OneWest Bank
Attn: Customer Service
888 East Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91101
800.669.2300
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to request the refund of my mortgage refinance application fee in the amount of $600 and to register my extreme displeasure with your organization’s handling of my account, as well as to point out what appears to amount to fiduciary dereliction of duty (or perhaps “predatory nonlending”).
Faced with a declining property value on my home, I first sought to refinance my home through IndyMac Bank in December 2008. After IndyMac was seized by federal regulators in the subprime mortgage meltdown, I was reassigned a variety of loan processors (Matt Goodwin and Joel Morrison) who failed to inform me in a timely manner of several documents necessary to close the refinance loan, thus causing me to miss the crucial deadlines. In early May, OneWest Bank loan representative Heather Howard informed me she was the new loan officer assigned to my case. Ms. Howard proceeded to keep “updating” me with increasingly longer time estimates as to a possible closing, and eventually stopped responding to my e-mail and telephone queries. The last I heard from her or anyone at OneWest Bank was an e-mail note she sent June 4, despite repeated e-mail attempts on June 11 and June 24 and several voice mail messages.
Meanwhile, OneWest Bank continues to reap the benefits of its inaction and failure to offer either loan modifications or straightforward FHA refinancing despite the fact that I have qualified for such a program. It raises the question of what OneWest, as well as the banking industry at large, is doing with taxpayer-supplied federal funds specifically earmarked for this purpose.
My refund check may be mailed to the above address.
I also sent a copy of the letter and the following to each of the following lawmakers: Sen. Chuck Schumer; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; Sen. Christopher Dodd; Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
Dear [Lawmaker]:
I urge you to hold the banking industry responsible for its catastrophic failures in creating the recent subprime mortgage meltdown and demand accountability for the taxpayer funds that have been provided to a myriad of institutions, especially the newly profitable and federally subsidized Goldman Sachs.
To highlight how it affects an average voter — and homeowner — I am enclosing a letter to my mortgage holder, OneWest Bank (formerly IndyMac Bank, which was seized by federal regulators). OneWest Bank has benefited from its own inaction by failing to offer either loan modifications or straightforward FHA refinancing despite the fact that I have qualified for such a program.
It raises the question of what OneWest, as well as the banking industry at large, is doing with taxpayer-supplied federal funds specifically earmarked for this purpose. This, I believe, amounts to fiduciary dereliction of duty (or perhaps “predatory nonlending”).
Thank you for keeping the public interest — and NOT corporate America — a priority.
While I don't expect much to come from a single letter — especially after Marco sent me this — we'll see what kind of responses are forthcoming.
