KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you lost your home to foreclosure, you could be eligible for some cash — up to $125,000. But, you need to hurry up and apply because the deadline is Monday.
Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes to foreclosure — and the federal government believes it happened to many people unfairly.
The feds have ordered 16 banks and lending institutions to pay for an independent review of those foreclosures and to reimburse people who were mistreated.
In the Kansas City metro, that could be thousands of people.
Two of those people are Angela and Bill Graham. “They never answer the phone. They won’t return your messages,” Bill said.
The couple has been fighting with Citibank for more than a year — trying to hang on to the home they love in Chillicothe, Mo.
The couple said their problems began when Bill lost his job selling cars. He quickly found another job — but for significantly less money. And, although both Bill and Angela work, they couldn’t make the mortgage, so they applied for a home loan modification.
That’s when, they say, their carefully documented nightmare with Citibank began.
“They asked for 100 different documents and we did every one of them,” said Bill. “The next month they needed the same documents again. Some documents she sent 7 to 8 times. ”
For months, they fought with Citibank and they thought they were making progress — until one day a relative told them to look at the newspaper.
“That was the way we found out about it in the local newspaper. There was a notice our home was going to be sold.”
The Grahams found out not only would their home be sold, but on the courthouse steps.
Frantic, they hired an attorney who told them their only option was to file bankruptcy and stop the bank from taking their home.
But even now, after declaring bankruptcy, they still don’t know where they stand with the bank and whether this Christmas would be the last at their home.
