On March 23, 2015, Wells Fargo Bank and Cal-Western Reconveyance foreclosed on my home of 15 years. They sold my house for more than double what I owed on my loan and tried to keep the surplus money for themselves, while I was forced to live on the streets in the sweltering summer heat for months, in a broken down van, with little food and no money, battling a terminal illness.
Wells Fargo outsourced the foreclosure of my home to a company called, Cal-Western Reconveyance, which was Wells Fargo's biggest facilitator of home foreclosures on the west coast, and had been for years.
Oddly enough, months BEFORE my foreclosure, Cal-Western Reconveyance had filed bankruptcy, closed their doors, and went out of business, which explains why, when I tried to contact Cal-Western by phone to make arrangements to save my home from being foreclosed on, I waited on hold for over 2-hours and nobody ever came on the line...because no one was there.
Rather than updating the message on their automated phone system, to advise callers that they were no longer in business and that their offices were now closed, Cal-Western's automated phone response continued to reassure callers that their 'call would be answered by the next available representative', but those calls were never answered, because Cal-Western had already been closed for months.
Wells Fargo certainly knew that Cal-Western had gone out of business, and that I had absolutely no way of contacting them to stop the foreclosure process, but they allowed Cal-Western to go ahead with my foreclosure anyways.
but why would Wells Fargo do that?
My foreclosure wasn't typical. I had equity in my home. A lot of equity. Equity that the now bankrupt and penniless, Cal-Western Reconveyance planned to keep for themselves... and they gave it their best shot too.
Although they were no longer in business, Cal-Western went ahead with my foreclosure and sold my house for more than double what I owed on the loan... After the sale, they paid Wells Fargo what I owed on the loan and then disappeared, like thieves in the night, along with more than $300,000 in surplus funds from the sale, that legally belonged to me.
Wells Fargo not only knew what Cal-Western had done, they spent months covering it up for them, while giving me countless excuses for why they couldn't tell me who to contact to claim my money, or promising to give me information by a certain date and then failing to follow through on their promises. But how could they follow through, when they knew there was no information to give me?
Wells Fargo was so determined to get me off their backs, that at one point, one of their Executive Mortgage Specialists, in the Customer Care and Recovery Department, told me that I was not owed or entitled to any money from the sale of my home, and how dare I even ask for any. A statement he later had to retract.
Although they were no longer in business, Cal-Western went ahead with my foreclosure and sold my house for more than double what I owed on the loan... After the sale, they paid Wells Fargo what I owed on the loan and then disappeared, like thieves in the night, along with more than $300,000 in surplus funds from the sale, that legally belonged to me.
Wells Fargo not only knew what Cal-Western had done, they spent months covering it up for them, while giving me countless excuses for why they couldn't tell me who to contact to claim my money, or promising to give me information by a certain date and then failing to follow through on their promises. But how could they follow through, when they knew there was no information to give me?
Wells Fargo was so determined to get me off their backs, that at one point, one of their Executive Mortgage Specialists, in the Customer Care and Recovery Department, told me that I was not owed or entitled to any money from the sale of my home, and how dare I even ask for any. A statement he later had to retract.
If Cal-Western Reconveyance LLC has closed up,
then who is doing Wells Fargo's foreclosures?
That was the headline of this June, 2015, WEB ARTICLE that confirms that on that date,
Cal-Western Reconveyance had already been out of business for more than 4-months,
but they were still doing foreclosures, including mine, at the end of March.
Images of Cal-Western's offices - taken in June 2015
4-months after they closed up shop and disappeared...with $300,000 of my money
Immediately after the sale, I contacted Wells Fargo repeatedly, to find out who to contact in order to claim the surplus funds that were owed to me, but despite their repeated promises to give me that information, they always had some excuse for why they couldn't follow through... and for one very good reason.
Wells Fargo knew that Cal-Western Reconveyance no longer existed and had disappeared, along with the money I was owed, but they weren't about to tell me that, so they just kept stringing me along with empty promises that never materialized, for months on end, while I was forced to live in my car in triple digit summer heat and try to survive, for as long as I could.
Without the proceeds from the sale of my home, I had no way of hiring movers, or renting a storage space to put my belongings into, but Wells Fargo didn't care, going as far as telling me that I was not owed any money from my foreclosure, in a hurtful and dehumanizing phone conversation I had with one of their Executive Mortgage Specialists, Anthony Schultz on April 27, 2015.
The call began with Mr. Schultz rudely belching into the phone while I was speaking to him, and it quickly deteriorated from there. Recorded highlights of that phone call can be heard below.
Highlights of my phone call with WFB Executive Mortgage Specialist, Anthony Schultz:
On April 29, 2015, Mr. Schultz sent me a follow-up letter to our conversation, backpedaling his way into telling me that there were in fact surplus funds owed to me, and that I would be receiving correspondence under "separate coverage" directing me on who to contact to claim those funds, if I wished to do so. I never received that promised correspondence from Wells Fargo, because they knew that Cal-Western Reconveyance had kept my money for themselves and disappeared.
Two weeks later, Mr Schultz followed up his letter with a voicemail message to me on May 12, 2015. Note the obvious change in the tone of his voice, in the message he left me (below).
Follow-up phone call from WFB Mortgage Executive, Anthony Schultz:
Follow-up phone call from WFB Mortgage Executive, Anthony Schultz:
After my phone call with Mr. Schultz, I attempted to contact his supervisor, Melissa Delariva, in Wells Fargo's Executive Office, to discuss the call with her, and to ask her for the information on who to contact to get the money I was owed. After 11 attempts over two days, I was finally able to reach Ms. Delariva, who feigned some small amount of concern, while promising to look into the matter and get back to me the following day. I never heard from her again. A recording of my phone call with Ms. Delariva can be heard below.
My phone call with WFB Executive Supervisor, Melissa Delariva:
Although Ms. Delariva failed to get back to me the following day as promised, I continued my attempts to reach her again, with numerous follow-up phone calls... All calls went unanswered.
My follow-up phone calls to WFB Executive, Melissa Delariva:
My follow-up phone calls to WFB Executive, Melissa Delariva:
After Ms. Delariva failed to get back to me, or return any of my follow-up phone calls to her, I attempted to reach her supervisor, Cathryn Bower, in Wells Fargo's Executive Office. Once again, none of my calls were returned, and for a very good reason.
My phone calls to WFB Executive, Cathryn Bower:
My phone calls to WFB Executive, Cathryn Bower:
It turns out that the reason these Wells Fargo executives were not returning my phone calls, or getting back to me as they had promised, was because they were under orders from Wells Fargo's attorneys, not to have any further contact with me.
But why would they do that?
Wells Fargo knew that they had violated CA Civil Code by repeatedly failing to give me the information on who to contact to claim the surplus funds that were owed to me, in the time allowed by law, despite my numerous verbal and written requests for it.
Wells Fargo's attorneys also recognized the unfortunate position that Executive Mortgage Specialist, Anthony Schultz had put Wells Fargo in, by wrongfully demeaning and dehumanizing me over the phone, while telling me that I wasn't entitled to any of the surplus funds from the sale, when I absolutely was entitled to them. After taking his job title into consideration, a lesser informed person might have taken Mr. Schultz at his word, and just walked away from a substantial amount of money.
In fact, Wells Fargo's attorneys are so certain that I am going to sue them, (and lets face it... I am), that they have actually ordered their employees not to speak to me and to play a recording into the phone, instructing me to contact their attorney, Steve Sidman, whenever I call Wells Fargo's Customer Service number and identify myself with either my Account or Social Security number.
WFB recordings played into the phone, advising me to contact their attorney, Steven Sidman:
As of December 8, 2015, more than 9-months after the fact, Wells Fargo employees are still under orders to play the same old recording into the phone, which makes it fairly difficult, if not impossible, to get any kind of information about my remaining Wells Fargo accounts.
My December 8, 2015 phone call to Wells Fargo Customer Service
No doubt, Wells Fargo is intentionally trying to make banking with them as difficult as they possibly can for me, in the hopes that I will end our 30 year relationship.
I tried contacting Mr. Sidman a number of times, in writing, at the address specified in these recordings. Once, even begging him and Wells Fargo to release the funds I was owed, before my personal belongings were sold by the man who bought my house.
Not only did Wells Fargo make sure I didn't receive the money in time, they actually placed a 10-day hold on the funds, to ensure that I couldn't use it right away and lost everything.
Obviously, Wells Fargo isn't about to admit that they allowed a company they hired, that was bankrupt and no longer in business, to foreclose on my home and then steal the surplus funds that were owed to me... and they certainly aren't going to admit that they knew about it all along and covered it up, but that's exactly what they did.
