002, while we were still behind we were sold to Fairbanks Capital, account number 4001582263 so by this time we are totally confused about what to do but we attempted to catch up in our loan.
In 2004 I had to leave the Texas Department of Corrections due to medical reasons, but I did have a small business which brought in some form of income for us. Our loan was sold is 2004 to the American Service Company, account number 1205010947. In Nov.2005 my husbands and his business partner of 12 years split, and everything was an absolute mess. In Dec. 2005 my husband found a job, which paid about $340.00 a week so by Feb. 2006 we had no choice but to refinance our home again through Amerquest Mortgage, account number 145654943, they said they would get us back on track but they made our payments climb. My husband changed jobs for more money to DSL postal service but it was 60 miles out of town, so he then went to a work mechanic job because closer to town.
In Oct. 2006 our financial situation was out of control, so we filed bankruptcy. We wanted to keep our home and we knew with our credit history we couldn’t get another home. Once we filed bankruptcy things turned for the worst, we hadn’t filed our taxes yet but in order to file bankruptcy we had to file taxes quickly. Nathaniels’ former business partner would not give him the necessary paper work to help us file our taxes so we filed without it and we ended up owing 12,000.00 to the IRS. The bankruptcy personnel assumed we had received a large sum of money from the business so they kept implementing it in the balance.
Our bankruptcy payments started out at 800.00 then went up to 1200.00 and we still did all we could to keep up. Then the payment went up again to $ 1400.00 which was even harder and we stayed behind on our payments. Around April of 2007 the house was dismissed out of bankruptcy my husband found a good paying job on the military base, but by then are bankruptcy note was up to $1600.00 because the late payments made it go up. At this time I had no chose but to go back to work for the Texas Department of Corrections in July 2007. We were still behind in our payments but I believe we were beginning to catch up. Around Nov. 2007 we found out that we needed 2400.00 or bankruptcy was going to dismiss us and this caused us to have another setback because we were still behind on the house. In 2008 Amerquest sold us to Citibank and our bankruptcy payment went up again to 1900.00. At this time my husband had a job with the United States Postal Service as a temp who worked a lot of hours but things were still not coming together. Citibank recommended we apply for a modified loan. So we worked on that diligently and it was working, we did everything they said our payments were 1300.00 a month and we did not miss one payment because that would put us out of the modification plan. We filed out paper work three times and at the end of 2008 we were just about finish and suddenly no one would answer our calls even though they told us to call weekly to see how the modification was coming along. When we talked to someone they would tell us that our representative will get back with you and they never did. This miscommunication went on for the last three months of 2008 and we thought they were going to take our house.
Then one day a letter was sent to us telling us that Chase Bank had our account now and it took a couple months for them to help us so we stressed because we knew that we couldn’t afford a high loan. Chase Bank assured us that our interest rate would be lowered because of President Obamas’ plan. Well the plan was passed by May when the modification was completed and we received the paperwork, the interest rate was the same and the payment was now $2200.00. I informed them that we can’t handle this payment and they told us that we had no chose and that payment was as low as they could get it. They also told us that we’d have to wait a year then reapply.
It has taken us almost two years of going through this modification and now we find ourselves back in foreclosure due to misinformation and misleading that was beyond our control. We are sincerely asking if you could please help us keep our house The same month we signed for the loan my husband hurt his back at work and is no longer working for the USPS and I was dismissed from the prison again because of an operation I had on my knee that did not heal properly and this injury will not allow me to work with the inmates.
Thank you for your time and consideration to this matter,
Nathaniel R. Wyche
Lois E. Wyche