Countrywide

Countrywide Mortgage Co. (or whatever their official name is) can SUCK IT. (I have several "it"s in mind, none of them pleasant.)

I got a letter a few days back, in legalese, telling me basically what I already knew: my house was sold. The letter said that there had been a motion made to take possession of the building (okay, fine) and it contained the following phrase:

"The Sheriff cannot evict until 30 days after the entry of this order."

The order was dated Sept. 18th. I had been told on several occasions that it takes approximately forever to evict someone; when Tim was evicted, it didn't actually happen til nearly 6 weeks after the date he was originally given. So figure, October 18, plus an unknown period of time. Not un-doable, but I was hoping to leave at the end of the month--and that's saying nothing for Tim and Squeaky, who don't have JOBS yet, let alone a place to go. For them, I was thinking December 1st would be more reasonable.

So I called the lawyers. "Well, we don't handle the evictions," they said. "You'll have to call Countrywide." (They're the original lender; they apparently got the building back in the sale. Dunno how that works, but after today I can only tell them Good luck to you, bastard people.)

I called Countrywide. The first department gave me the number of a second department. The second department advised me to call the REO department, who in turn advised me to call the Foreclosure department, which turned out to be the department I'd spoken to first. Needless to say, this did not improve my attitude at all. But finally I got a person. I explained the situation to her. "Well, how long would you need?" she asked. I told her "I'd prefer December 1st, but I'll settle for November 1st."

She went away to consult with someone. Ten minutes later, she returned.

"They said you need to move out. Today."

I informed her that no, that was NOT the case; I had before me a letter saying clearly that I had 30 days.

"Well, you need to move out by October 18th, then," she countered. "They're not going to extend it."

I explained to her the history, as follows:

I was out of work for ten months.
When I lost my job I told them "I need to make arrangements."
I was told "We can't make arrangements unless you have a job."
I told them "If I had a job, I wouldn't need arrangements."

When I finally GOT a job, I called and said "Okay, I've got a job; I'm ready to make those arrangements."
They said "We can't make arrangements unless you have $10,000 to get caught up."
I told them "If I had $10,000, I wouldn't BE in foreclosure."

So finally (I said) the house was sold, and now I'm asking for thirteen stinking days, and you can't give me THAT? And this from a company whose name has been all over the news as one of the WORST offenders in the subprime mortgage crisis--from the SAME company who encouraged me to exaggerate my income so that the loan would go through--and this SAME company now can't even work with me so that I have the time to find a place to stay now that they've got their building back and have the power to put me on the street?

Needless to say (I told her) I will not be speaking positively of Countrywide in the future. In fact, I will make it my business to tell everyone I know, and possibly total strangers in the street, about my experience with your company, and its total lack of empathy or corporate accountability.

"Have a good day, ma'am," she said.

At this point, aside from being wrathfully pissed, I was also having a minor freakout. Seventeen days is not a long time to find a place to live, to pack all your worldly belongings, and to find a moving company--particularly while working what, when commute time is added, amounts to a ten-hour day.

I took a few deep breaths.

Then I called the Sheriff's Department. I picked the "Evictions" option, and after letting the phone ring one hundred times, I hung up. Next I tried the "Operator" option. After eighty rings, I was fairly sure that everyone there had been overcome by poison gas and were sitting at their desks, slowly decomposing.

Next I randomly picked a department; miracle of miracles, a HUMAN answered. "I really don't NEED this department," I told her. "I need Evictions, but I can't get them to answer the phone for love nor money, and I have a really general question but it's REALLY important," I said.

"Let me transfer you," she said.

After three rings: success. I asked what the real situation was, and finally got a little good news: Apparently the Countrywide Bastard People Co. cannot even FILE for an eviction til thirty days after that order--so, October 18th--and from then, it takes between one and eight weeks for the actual eviction to take place. The odds are in my favor, at least.

She also told me I could go downtown and talk to a judge, who might be able to give me a little wiggle room. So the proverbial wolf, although he is quite near the door, is not quite breathing through the peephole just YET. Small favors, and all that.

The last thing I did was to call my old landlord, to see if he had any studio or one-bedroom places available. And so Wednesday morning before work, I'm going to go look at a studio in my old building--$535 a month, all utilities included.

As for Tim and Squeaky--I told them the whole story later, since they didn't roll out of bed til nearly 3-- and if that's not a wake-up call, nothing ever will be. But right now, I can't worry about them--thanks to Countrywide, I now have QUITE enough to worry about on my OWN account.