Upcoming Foreclosures

Foreclosure Fees?

Foreclosure was started on my Ohio house December 14, 2007. I was able to pay all of the back payments plus late fees on January 2, 2008. So, the home was rescued from foreclosure. But now, here is a list of new fees the lender sent me stating that I owe. Does this make sense to you? Any way to verify them? 140.00 process server fee 287.50 partial foreclosure attorney fees 15.00 property inspection fee 391.00 title search fee 17.00 skip trace fee 290.00 court filing fee 575.00 initial foreclosure attorney fee to open the case. Greatly appreciate your help! I'm not asking if I owe them, I know I do, I'm asking if they are legit and if the costs sound correct to you. And yes, I know had I kept my payment current it wouldn't have happened. My wife gave birth to our second child that was ill and almost bankrupt us in medical bills so telling me to stay current or this wouldn't have happened isn't helping me answer this question.

Public Comments

1. YOu answered your own question Foreclosure was started. THose are all pretty legitimate foreclosure actiion fees, especially if they went to a court filing. Verify? ask them for copies. 391 seems high for a title search; otherwise....
2. This is pretty much a final bill for the legal action they started against you. Looking at it, did they actually send a process server to your door and hand you papers? Then the $140 is legit. $15 inspection fee, legit. Title search, well, that's negotiable, they did that themselves, to see if you have any liens against it to find out if they were in first place or not if they foreclosed. (Probably in your loan contract though that you're liable for it.) $17 skip trace? Doesn't make sense, you never went anywhere, so you're not a skip to trace. $290 court filing fee, sounds about right, if they actually filed a foreclosure action against you in superior court. The two legal fees aren't out of line as far as amount, but you would have to read your mortgage to see if you're liable for those or not. (I'm betting you are, it's in all that fine print about them foreclosing.) Bottom line, if you had kept your payments current, they wouldn't have incurred these costs, and it's probably in your contract you're on the hook for them, so you're going to have to pay up. Sorry, I know you were hoping for better news. Read your loan docs, and if you can't find it, have an attorney look it over to make sure you're liable before you pay the bill.
3. About the only thing you can fight on is the size of the attorney fees & the most you'll save is a couple of hundred $$. Ask them to send you the itemized fee bill. Don't be surprised if they bill you for sending the itemized bill.
4. I spent 15 years in mortgage servicing and during much of time I dealt with cases in foreclosure. If the mortgage company had already started the foreclosure process then they incurred and paid fees as a result of that, and you're responsible for reimbursing them for those expenses. The fees and amounts you listed don't seem out of the ordinary. You could always ask the mortgage company to provide you with copies of the bills. Frankly, I never had a mortgagor ask me to do that, but if any had asked, I would have provided it for them.
5. Actually, 2 of the fees sound awfully LOW to me. Only $15 for and inspection. Driving past to make sure the house is still standing runs more than that. The skip trace fee also sounds low. A decent PI charges more than that to answer the phone. Other than that, everything look normal to me.