If you don't like your servicer, you can't force the company to sell the loan to another company. So what can you do?
The following is the advice of lenders, a consumer advocate and a homeowner who had to deal with servicing problems:
* "There's no way you can say 'I don't want it sold.' You don't have that right as a consumer," said Larry Williams, vice president of lending with Harbor Federal Savings & Loan in Towson. "If you are having a problem, about the only thing you can do is document the devil out of it. If something doesn't seem right, start writing down dates and times, because when it finally does erupt you've got it documented."
* "If you have a major mistake, you're going to have to have proof you tried to resolve it," said Dawn Powers, a Pasadena homeowner who had a string of difficulties with a servicing company when her loan was sold. "If you talk to any old Joe on the phone, nothing will happen. Try to get somebody in charge. Hopefully, they'll have more pull."
* Robert Connelly, president of Atlantic Home Mortgage in Towson, suggests getting help from the loan originator. "Go back to the original company making the loan and make a complaint. Let them make a phone call to straighten out the problem."
* HUD directs consumers to put their complaints in a letter and mail it to the lender or servicing company. The company is required to either fix the problem or respond to the complaint within 20 days.
* "If consumers have problems they cannot resolve themselves, they should contact the consumer protection agency," in the Maryland attorney general's office, said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America in Washington.
The address for the consumer protection office is: 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, Md. 21202-2022, or call 528-8662.
* "If they get a notice from a lender that says they are taking over servicing, [borrowers] ought to check with their original lender to make sure they sold it," said Chip Reichhart, a member of the board of directors of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Maryland. In the past, he said, scam artists have been able to persuade unsuspecting homeowners that their loans have been sold and mortgage payments are to be sent to a new address. Some have been cheated out of thousands of dollars.
"There should be a farewell letter from the original lender," he said.