Restraining Order

Anita Neston needs a restraining order against her ex. Her ex-bank, that is. Anita and her bank parted ways last year, due to irreconcilable differences, resulting in a short sale of Anita’s house. The bank had displayed odd and sometimes abusive behavior during their relationship, but new stalking and harassment tactics began after their relationship officially terminated when the short sale closed. “The bank won’t leave me alone,” said Anita, “and nobody will help me. I’ve called everyone. I’m going absolutely crazy!”

Anita’s relationship with the bank began when she and her husband, Greg, built a new home in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The bank offered abundant money and favorable terms for financing. The home was beautiful- a little bigger than they originally envisioned- but the loan payment was right where they wanted it. Five years after the Nestons moved into their new home, they separated, and Anita couldn’t afford the payment on her own. Unfortunately, the real estate market had nose-dived, and the value of her home had dropped below the loan amount.

The bank began processing a loan modification, assuring Anita she would be approved, then changed gears and said her only option was a short sale. “The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing,” said Anita. “I filled out paperwork after paperwork for both a loan modification and a short sale.” Eventually, the short sale went through, and closed last December.

Then the harassment began. The bank began sending a relentless barrage of letters and packages to Anita at her old and new addresses, all to do with applying for a loan modification. “This is after I sold the house and moved!” says Anita. She gets phone calls demanding her to pick up packages and complete and return required documents. “The packages just keep coming; big fat things with lots of applications and forms. People tell me to just throw them away and ignore them,” she says, “but I get calls, too, one at 7:30 this morning for instance.”

Anita says the State Attorney General’s office told her the bank gets incentives for offering loan modifications. “So they’re sending all these packages to dead-ends. My Fed-Ex driver told me she delivers hundreds of these same packages all over the place,” said Anita. “She knows they are useless, but it’s her job to deliver.”

“It’s a waste of resources and wrong,” said Anita. “I wish others would speak up; maybe together we could do something about this!”

Anyone?