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For those who know Monte, you know how hard it is for him to ask for help, but is now an urgent situation. He needs money for closing costs or he will not get the mortgage to keep the home he has been in and thought he would be in for years to come. Thanks for all the help everyone has given so far, but there is still a long ways to go. He has been given some extra time, this is not necessarily good news, please read Monte's story below for the sad details in his own words.
Here's my story. I'm 70 years old. I'm a disabled Vietnam veteran. I have a partial disability rating from the VA for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and PTSD. In 2006, an inexperienced resident physician at the corrupt VA accidentally induced a stroke in my cerebellum, the area that controls balance. That left me with a rare 100% disabling neurological condition with a French name that means "land sickness", which is just what it sounds like it is. For 11 years, I have felt like I am in a small boat on a lake, bobbing around, every minute that I am awake. A normal person can experience temporary land sickness when they step off of a boat, a train, an airplane, or even leave an automobile. When they do, they are glad it is not permanent. The difference is that mine is permanent. I feel it now and every day, and I always will, as long as I live in this world. It affects my memory and my energy; it is so exhausting. I learned that the only thing to do is to just keep pushing on, and never give up.
Of course, the physician who injured me would not admit what he had done, and the VA bureaucracy closed in behind him to prevent him from taking responsibility for his mistake. Unfortunately for me, to prevent the doctor from being held responsible, the VA had to prevent me from receiving the total and permanent disability compensation that I am due. It was nothing personal, it was just financial. My condition improved somewhat over the first five years, and I managed to care of my mom in her home for four years, until I lost her in early 2017. She could not will her home to me, because she was on Medicaid and had a reverse mortgage that was almost upside down, so she had no equity in her house. I applied for a new mortgage for the full purchase price, because she left no estate to inherit. I want more than anything to just remain in her home and grieve her loss. I just don't want to be anywhere else.
The mortgage loan officer at the bank told me I needed to get my student loans discharged, since I am disabled, to qualify for a mortgage. The private lender who held my student loans would not accept the Social Security judge's decision that I was disabled. They required me to get a new signature, from a physician, on the loan discharge application. It took more than a year to get that, because no doctor at the VA would sign it, or even talk to me about my disability. For the last year and a half, I have either been working on clarifying my VA medical records so ordinary mortals can stand to read them, or working on getting a mortgage for the full purchase price of my mother's house.
In the long term, I need the VA to recognize my total disability, but first, I need to get a full-price mortgage on my Mom's home. I thought I had enough saved up to make repairs to her home and pay closing costs for the mortgage. In July, I discovered that some substandard work by the roofer my Mom trusted will cost several more thousand dollars to repair. I did what I could slowly do, and I used up my savings on materials, equipment rentals, and paying for a contractor to do the things I can't do at all, because I am still disabled.
All the repairs are done, I paid the contractor, and the VA inspector re-inspected Mom's home, which passed. But the delays and the extra expenses have run out my savings, and now I need help to pay the closing costs. Here is the most recent complication. On August 16, one week before we expected to finally close, we learned that the HUD contractor had not told us that the FHA inspection that HUD required, which had preceded the VA inspection, had expired. That meant all the mortgage documents, but not the VA inspection, expired and I must re-apply at the bank, after a new FHA inspection. I am caught in a bureaucratic Catch-22.
They said it can take up to thirty days to get another FHA inspection, during which time the VA loan interest rate might rise, disqualifying me for a loan at all. Like I said earlier, I just keep going and never quit trying. I offer my deepest thanks to everyone who has cared about me.
Here's my story. I'm 70 years old. I'm a disabled Vietnam veteran. I have a partial disability rating from the VA for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and PTSD. In 2006, an inexperienced resident physician at the corrupt VA accidentally induced a stroke in my cerebellum, the area that controls balance. That left me with a rare 100% disabling neurological condition with a French name that means "land sickness", which is just what it sounds like it is. For 11 years, I have felt like I am in a small boat on a lake, bobbing around, every minute that I am awake. A normal person can experience temporary land sickness when they step off of a boat, a train, an airplane, or even leave an automobile. When they do, they are glad it is not permanent. The difference is that mine is permanent. I feel it now and every day, and I always will, as long as I live in this world. It affects my memory and my energy; it is so exhausting. I learned that the only thing to do is to just keep pushing on, and never give up.
Of course, the physician who injured me would not admit what he had done, and the VA bureaucracy closed in behind him to prevent him from taking responsibility for his mistake. Unfortunately for me, to prevent the doctor from being held responsible, the VA had to prevent me from receiving the total and permanent disability compensation that I am due. It was nothing personal, it was just financial. My condition improved somewhat over the first five years, and I managed to care of my mom in her home for four years, until I lost her in early 2017. She could not will her home to me, because she was on Medicaid and had a reverse mortgage that was almost upside down, so she had no equity in her house. I applied for a new mortgage for the full purchase price, because she left no estate to inherit. I want more than anything to just remain in her home and grieve her loss. I just don't want to be anywhere else.
The mortgage loan officer at the bank told me I needed to get my student loans discharged, since I am disabled, to qualify for a mortgage. The private lender who held my student loans would not accept the Social Security judge's decision that I was disabled. They required me to get a new signature, from a physician, on the loan discharge application. It took more than a year to get that, because no doctor at the VA would sign it, or even talk to me about my disability. For the last year and a half, I have either been working on clarifying my VA medical records so ordinary mortals can stand to read them, or working on getting a mortgage for the full purchase price of my mother's house.
In the long term, I need the VA to recognize my total disability, but first, I need to get a full-price mortgage on my Mom's home. I thought I had enough saved up to make repairs to her home and pay closing costs for the mortgage. In July, I discovered that some substandard work by the roofer my Mom trusted will cost several more thousand dollars to repair. I did what I could slowly do, and I used up my savings on materials, equipment rentals, and paying for a contractor to do the things I can't do at all, because I am still disabled.
All the repairs are done, I paid the contractor, and the VA inspector re-inspected Mom's home, which passed. But the delays and the extra expenses have run out my savings, and now I need help to pay the closing costs. Here is the most recent complication. On August 16, one week before we expected to finally close, we learned that the HUD contractor had not told us that the FHA inspection that HUD required, which had preceded the VA inspection, had expired. That meant all the mortgage documents, but not the VA inspection, expired and I must re-apply at the bank, after a new FHA inspection. I am caught in a bureaucratic Catch-22.
They said it can take up to thirty days to get another FHA inspection, during which time the VA loan interest rate might rise, disqualifying me for a loan at all. Like I said earlier, I just keep going and never quit trying. I offer my deepest thanks to everyone who has cared about me.