Norman and Oriane Rousseau were homeowners who did everything "right" when they purchased their home. They had 30 percent of the purchase price as a down payment, and they made their payments on time. After being contacted about refinancing their mortgage, the Rousseau's “stated that they were only interested in obtaining a conventional 30-year, fixed-rate loan, and explained their desire to have consistent payments over the life of the loan.”

Via:

They were “assured … that they could significantly reduce their monthly payments, by more than $600 per month, with a lower interest refinance loan.” The bank assured them that the Payment Option ARM was “the new industry standard” that had “historically low rates that were continuing to decrease” and in “the worst case scenario [they were] assured that historical data for the index indicated that changes in interest rate were slight, and if an increase should occur it would have a negligible effect on their monthly payments of no more than a few dollars.”

The bank's promises about the new mortgage were not true, and before long the Rousseau's were faced with a much higher interest rate than promised and large fees added that they had not been told about. Around the same time, as we've heard over and over from homeowners, the bank began calling with claims that the couple had missed payments even after they provided documentation that they had been paid.

Phone calls from the bank came morning, noon, and late into the night even though Norman Rousseau had hired an attorney. A loan modification that never came through, additional fees and interest continued to pile up, and finally foreclosure, with eviction scheduled for Tuesday, May 15th, Mr. Rousseau went into his garage on Sunday morning and shot himself. The attorney won a two week extension of the eviction date on Tuesday.

Devastated in every possibly way, Oriane now can't even afford to bury her husband and is hoping the VA will be able to help. If you'd like to help, please contact the Rousseau's attorney, Chris Gardas: chrisgardas@comcast.net.

Full article with the court documents are here, and they detail much more thoroughly the misdeeds of Wells Fargo.