We hear stories all the time about people who are having trouble paying their mortgage, call the bank for help, and are then told there’s nothing the bank can do unless they stop paying their mortgage. Well, one couple is suing Chase after they followed that advice, and then got foreclosed on.

“When they called the 800 number, they were specifically told that as long as they were current on their mortgage they wouldn’t even be considered for a loan modification,” the couple’s attorney, Piotr Reysner, said, according to Courthouse News.

The couple then fell into the blackhole of paperwork that makes it damn near impossible to actually get a mortgage modification. Months of torture passed, and at the end, the house was sold at auction without their knowledge. Then the bank allegedly denied that it had been sold. From Courthouse News:

The Jahanis say strangers came to their house and told them that “the property had sold at auction, that plaintiffs no longer owned the property and that they (meaning the unnamed persons) were interested in buying the house from the bank.” (Parentheses in complaint.)

The Jahanis say they immediately called Chase, which told them that their house “had not been foreclosed and that the people who were approaching the property were doing so illegally.”

The Jahanis say this insanity continued for months. They called the bank again in February 2010, and asked why their house was still listed as having been foreclosed in October 2009.

Chase told them it was all a “mistake” and that the bank simply had not updated its records, according to the complaint.

“During that same conversation, plaintiffs asked why defendants continued to accept mortgage payments from plaintiffs if the house had been foreclosed. Plaintiffs demanded to know where their payments were going and demanded a payment history from defendants. Plaintiffs further demanded to know why defendants’ REO department had indicated that plaintiffs no longer owned the house and that it was now in fact owned by the bank.”

They say the bank rep, “Janet,” “again reiterated that this was a mistake and that she would take care of it. Janet further claimed that she, at that moment, was sending e-mails and correspondence ‘everywhere’ within the company to rectify the situation and to please allow her 10 days to clear up the mess. The mess, in fact, was never cleaned up. Janet further promised in that same conversation that someone would review the file and get back to them within 10 days. No one did.”

We hate to say it, but yeah, that level of insanity is apparently pretty common.

Thanks a Lot, JP Morgan Chase [Courthouse News via HuffPo] (Thanks, Augus99!)

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