Long story about short sale

Updated: June 29, 2012 12:02PM

Dear Fixer: I completed a short sale of our Jefferson Park home in June 2011. It was a huge relief for me and my family.

Due to the horrible economy, we no longer could afford to pay our mortgage and care for our family. After purchasing our home, we did not refinance and buy frivolous things. We thought we were being responsible. We just hit a rough patch.

About four months after the sale, I noticed that Ocwen Financial Corp., which was our second mortgage company, had posted information to my credit report indicating we had a loan that was outstanding and delinquent. The loan had a different loan number than my original loan, even though it was the exact amount that should have been taken care of as part of the short sale.

I have all the closing documents, the approval letters and copies of the wire transfers to prove them wrong. After several attempts at disputing the information and hundreds of phone calls, I was told by an Ocwen representative that I was correct and that a fictitious loan was entered into their system, he could donothing about it, and I should seek legal help.

Dumbfounded, I spoke with an attorney who told me it could take years to resolve this. I am at an utter loss. We would very much like to move on with our lives, but I don’t think Ocwen will allow us. This column is my last resort. I hope you can help us.

Norm Osimani

Dear Norm: It sounds like you got caught in one of those glitchy situations that seems like it should be simple to fix but somehow isn’t. The Fixer was happy to pluck this problem out of that hopeless cycle and get it into the hands of someone who could fix it.

We brought your story to John Britti, executive VP and CFO at Ocwen, who took it to their consumer ombudsman’s office. Within a few days, they straightened it out.

Apparently, the glitch occurred around the time of the short sale, when the servicing of your loan was transferred from Ocwen to another company. Ocwen got the $3,300 that was supposed to pay off your debt, but somehow, it was never recorded as such. They fixed this and are filing a satisfaction/release of mortgage. They also sent you written documentation, along with an apology. It may take several weeks for the erroneous delinquent debt to come off your credit report, but it will.

Vital KID information

Years ago, when The Fixer was a reporter in the old Sun-Times building, a woman called the newsroom upset about something she’d seen while driving past a yard sale.

On display, right on the front lawn, was a crib that had been recalled as hazardous. When the woman pointed this out to the seller, the seller refused to remove it. He acted like it was no big deal.

But it is a big deal. Faulty drop-side cribs and poorly designed portable crib/play yards have been implicated in dozens of infant and toddler deaths. With recalled portable cribs, the top rails have accidentally collapsed, creating a “V” in which the child can suffocate. With drop-side cribs, there have been numerous cases in which babies have become wedged between their mattress and the drop-side.

One of the most publicized cases was the death of 16-month-old Danny Keysar, the son of University of Chicago professors Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar. After Danny’s death in 1998 in a licensed childcare facility’s portable crib — which no one realized had been recalled — his parents founded the Chicago nonprofit Kids In Danger to publicize recalled children’s products and try to get tougher standards for items on the market.

Now, KID has a new way to connect parents and grandparents with potentially life-saving information: A new mobile website that can be accessed from a phone or tablet to instantly check on whether a car seat, stroller, crib or other product has been recalled.

The innovation will be especially useful at summer garage sales or flea markets, KID’s executive director, Nancy Cowles, told The Fixer. The first item that pops up is a search field, where the person can search by product type or brand.

There are millions of recalled cribs still in circulation. Cowles says she regularly finds recalled products on the resale market, something she always points out to the seller.

It’s illegal for people to resell recalled products, even at rummage sales. But many sellers simply don’t know, because they were lucky enough to not have a child get injured. “I don’t think anyone does it intentionally,” Cowles told us. “I think they just don’t realize it.”

Consumers may access the free mobile website at KidsInDanger.org.

The mobile website is also useful for people who are hosting a rummage sale: As you clean out your basement or attic to prepare, you can quickly check on what’s safe and what’s not.

Slamming the door

Last fall we wrote about a couple of Fixer readers, Andy Christmas and Hagen O’Brien, who lost $1,551 they’d paid to Family Security Door & Window for a security door and wrought-iron gate before the business suddenly closed. We pleaded with Family Security owner Robert Starr to give their money back, but he and his attorney said he wasn’t financially able to do so. Luckily for Andy and Hagen, they ultimately got a refund from their credit card company.

Recently Family Security got more bad news: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against the company, Starr, his brother Michael Starr and two others. The suit claims the company took in more than $90,000 in down payments for orders that were never fulfilled — including some payments accepted at the same time the company was going under.

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