My husband had taken out a reverse mortgage (r.m.) through Financil Freedom. He died while I was seven months shy of the required age of 62. Once they found out he was dead, they sent notices to 'the estate of' wanting to know how this loan was going to be repaid. I hired an attorney who knew nothing of these loans, and wasted about 8 months of my time. Once I was the required age, I had hired an attorney I thought was going to help me get my own r.m. under my name since the one my husband had was now null and void. There was a lot of worry and fretting since the company Financil Freedom makes themselves scarce, but finally they sent me the paper work to file for my own reverse mortgage. I waited, waited, waited for some kind of acknowledgement that they had granted it. After a long wait I called the attorney and she advised me NOT to pay the property taxes as it seemed Financil Freedom was now trying to back out of the reverse mortgage. An interesting thing was that when my husband died, there was a credit line of just over $1200. When I asked about that, Financial Freedom quickly used it to pay the taxes due, which were just about the same amount of money.
(In the meantime, Financial Freedom had started sending the monthly statements again, addressed TO MY DEAD HUSBAND, when by the earlier questioning of paying the loan stated 'the estate of'. I guess they resurrected him for their own strange reasons, but NOW the credit line showed just over $4000!!! How did a dead man get more credit line money???!!!)
It has been a few MONTHS since I sent in the paper work required for the mortgage. A week ago, the mail carrier rang my bell with letters for me to sign for. She had a bundle of 14 total, 7 of which needed signing. They were ALL THE SAME notice. They were addressed to: (1) ESTATE OF ***** ***** (2) TENENT (3) <ME> PERSONAL REP OF THE ESTATE (4) HEIRS AND DEVISEES OF ***** ****** (5) OCCUPANT (6) SPOUSE OF ***** ***** and (MY DECEASED HUSBAND!!! There was a regular mailing of seven of these, along with seven of the certified mail I had to sign for. Along with that, there have been TWO attached to my door.
All these mailings have come from a third party FINANCIAL FREEDOM seems to have 'sold' the contract they had with my deceased husband.
There was never an explaination of why they were refusing to honor the papers I signed, nor a warning they were going to do this. The notices, by the way, let me know that on June of this year there will be an auction of my home to the highest bidder...I would suggest anyone looking for a r.m. pass up FINANCIAL FREEDOM. They seem to have an underhanded way of doing business, and I think I can promise they will cause you or your heirs unlimited grief. I am trying to see if this was even done in a legal manner. AVOID FINANCIL FREEDOM, THEY ARE NOT HONEST IN THEIR DEALINGS WITH PEOPLE. What makes it hard for me is that I live on $396 a month social security. It is going to take up to two years to get an apartment through low income housing.
Oh and in case anyone wonders who this third party that is holding the 'auction' is, they are REGIONAL TRUSTEE SERVICES CORPORATION, 616 1st AVENUE, SUITE 500, SEATTLE, WA, 98104. So if you get many, many mailings all at once and this address is on the front, (RTSC) kiss your home and hopes goodbye. They are seemingly in cahoots with FINANCIAL FREEDOM. jean