Hurricane Woman Loses Home After Following Wells Fargo’s Advice While Undergoing Chemotherapy

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Anneliese Freeman-White lost her home while battling breast cancer, a radiation burn, and a chemotherapy overdose. | Photo by Tracie McFarlin, St. George News

HURRICANE – In October 2008, while working on the oil fields in Vernal, Utah, Anneliese Freeman-White found a lump in her left breast. When her doctor told her it was breast cancer, she didn’t immediately tell her husband or other family members. The first thing she did was call Wells Fargo, the holder of her mortgage and home equity loan.

“Before I even told my family that I had cancer I called Wells Fargo,” Freeman-White said. “I told them I needed to get my home loan modified, and that I’m going to need help because I was [the] main supporter of my family.”

Freeman-White, her husband, her daughter and her granddaughter (who Freeman-White had legally adopted as her child) lived in a house in Hurricane. Freeman-White and her husband bought the property and paid a contractor to build the house in 2004 for a total of $138,000. They put $30,000 down in cash – money they’d gotten from a settlement for her husband’s failed back surgery. The fusion of five disks in his spine failed because the titanium the doctors used broke. The failed surgery made Freeman-White’s husband disabled and he has not been able to work since.

Freeman-White and her husband originally sent their mortgage payments to the contractor who built their home. In 2007, the contractor began going through a divorce. Freeman-White and her husband were afraid their home would get tied up in the contractor’s divorce negotiations, so in 2007 they took their mortgage to Wells Fargo.

In 2007 Freeman-White and her husband also took out a home equity loan with Wells Fargo to build a fence and landscape their yard. They only needed $15,000 to cover these expenses but the loan officer convinced them to borrow $45,000.

“We were stupid,” Freeman-White said. “We should have said ‘no, we’ll just get what we need to build the fence.’”

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Freeman-White spoke to Wells Fargo’s home mortgage department and their home equity department nearly every day. During this time she was also undergoing chemotherapy. Despite the fact that the home mortgage department and home equity department were both parts of Wells Fargo, representatives from those two departments never spoke to each other – Freeman-White was the one that informed each department of what the other one was doing she said.

Wells Fargo’s home equity department finally told Freeman-White to miss a home equity payment while her mortgage was being modified, she said.

“I told them, just lower [the home equity loan payment] by $100 and I’ll be able to make it,” Freeman-White said.

In the meantime, Wells Fargo had to foreclose on Freeman-White’s home in order for the modification of her mortgage to go through. When Freeman-White began the mortgage modification process, she owed $107,000 on her mortgage. After the modification and foreclosure expenses were added to the loan, she owed about $118,000.

Freeman-White called Wells Fargo asking about this change in her balance owed.

“They said that’s the way it has to be done,” Freeman-White said.

Freeman-White called the home equity department as soon as she had the information they needed about the modification of her mortgage.

“The day I got the modification paperwork I called the home equity department and said, ‘I have the modification papers, what do you want to do on your end?’” Freeman-White said.

Now that Freeman-White’s mortgage payment was lowered, she was able to pay her home equity loan payments.

The home equity department at Wells Fargo told her not to worry about paying her home equity loan payments, she said. The department had already sold Freeman-White’s $45,000 debt to a collection agency and reported it to the credit reporting agencies as unpaid.

Freeman-White continued to receive chemotherapy during these events.

Eagle Crest, LLC, the collection agency that bought Freeman-White’s home equity loan, first called her in March 2009, right after she’d received another chemotherapy treatment for her breast cancer. By this point she was bald, and feeling extremely sick.

“They called me a lame-ass piece of shit, nothing but a loser,” Freeman-White said. “My daughter grabbed the phone and told them to never call her mom again.”

A few days later, Freeman-White was admitted to the hospital for a chemotherapy overdose. She was in the hospital for seven days. While she was in the hospital, Eagle Crest called Freeman-White’s home and harassed her family.

Freeman-White started radiation treatments for her breast cancer, but she began to suspect something wasn’t right. Her left breast had shrunk considerably. It was hard as a rock, and began to smell foul.

“It smelled like sewage,” Marquita Hess-Nelson, a friend of Freeman-White, said.

It took some time for Freeman-White to convince her doctors that there was a problem. She was finally diagnosed with a severe radiation burn and taken into surgery

Freeman-White underwent a double mastectomy. Doctors covered the hole in her chest where her left breast used to be with muscle taken from Freeman-White’s back.

Unknown to Freeman-White, Eagle Crest sold Freeman-White’s home equity loan to another collection agency, Partners for Payment Relief, LLC. Freeman-White received two letters in the mail from Partners for Payment Relief, and then a foreclosure notice was stuck to the outside of her home.

Freeman-White, alarmed, called Wells Fargo and asked them what to do.

Wells Fargo told her not to worry about it.

“They told me they’re the first lienholders,” Freeman-White said.

Wells Fargo told Freeman-White that as long as she didn’t leave her home, the collection agency couldn’t foreclose on it.

“But I have eviction notices,” Freeman-White told Wells Fargo. “[Wells Fargo] said nobody can kick you out as long as you’re making your modified loan [mortgage] payments.”

Dec. 22, 2010 Freeman-White went to court to try to keep her home.

She brought a letter from her doctor, Dr. Richard Lemon, who asked the court to allow Freeman-White to stay in her home.

“[She] has disabling neuropathy caused by her chemotherapy and chest wall inflammation caused by an infection caused by surgery and radiation therapy,” Lemon wrote. “I do not feel at the present time that she is physically able to move.”

The court evicted Freeman-White from her home, but gave her two weeks in which to move out. Without the court’s intervention, Freeman-White would have had to move out in only three days.

Freeman-White’s home was put up on public auction and Partners for Payment Relief bought it for $14,600. Freeman-White originally paid $138,000 for her home.

After Partners for Payment Relief foreclosed on and bought Freeman-White’s home, Wells Fargo foreclosed on the home, based on their interest in the original mortgage Freeman-White took out on the home in 2007. Wells Fargo put the house on public auction a second time.

According to the Washington County Recorder’s Office, the title for Freeman-White’s home has changed hands more than seven times since 2004.

Freeman-White, her husband, and her 9-year-old granddaughter no longer have a home. Freeman-White and her husband now have three foreclosures on their credit records and haven’t been able to rent a place to live. They’ve been spending time at various properties belonging to Freeman-White’s friends.

Before she got breast cancer, Freeman-White had good credit and a good job.

“I had everything,” Freeman-White said. “I had credit cards. I built myself from raising my two girls to getting married. We had credit cards. We had a nice home.”

Freeman-White knows she has lost her home in Hurricane forever, along with the $30,000 cash she and her husband put as down payment in 2004.

“I don’t really want the home back. I want my credit straightened out,” Freeman-White said. “I want Wells Fargo to recognize what they’ve done to my life and others – because I kept in contact with them 24/7 and they kept telling me, ‘Don’t worry, they can’t get you out of [your home].’ But they knew they could! They destroyed my family in the process.”

Freeman-White says she tried to follow the rules and do everything right.

“There wasn’t a day that went by in chemo and radiation and being sick that I didn’t deal with Wells Fargo, trying to save my home so my granddaughter had a place to live in case I passed away,” Freeman-White said.

Freeman-White receives medical care through Utah State Medicaid, so she and her family are trying to stay close to the St. George area. If Freeman-White moves away from Utah – to Las Vegas, for example – she will lose her medical coverage.

In an ironic twist, Freeman-White received a letter in the mail from Wells Fargo after her home had been auctioned to the public for the second time.

The letter told her that she had no homeowner’s insurance on her home and she needed to purchase some.

At this point, Freeman-White hadn’t owned her home for over six months.

“Nobody knows what the other hand is doing,” Freeman-White said. “Nobody talks to anybody.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2011, all rights reserved.

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10 Comments

  • dustin June 23, 2011 at 8:45 am

    this is a very sad story and is becoming more and more common. too bad the writer didn’t talk to anyone at the bank. i feel for the freeman-white family but this is written play-by-play based on one side.

    • Jen Watkins June 23, 2011 at 9:30 pm

      Dustin, We have tried contacted the banks when we do these stories, and we get sent to corporate and then we hit a dead end. I would love to speak with someone at the bank, but it doesn’t work that way.

  • Mike June 23, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    While it’s a one-sided story, it’s obviously fairly common.

    Why can’t people make just one phone call to set things in motion, especially if both of their loans are at the same bank? At least it’s helping people keep their jobs at the bank, duplicating paperwork and processes that could all be done by one person.

    • Jen Watkins June 23, 2011 at 9:32 pm

      To me the moral of the story that we can all take away from this is: If the bank tells you to miss a payment, don’t miss a payment. They are not your friends and they are not doing what is best for you.

  • Jack June 23, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    By my calculations she didn’t lose anything. She put 30,000 down and took out an extra 30,000 in home equity loan. If the story is complete, her credit is messed up, but she didn’t lose any money.

  • elliemae June 23, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    Jack makes perfect sense. I do have sympathy for this woman, but she broke even. She lost me at the point that she said the loan officer convinced her to borrow $45k… Unless he held a gun to her head, she had the choice there. And she got the money.

    I hope she recovers and is able to move on.

  • cam coffey October 24, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    Partners for payment relief bought up our second mortage as well from Wells Fargo.
    (Wells Fargo owned our first as well) They ended up making a call to our retirement
    investors with me (out of despiration) and took every cent out of it before writing up
    a payment agreement. They sucked dry 29 yrs of savings, investments.
    They served us forclosure notices, had a realitor come to put the house up for sale.
    They took us to court, called us non stop to get the money.
    We did get to keep our house so far but I haven’t seen on my credit report that the
    bill has been settled with them. I have Wells Fargo forclosure and Partners for Payment
    Relief Forclosure (same loan) still on my credit report even though we settled it…
    I don’t know what a next step is since I am completely broke after they took every penny
    from every account that I have.

  • cam coffey October 24, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    I want to add to that , My wife was undergoing chemo thearpy and radiation
    at the time that Partners Payment Relief was doing this. She was
    sick for more than 2 yrs and continues to be off of work due to the illness.

  • Jerry Jenkins November 3, 2012 at 2:50 pm

    The writer needs to get an education on real estate before writing one sided articles but then again a full balanced report would not sell as good as a heart string pull about a poor, sick lady getting evicted from her house. A more TRUTHFUL story would read, lady builds house, takes out 2rd morgage at the top of the market, refuses to pay 2rd, does NOT talk to second, gets forecosed and cries.
    HERE are a few items that the original writer failed to mention..

    1. Most banks SELL ALL the loans they write. Wells Fargo originates the loans based on Freddie and Fannie LENDING GUIDELINES and after 1 ONE payment is made then the loan is considered, “seasoned” and the bank sells the loan to Freddie Mae or Fannie Mac. This allows the bank to borrow under the fractional funding guidelines over 15 TIMES the amount of money they have on deposit, write loans worth OVER 15 times that amount, hold loans fo ONE month and then sells off the loans to get the 1% Loan Origination Fee plus other expenses rolled into the loan AND the profit margin that they get from Freddie or Fannie. So after ONE payment the loan was SERVICED by Wells Fargo but the loan was OWNED by Freddie or Fannie. Freddie or Fannie then sell the loans to Wall Street Firm like Bear Stearns and they then package the loans as CDOs and sell them to insurance companies, retirement fund companies, etc. When you call the ORIGINAL lender of record, they MUST track down the original loan and see who they sold it too, who Freddie sold it to, who Barnie sold it to, and who currently holds the ORIGINAL loan paperwork. THIS is why short sales or loan mods take so long. And why it is so hard for a bank currently to foreclose because they NEED the original paperwork that has been resold several times and some of the companies are now out of business.
    Back to the lady; after a couple of years SHE decides to borrow more money so SHE signs a 2rd LOAN and the process is repeated. Wells Fargo holds the right to foreclose on the FIRST loan because they are still servicing it ( meaning they accept loan payments, send yearly tax bills, hold and pay property taxs and insurance payments out of escrow) but eh 2rd Loan is sold in this case to PPR eventually as a Non-Performing Loan because she is NOT making payments on the second loan. PPR attempts to contact her and SHE FAILS to respond to PPR. PPR then files a foreclosure Notice on the 2rd, THEY CAN take the house because of non-pament ad fail to respond REGARDLESS of health situation. Your note does NOT have ANY terms that say you are allowed to miss payment due to unemployment, health, or age. If you fail to make the payments as agreed to the you risk foreclosure. Wells Fargo can NOT give advice for a loan they do not own. The FIRST lienholder has the right to foreclose for reasons on THEIR first lien and the 2rd lien holder has the right to foreclose on the 2rd lien for non-payment.
    Another FACT the writer got wrong is where she wrote.”Freeman-White’s home was put up on public auction and Partners for Payment Relief bought it for $14,600. Freeman-White originally paid $138,000 for her home” When PPR foreclosed on the 2rd lien, THAT is what they bought for $14,600; they foreclosed on the house, got title to the house BUT that title is STILL subject to the first lien, so while PPR DID buy the house for $14,600 THEY are now responsible to Wells Fargo for the first loan. “she owed about $118,000.” according to the article the UNPAID balance owed on the first was $118,000 PLUS what PPR paid at foreclosure for the 2rd, that means PPR owed a TOTAL of $132,600 on a house worth $138,000….NOT what I would call “stealing a lady’s house” PLUS if this house is in an HOA the new owner would owe back HOA payments, possible back taxs on the property, and any other liens on the property.
    Another misleanding comment.”According to the Washington County Recorder’s Office, the title for Freeman-White’s home has changed hands more than seven times since 2004.”
    Freeman bought house in 2004 FROM contractor so for that to happen the contractor HAD to buy the land from somebody, title change#1, built the house and sold it to Freeman, #2, Freeman got loan giving Wells Fargo right to foreclose,#3, Freeman signed 2rd lien, #4, PPR foreclosed for non-payment on 2rd lien, #5, Wells Fargo foreclosed on first lien, #6, and house was sold to somebody as an REO,#7, investor sold to new owner occupant or investor as rental property,#8. How many people have lived in house? Probable 2.
    Lessons learned….if you borrow money pay it back or you lose the house.

  • Karen November 6, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    Cam Coffey, settle down, chill
    With the meaness. I guess youe
    Have never dealt with PPR, Bob?
    He can be creepy. Nice lesson but l
    Do think that l read in some court
    Papers some legal jumble that Wells
    Fargo and PPR might have had some connection? John Sweetnrey was a common thread there. I actually think maybe… I feel swindled as well. Avery very bad thing, an accident followed by life changing body deformity and struggle to stay alive to this day!!! And you pick on a guy who loves me so much that he has nothing but a hospital bed in a living room that WF owns? He gave his life to work two jobs while l lay my lazy arse in that bed praying for his life to improve and to keep
    the bill collector’s hearts soft and in the know? He has garnishment, holes in his pants, shoes, needs a haircut, is feeling sad and cries because my legs dont work! My kidneys are failing and i am worried sick about him! So come and takr me out then but leave him alone. You better have more love than stuff in this world Cam Coffey!

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