“I lost my job. I wasn’t prepared,” 48-year-old Marty Knepp told the Capital for a story published on December 4, 2011. “I wish I had saved for a rainy day. Because it rained.”
Knepp, his wife and their three children were living comfortably while he worked as retail marketing director for HD Radio, but after Knepp was laid off in August 2009, he raided the savings in his 401(k) accounts that was enough to cover his $2,300 mortgage for four months. Knepp also tried to contact his bank, SunTrust Mortgage, to try to modify his loan. Two years later, the Capital said he was still trying.
“In two years, I probably called them 50 to 70 times,” Knepp told the Capital.
It was on April 6, 2010, Knepp’s birthday, that he learned the bank had begun foreclosure proceedings. According to the Capital, the bank placed him in a 90-day forbearance program in August 2010. Knepp landed a full-time sales job in the automotive industry while his wife went back to work for an insurance company, but the couple still was not earning enough to cover the mortgage payments. Knepp told the Capital that he estimates his new job pays him about 40 percent less than his job with HD Radio. He told the Capital that SunTrust has established a single point of contact for him and other homeowners needing foreclosure help that will give him his own internal advocate with the bank and should make communication easier. However, Knepp also said that the worst thing about going through foreclosure is that “not everyone is sympathetic – even those who are supposed to help you.”
“They tend to make you want to feel like you’re such a subpar human,” Knepp said. “There are days when you just want to throw your hands up in the air.”
There are millions of people with stories just like the Knepp family’s, but all of them need to know that when the bank will not work with you, a Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy process can help keep your family in your home as well as end creditor harassment. How many calls have you made to your bank to try to modify your loan? Have you had any success or are you still trying?
Law Firm of Kevin D. Judd – Washington DC bankruptcy attorney
