Buyer At 2nd Mortgagee-Forced F'closure Sale Unwittingly 'Inherits' Bad Payment History On Existing 1st Loan; Needs Media To Fix Resulting Credit Woes

From the San Jose (California) Mercury News Action Line:

Question:

• I have worked on this to no avail for almost a year, and it is absolutely driving me mad. In January of 2011, I acquired a property on the steps of the courthouse by foreclosure.
  
  
• The lender, Luther Burbank Savings, said in order to assume the loan I had to apply for it and qualify to assume. This I did, paying more than $3,000 in charges for the assumption. I had been making timely payments on this loan for almost a year.
  
  
• Then the nightmare started. As soon as I assumed the loan with the same loan number as the previous owners, their bad credit appeared on my credit report. The credit reporting companies show me owning the property from 2003 when I only acquired it in 2011.
  
  
• Since then, my life has been a nightmare, trying to repair this. Luther Burbank, to give them their due, has tried to have the previous bad credit erased from my credit report -- to no avail. The credit reporting companies don't respond to letters or to any other form of communication.
  
  
• Luther Burbank has contacted the credit reporting companies and there is now a note in my file that says this loan number is paid as agreed, but they will not remove the years of derogatory information connected with the loan number.
  
  
• You can never talk to a live person, their websites don't take complaints, and they don't reply to letters. Where can I go from here? (Kate Talbot)
  

Answer:

• I contacted the three major reporting agencies for you, Kate. Experian spokesman Gerry Tschopp reported back: "We reviewed Ms. Talbot's credit history and found that the foreclosure information had been deleted as requested by Luther Burbank Savings. There was no indication of foreclosure in her credit report, and the account shows current with no negative payment history."
  
  
• TransUnion spokesman Clifton M. O'Neal reported that your record has been corrected.
  
  
• Equifax spokesman Timothy Klein said that he is looking into this for you.

Source: Action Line: Reader says credit reporting agencies ruined her credit.