Real Estate Overcharges: $18,000 in Extra Fees

Salisbury, NHImagine finding out, almost two years after obtaining a second mortgage on your home, that you were charged around $18,000 in real estate transaction fees that you were not initially told about. Imagine being told that, because the company filed for bankruptcy, your mortgage was sold, your payments were going up, and your house was going to be foreclosed and you would have nowhere to live.

This is the situation that Carol C. and her husband face. Two years ago, they refinanced their home through Aegis Mortgage. Two months after the papers were signed, the company filed bankruptcy, turned in its license and sold Carol's loan to HomeEQ. However, it was not until a few months ago that Carol learned she was charged around $18,000 in fees for her mortgage.

"We took the paperwork to the New Hampshire banking commission to go over because our loan is an adjustable rate loan," Carol says. "It was at the banking commission that we learned that Aegis charged us $12,000 on the first mortgage to buy points so we would get a 6.5 percent interest rate, which we would have got anyhow. They also charged us over $6,000 in closing costs.

"The man at the banking commission told us that unless a person was in the legal business and familiar with mortgages, a normal person would not have realized that they were being charged so much extra. In other states, when you have documents like this, it's required for both parties to have a lawyer go through the paperwork, to make sure that something like this doesn't happen. But he told us that New Hampshire doesn't require that.

"It [Aegis] was a very shady company. They sent two people to the house for the closing and it was all done very quickly. They were also deceitful. They told us we could refinance at a lower rate in a couple of years, which we couldn't, they said they wouldn't sell the loans, which they did and they said they would work with us, which they didn't do.

"Now, we're in this mortgage crisis situation and we will lose the house because we can't afford the mortgage payments, which have recently gone up because of increased interest rates. HomEQ told us they don't write mortgages, they only collect money, so they can't help us. We worked out a payment arrangement with them and they told us the arrangement would keep us current but they have reported us late, which they said they wouldn't do. So that affects our credit report.

"We will have no place to live because we're going up for foreclosure. We cannot afford this place. I was just told on Sunday that the first mortgage is up to almost $1,300 a month, up from $1,000 a month. The second mortgage is now probably $1,100 a month. Who can afford that? And that doesn't include taxes and insurance, which we were told by Aegis we could do later. We're stuck with payments we can't afford.

Many people are investigating lawsuits against various companies, alleging they were overcharged for closing fees and other real estate transactions. If you believe you were charged too much for a real estate transaction, contact a lawyer to discuss your legal options.