Elderly Couple Says Misapplied House Payments, Force Placed Insurance Racket Victimized Them Into F'closure; Compelled To Hire Attorney To Stall Sale

In Baird, Texas, the Abilene Reporter News reports:

• It's been enough to make Virginia Tollett sick with worry. "If we hadn't went and got an attorney, they would have auctioned our house on the courthouse lawn," said Tollett, 72, her voice rising. "They would have sold our house."



• Tollett and her husband, Jim, 74, have turned to the courts in an effort to prevent lender JP Morgan Chase from foreclosing on the Baird home they bought for $300,000 in 2006 with the help of a $200,000 loan. The banking giant did not respond to a request for comment.



• Tom Watson, the Abilene attorney representing the Tolletts, said a judge stepped in to prevent a sale of the home, scheduled for January. The status of the house remains uncertain, however, as a lawsuit remains pending in federal court that claims JP Morgan Chase wrongfully foreclosed on the home.



• "What we are alleging is they took money that we submitted for payment to the principal and interest and instead applied it toward insurance," Watson said.



• But the couple claim that they already had insurance, so the lender was wrong to take out the home insurance policy.



• "My husband and I truly believe that we were paying our payments," said Tollett, 72, explaining that the couple paid roughly $1,500 monthly. Chase wants about $10,000 to bring the account up to date, Watson said. "I don't know how they arrived at that amount," Watson said.



• He added: "We don't know how the payments were applied. Their records don't disclose that to us, at least in what I would call an intelligible, understandable form." The claim also seeks recovery of the couple's $100,000 down payment.



• Tollett said she has cried and even been sick to her stomach since first receiving a foreclosure notice last fall. [...] The experience has caused her to "hate this beautiful home." She said she's been embarrassed by the courthouse foreclosure postings and doesn't know how she wants things to end, recalling her initial enthusiasm for the house.

For the story, see Baird couple facing foreclosure claims house payments wrongly uncredited to mortage loan.