Bank of America has had some unfortunate foreclosure practices in recent months, including foreclosing on a home that no longer exists, repossessing the wrong person’s pet parrot, and foreclosing on an elderly couple for paying their mortgage too early. Added to the annals of absurdity, the bank nearly foreclosed on a homeowner who accidentally underpaid his mortgage payment by a whopping 80 cents, as the Tampa Bay Tribune reported:
When Tom Mudie was approved for a mortgage modification program, he thought his foreclosure troubles were over.
Bank of America lowered his monthly payment by nearly $200. All he had to do was make the new payments — on time for three months — and the new amount would be made permanent.
But a simple error — hitting a “0” on his telephone keypad instead of an “8” — threatened not only to cancel the savings but also to cost him his home…Mudie paid his second trial mortgage payment by phone. The keypad mistake meant that instead of paying $615.82, he paid $615.02. He was three quarters and a nickel short.
Mudie paid the 80 cents in a separate check. The bank not only sent that check back to him, but sent his subsequent payment back as well and continued with foreclosure proceedings. Mudie was eventually able to convince the bank that he, in fact, had not intentionally underpaid his mortgage by less than a dollar. BofA claims the whole mess is due to a “computer glitch.”
Bank of America has had a significant amount of trouble processing loan modifications. It even foreclosed on one New Jersey homeowner two days after approving his modification, a mistake it did not correct until it was contacted by New Jersey’s largest newspaper. Outside of the modification sphere, one couple resorted to cutting a music video in order to embarrass the bank to close on their loan.