#green tree servicing

[hiroshimishima]

I’ve talked about Green Tree before, but found this and found it interesting enough to go ahead and share with others.

I highly doubt it’ll make them change, but it’s nice to see them dealt a blow.

[hiroshimishima]

It's a sad reminder of how little justice there actually is in America, when you can find tens of thousands (or more) complaints against a company like Green Tree Servicing... when there appears to be many open-and-shut cases against them for questionable business practices, harassment, fraud, and so forth... and yet they're still there.

The law appears to not care, and they're certainly not worried about breaking rules. I've read in many places that the FTC, BBB, and CFPB - despite receiving countless claims/reports - isn't really capable of doing anything. Worse, some people who actually have tried the alternate routes say even the FBI can't (or won't) touch them.

I mean, this is a company that will call up neighbors if they can't reach you. They will even call people who don't have accounts with them and claim they owe money. Many cease-and-desist orders apparently go unheeded.. and yet I still can't find any evidence to the fact that anything has been done about it.

I worry about all this because we have to deal with Green Tree for our own home. Now, thank the gods, we don't have to deal with the nightmares I often read about... but that doesn't mean it can't happen, and it sure doesn't stop it from happening to others. I'm just voicing concerns - especially since they've hounded people to death.

EDIT: While grabbing a few links, I discovered something wonderful. The FTC and the CFPB have joined forced in an attempt to get some action taken against Green Tree. I don't know the full details, but it's been a very slow process (started in 2010 if I'm reading right) and is only now apparently gaining ground.

[ladonnapietra]

In unrelated news

I got the reimbursement check from Green Tree yesterday.  BIG SPENDIN' MONEY.

[ladonnapietra]

I also just ran the numbers

and Green Tree has shorted me $26.77.

I am not going to argue the point with them out of sheer frustration. 

[ladonnapietra]

Update on the Green Tree Servicing hoopty-hoo

I came home to find two letters from Green Tree in the mail: one apologizing for "the inconvenience" and assuring me that an escrow analysis has been performed, indicating that I am due a refund of $122.89 and that a check was cut 9/4/13, and the second containing the escrow analysis in question.  

So that's good?

I'll feel better if and when I have the check in hand.  If any Green Tree customers are reading this, I would bet $122.89 that this only happened because I filed a complaint with the CFPB.

[ladonnapietra]

Looks like I wasn't all that wrong when I joked that Green Tree Servicing isn't a mortgage company.

It's a non-bank servicer for loans.  The less fancy term is "paid muscle," and it isn't bound by the requirements set forth for actual, honest-to-goodness banks or mortgage companies: http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/new_bank_of_america_whistle_blower_emerges_more_customer_abuse/

It apparently specializes in sub-prime mortgages: http://theleonardlawoffice.com/2013/04/03/complaints-about-green-tree-servicing/#more-3431

Online complaints about Green Tree have gone through the roof since they bought GMAC's mortgages in February and Bank of America's mortgages in late 2012-early 2013.  Many of them make mine look like no big deal at all: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/greentree.htm 

In other words: despite never, ever being late on a mortgage payment for more than eight years and having superb credit, I am now a client of a sub-prime mortgage servicer that apparently does not play by anyone's rules and is accountable to almost no one. 

I'm not really sure how to handle this issue.  Many of the complaints involve people trying to move their loans away from Green Tree by refinancing through other companies.  Doing nothing seems like a recipe for disaster as well. 

(Buy a house, they said.  It will provide security, they said.  You'll sleep so much better at night, they said.)

[ladonnapietra]

Green Tree Servicing, apparently an animal husbandry company rather than a finance organization

Back in February, my then-mortgage company (GMAC) informed me that they had gotten to the final stage of bankruptcy proceedings and that Green Tree Servicing had bought my mortgage.  This was not a huge surprise, as GMAC had been sending me increasingly worrisome letters about their financial state for over a year, but I'd never heard of Green Tree before and was extremely nervous about how the switchover would take place.  Encouragingly, Green Tree seemed to be on top of things; they assured me that everything would be seamless and my automatic payments would continue as usual, just to them rather than the now-defunct GMAC.  The only hitch was that my escrow account was about $300 below where it needed to be, according to GMAC, and if I wanted my monthly payments to stay the same in the coming year, I needed to send a check in by March 1.  Since the transition was taking place in mid-February, I called Green Tree and asked if I should send the overage check to them or GMAC.  A Green Tree representative told me to send the check to the Green Tree escrow department along with a copy of my escrow analysis, and it "might take a little while," but everything would get sorted out.

I promptly mailed a check, which Green Tree cashed March 8th.  My March payment had increased, but I figured the next month would be back to my usual amount.  When April and May continued at the increased rate, I sent Green Tree an email asking what the delay was and when my cashed check would be applied to my account.  They sent a letter confirming that my check had been cashed and assuring me that an escrow analysis had been ordered and would be sent to me shortly. 

My monthly payments continued at the increased rate.  I got crankier.  I sent another request on August 18th.  Green Tree sent back another letter confirming that they'd received "my communication" and promising a response within 60 days.  I got even crankier and filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Green Tree has 15 days to respond.  However, the CFPB doesn't actually have the authority to force Green Tree to do anything, so that may not have any results.

In the meantime, I did some poking around online, and discovered that Green Tree has an absolutely horrific reputation with just about everyone.  Apparently, they will hound you to the ends of the earth if you are late on your payments.  The irony would be glorious if it were not so freakin' annoying. 

To that end, I'm responding to every request they've sent me for refinancing my mortgage with a summation of their inability to apply a simple escrow overage payment to my account, and asking them why on earth I would want to do something as complex as refinance a mortgage with a company that is clearly so incompetent.  They send me a request about once a week, so this may get interesting.  Either that, or they'll keep ignoring me and I'll keep kicking this up to whatever consumer protection authorities I can find.  The next stop is probably the St. Paul attorney general's office, since that's where their escrow department is located.