KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Four years ago, Stanley and Kelly Kinney’s lives were turned upside down when their family started receiving death threats from a man Kelly worked with. The costly legal battle that followed — combined with Stanley being laid off during the process — dealt a massive blow to the Kinneys’ finances.
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The family’s home loan was sold to a servicer called Carrington Mortgage, who Kelly says was incredibly difficult to communicate with as she tried to avoid foreclosure on her Saugus home of eight years.
The Kinney family’s home in Saugus.
“We couldn’t get them to talk to us,” Kelly told KHTS last week, with a foreclosure date of July 17 looming over her. “They were telling us they had no records of our stuff; they had no payments, (but) they weren’t sending us payment notices… It was really just confusing.”
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When all hope seemed lost, what Kelly called a “godsend” came into their lives: the help of a Santa Clarita realtor who provides free loan modification and foreclosure defense services to the public.
Rich Szerman of Alta Realty Group promptly got to work on submitting a loan modification request to Carrington Mortgage, and quickly realized this seemingly simple task would be nearly impossible.
While Szerman claims he’s been attempting to submit the Kinneys’ completed file since May 15, Carrington officials have allegedly put up obstacle after obstacle, ranging from losing paperwork to requiring a “special code” that no one seemed to know before any action could be taken.
“They have lied and cheated and done everything they possibly can to avoid doing this loan modification since the day we got the file,” Szerman said.
This cycle of what Szerman called “ridiculous” incompetency continued until the morning of the interview with KHTS on July 6, when he finally received the call his office had been waiting for.
Szerman says the Carrington official he spoke with confirmed the file was complete and that the foreclosure would be postponed while the loan modification request was considered. However, when Szerman followed up with the trustee — who conducts the foreclosure sale at the orders of the bank — he was told the foreclosure was still on their books.
Kelly Kinney looks at paperwork Szerman says he submitted to Carrington Mortgage at least nine times.
“So we called the bank back to say, ‘Hey, it’s still on the calendar — you need to take this off,’” Szerman said. “And the bank’s response was, ‘Oh, did we say we were going to put it off? Oh we can’t, maybe, I don’t know — we’re missing this other piece of paper.’”
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Similarly, in the days following the interview with KHTS, Szerman alleges he has been told multiple times the foreclosure is “on hold,” only to follow up with the trustee with the same results.
“When we check with the trustee, they tell us it is going forward,” he said. “Then we call Carrington back and they say, ‘We can’t guarantee it’s on hold or will not occur, but we think it should be put on hold.’ This is obviously not the same as ‘on hold.’ In short, Carrington has lied to us repeatedly and when caught, they back-pedal.”
At the time of the interview on Thursday, Szerman didn’t even know if the Kinneys would file for bankruptcy on Monday to save their house — which they were, in fact, forced to do –, let alone if they would have to shortsale it, or become the next victims of the foreclosure crisis.
“After two and a half months of working on a file on a daily basis, I should have answers to these questions, and it’s not for lack of trying,” he said. “These lenders just don’t care.”
Rich Szerman talks with Kelly Kinney about her options.
For Kelly, who grew up as a “military brat” having to move almost constantly, being able to provide her son with a stable home has been her top priority, making the situation even more difficult on her as a parent.
Related: Santa Clarita Realtor Accusing Wells Fargo Mortgage Of Misconduct Ahead Of Planned Foreclosure
“He’s grown up with the same kids in this neighborhood, he went to the same schools, he knows everyone,” she said. “It’s a huge, huge emotional hit to lose that.”
While Szerman is confident that sharing the Kinneys’ story will force Carrington officials to “listen,” he noted he doesn’t believe for a second the long list of mistakes allegedly made by the servicer’s employees are an accident.
“The more of these things that we bring to light, the more the banks suddenly behave themselves,” he said. “I promise you, Carrington, like all the other banks, will do exactly what the other ones have done. The minute they get media scrutiny, the minute that their malfeasance comes to light, they immediately run backwards and say, ‘Whoops, didn’t mean it — we didn’t do that — I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ As if we made all this stuff up.”
Szerman clarified he has carefully documented proof of every attempt at communication on behalf of the Kinney family, calling the behavior of servicers like Carrington Mortgage “immoral and outrageous.”
“It’s not like we’re not trying to pay for our house — we just need help getting back on the right track,” Kelly said. “(We’re) just trying to get someone to listen.”
Carrington Mortgage officials declined to comment for this story Monday due to confidentiality reasons.
To contact Richard Szerman of Alta Realty Group for free loan modification and foreclosure defense services, call 661-714-1400, email richszerman@gmail.com or click here.
UPDATE: Following the publication of this story, the Kinney family was granted a trial period for a loan modification by Carrington Mortgage.
See the full collection of KHTS Feature Stories and Videos on hometownstation.com here.
Why does Richard keep switching companies. I thought his wife almost or maybe lost her license a couple of years ago trying to defraud a bank with a short sale. Do your research before promoting people you know.
This is an inaccurate depiction of how my company operates. In some states , placing a hold means postponing in one week intervals. This reads as if their loan recently transferred to Carrington who has inherited a loan in foreclosure. A last minute modification application was received and they’re taking the time to review it to try to accomadate. Carrington is helping .
Our family went through trying times when Bank of America “sold” our mortgage to Carrington Mortgage without our knowledge. Once we found out, the first thing we did was research Carrington and found a lot of negative reviews about how this company operates. After being sent around to one Carrington agent after another we thought we were in discussions and on the verge of a modification to save our home but at the same time Carrington was working on the Foreclosure of our home instead.
We looked for Legal Counsel and got mixed results of what our options were. We then came across Richard Szerman and we were impressed with his honesty, outgoing personality, and confidence that he could help us. We were at the point of giving up, but Rich didn’t let us. He fought for us when we didn’t have the energy to fight for ourselves. All he asked is that we trust him.
Shortly after he started working on our case, Carrington started to call us and send letters about working on our case. At the same time, they kept sending foreclosure notices. It became overwhelming. The amount of scammers calling and knocking on our door, the constant phone calls, the junk mail. We were in a panic but Rich was relaxed and confident he could save our home and he did just that.
If it wasn’t for Rich, we don’t know where we would be today.
As for Richard’s work history, people change jobs for many reasons and we would work with any company that Rich works for. Rich is an outgoing, energetic, and honest person and we believe if he changed companies it was because it was a better situation for him and his family. Any person who wants to bring someone’s personal history and family into a disagreement or complaint about someone and put it under online comments as an anonymous person is someone we would never agree with or trust. If you had a grievance with Rich, I’m sure he would have rather you discussed it directly with him instead of attacking him and his family online.
Thank you Richard and Alta Realty Group for helping us in this difficult situation.
I know that this comment is a couple of years old, but we are going through the exact same nightmare with Carrington Mortgage. Bank of America sold our mortgage to Carrington back in 2014 and it has been an absolute nightmare ever since. They dual-tracked us and foreclosed on our home of 12 years while we were actively working with them via a HUD counselor on a loan modification after we had fallen behind on our payments when my husband was out of work for several months after having open-heart surgery. They did nothing but stonewall us throughout the entire process by constantly claiming that documents were missing, lost, incorrect, or stale. It was literally obstacle after obstacle. They ran us around in circles for almost a year by having us constantly send them the exact same documents over and over again. They kept lying and would say that they never received them or lost them. We found out back in September that Carrington had foreclosed on our home in April and then bought it at auction in August as the sole bidders. On top of that, Carrington did NOT own our loan, did NOT have a clean chain of title, and had NO legal right to foreclose. We are now suing them in Federal court and we are also working with our state’s Attorney General’s office for help with this insanity. We are currently still in our home and are doing everything we can to fight this. Carrington is, by far, the biggest bunch of crooks and liars that I have ever seen in my entire life! This whole thing literally makes me sick to my stomach.
My Dad passed away recently. When I was young and just starting my RE career, he used to always ask me, ”are you doing any good?” Not have you made any money, have you sold any houses, but have you done any good? I’ve tried to run by business with that same philosophy. I think the hundreds of families we’ve saved from foreclosure for free over the years would tell you, we stepped in and did what no one else would or could do and we did it completely for free. My reason is simple, I want “to do good” and charging people who are already in financial trouble would NOT be in keeping with that philosophy.
I’m sure the Kinney family from the above story could tell you, I saved them from foreclosure. Not because I was paid to do it, but just because I could.
As far as my working for different companies. I have worked for four companies in 20 years. I have only ever changed companies to provide more opportunities and provide better service to my clients.
It really is amazing what being anonymous allows people to say. Rich has always been honest and above board and dealing with any of our clients, just ask them. If you have a problem with someone confront them not this anonymous nonsense that you think you can get away
The Szerman family have the biggest heart.They are a family that makes you feel like you are one of them.
What is amazing is that their door is always open . I am so fortunate to be working with them for last few years . I have seen Mr Szerman and Mrs Szerman help my clients when I could not . I am so lucky to have them as my partners and GREAT COMPANY Mr Szerman created for few lucky realtors. I have other choices . It is not the COMPANY but the people that run the COMPANY that makes the difference. I am very proud to
be part of the Team that does good in our community.