I purchased a home as a primary residence in 2008 (height of the real estate frenzy), with a five year term; I made every payment on time with an accelerated payment schedule (weekly payments). When the mortgage came up for renewal at the five year term, First National informed me that they no longer offered a mortgage product for Self-Employed individuals. I contacted a well known, top-rated mortgage broker in February for my mortgage that expired in June and he dropped the ball by taking over 10 months to secure funding, I finally received a new mortgage in November, meaning the lender, First National had started the foreclosure proceedings. I was finally able to save the property but not without a $5k legal bill and a pile of mortgage interest.
Some interesting things occurred along the way, harassing phone calls from the lender, a lot of delays and blowing of smoke by the mortgage broker, an enormous amount of mail from investors seeking to buy my house (some didn’t even live in Calgary) and now a lot of bad press from a mortgage broker who thinks I should be grateful to him!?!
My lawyer was instrumental in solving the problem but the lenders lawyer made things very difficult. Dealing with a Foreclosure lawyer is never pleasant. One problem is that they won’t tell you anything, but it’s the home owner that pays the legal costs; How is that fair???
The lawyer that helped me with my Foreclosure is still on my team today and we fight hard for other home-owners facing Foreclosure.