Confused about Foreclosure procedures..

[HOOT]

I will try to make this simple and try not ramble-

I moved to Florida in late 2000. I had a home there that I rented out. The renters quickly got behind on the rent, which made me late on the payments to the mortgage company (Option One). I eventually sold the house and I was about 4 payments past due. I sold the house in July of 2001. Option One is reporting that it was paid after foreclosure on my credit report. I was never served any kind of papers that stated it was going into foreclosure. My question is would they have had to serve me in Florida since that is where I lived at the time? That was a awhile ago, just to refresh my memory, I checked on the Clerk of Courts site here in my county and never saw anything for it. Thanks in advance.

[Thoth73]

I think I understand your question.

Here In Florida there is a process in which you would have had to receive a Lis Penden notice either delivered to your door, or if they were not able to serve you and obtain a signature confirmation of delivery then they would mail it to you. Either way, yes, they should have sent something to you regarding your case. Even if you lived in another state at the time of the law suit, they will mail or attempt to mail you the lis penden notice.

Is it possible that your tax bill for this house was still being sent to that exact address (Where the tenants live) and not your address?

Then the tenants living in the house may have received the Lis Penden. They may have never told you about it. I've heard of that happening before.

[HOOT]

Thanks for the reply Thoth,

No, I was receiving the tax bill and the mortgage bill to the home where I lived in Florida. I had spoken to the mortgage company and explained the situation and to the best of my recollection they stated they would work with me since I was selling the property. Never received anything about foreclosure.

[Thoth73]

Option One is reporting that it was paid after foreclosure on my credit report

If they never formally filled a lis penden against your title on the house then they never got that far in your case to report it as a foreclosure in my opinion. As I understand all they could do is report the account as delinquent 4 months, and then paid off. You never worked a short sale (Asked the bank to take less than the mortgage amount) did you?

[HOOT]

Oh no, it was sold for full asking amount and sold, mortgage paid.

You are right about part of the reporting as current status as not more than 4 months past due on my EQ report, but is also showing an R in the 5th month which is a repossession. That never happened.

[HOOT]

I just looked back over my very first post and realized that when I said I moved to Florida and I rented my house out I forgot to put that I moved from Georgia and that is where the house was that I rented out. Opps!

[Ahntara]

"...4 months past due...5th month which is a repossession..."

It's a repossession, foreclosure or a charge off depending on what type of account (TL) it's listed in. What you have described is standard reporting for defaulted accounts.

The account 'ratings' are as follows:

1 = current, or not past due more than 29 days

2 = past due 30-59 days

3 = past due 60=89 days

4 = past due 90-119 days

5 = past due 120-149 days

This is the point in every defaulted account's history that some form of recovery activity takes place. If the loan is secured by real property, the TL is notated as 'foreclosure' and foreclosure proceedings are begun. The actual process of legally foreclosing on property is quite involved and will result in a legal item also appearing in the Public Records portion of your CR.

Your house sold prior to the legal activity. So you are left with only a TL showing the notation prior to sale. (I think. Your posts are kinda confusing.) If the TL shows a zero balance, it's reporting correctly. I know the notation burns people up. But experienced credit pros know what the I5 rating means, regardless of what else appears there. Anyone who can read CR's will see the zero balance on the TL and no listing in the PR section and discern what happened. You may wish to pursue removal of the notation for those who may not understand credit. To do that, contact the Data Furnisher (mortgage lender) and request they remove the notation.

To continue the ratings listed above:

There is no '6' - this is the time period allowed in the industry to repossess, foreclosure or charge off defaulted accounts.

7 = Repossession

8 = Consumer Credit Counseling

9 = Defaulted account, Collection, Charge off

Your account may accurately show either a rating of 5 or 9 (depending on when it was last reported), but should also show a zero balance.

[HOOT]

Thanks Ahntara, I may have been a little confusing:oops:

I will be contacting the mortgage company today as a matter of fact.

[IHateCAs]

In Georgia, the foreclosure process can move rather quickly, since in standard loan agreements you waive your right to judicial proceedings. IIRC, they are only obligated to notify you once by letter that they intend to foreclose, and from there it's listed in the county papers once a week for a couple weeks, then its sold at auction.

So you could've paid after they started the foreclosure process, but before it got to the courthouse steps.

Not quite sure how it should report under those circumstances.

[IHateCAs]

I think your best bet is to continue doing what you are doing. Work on the OC using a goodwill approach.

I also wanted to point out that you didn't get behind on your payments because of the renters, but because of yourself.

[HOOT]

IhateCAs,

You are actually quite right about getting behind being my fault. I wondered if that were the case that it was paid before the actual foreclosure was complete. I am gonna call them and beg since it is due to come off in less than a year if they would be so kind to maybe change to a better rating and status. Wish me luck!

[HOOT]

Interesting. I call the mortgage company and I give them my name, ss#, and there reponse back is they have no information in the system on me. I then ask the guy(with broken english) how do you verify information to a CRA when you have nothing in the system. This of course confused him and was told to send a fax to the Customer Resolution Department. We will see where that gets me.