Support the Bouchard Family in Tough Times

If you know me, this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do: Ask for Help. I am the type of person whose pride and stubbornness make it almost impossible, but the situation I am in now affects My Family (Wife & Daughters), and they are my world.

In April 2024, I was informed that our mortgage was being bought out by a new company effective June 1, 2024. As soon as we received the letter in the mail, I called and spoke to the mortgage company to make sure everything would be a smooth transition, as we had an agreement in play with the current mortgage company. I was assured it would.

We had an agreement set up due to the fact we had fallen on some very hard times financially. My wife was attacked by a dog in October 2022 and sustained major injuries to her left tricep/bicep area of her left arm, which is also her dominant arm. This led to months of doctor visits, procedures, and therapy. During this time, my income was the sole income of the home.

I am on a fixed income as I am on disability due to numerous health conditions. I have two liver diseases, Sarcoidosis and NASH, which have progressed to the beginning stages of cirrhosis. I also have two lung diseases, Sarcoidosis and restrictive lung disease. I have skin Sarcoidosis, which causes me to have limited exposure of my skin to the sun, which is why you see me wearing long sleeve shirts in the summer. I have severe neuropathy in both of my arms, hands, and it is progressing to my feet.

Once my wife was cleared to go back to work, it was tough to find a job she was able to physically perform. She found a job and was there for a few months, but it ended up not being long-term. After that, the job hunt was tough as everything she applied for seemed to ask her to do things she is physically unable to do anymore due to the dog attack.

This left us in a very tough financial situation, and we ended up in a battle each month of which bills to pay and which to wait until the following month, or we were paying partial payments. As you can probably see, this created some very tough decisions. Paying partial mortgage payments can get you behind super fast, but we had no choice as the cost of everything was increasing. This led us into an agreement in January 2024 with our mortgage company on a repayment plan, which ran through the end of June 2024. My wife was employed again, and we knew it would be tight, but we knew we could make it work.

As I stated earlier, we had a new company taking over on June 1, so I was extremely worried. We made our last payment on May 30 to our previous mortgage company, and I asked them if everything was good with the new mortgage company for our agreement as we had the June payment left. They said yes, to give the new company about a week to get everything set up moving us over to them. So I waited until June 7 to call the new mortgage company. The representative with the new company said it could be 30 to 90 days until they received all the paperwork. I specifically asked how and when do I make my June payment and was informed no payments were made until they received all the documents. I asked if they could put in the records of the phone conversation that I asked and wanted to make my June payment but was told I couldn't make it, they said yes.

This led to calls for June, July, August, and September and talking to multiple representatives and supervisors to try to figure out what exactly was going on. In the middle of July, I was told my agreement with the previous mortgage lender was now invalid as I didn't pay my June payment. As you can imagine, this led to me almost losing it. I told them to look back in the phone logs comments, and they did and saw I was told not to make a payment, but that still made the agreement invalid.

I have been calling and on the phone for multiple hours each call to try to get this figured out and was told everything we are investigating the problem. I will save all the details of every conversation as I could write a book, but October 2 was a conversation I wasn't prepared to have with them.

I was told after all my calls and their investigating it was determined I had not held up my end of the agreement with our previous mortgage company. As you can imagine, this led to an almost 4-hour phone conversation as I spoke to multiple representatives and supervisors with it ending not so favorably for me.

I was told I needed to pay $4657 immediately or the foreclosure process would start. I asked if I could make a partial payment now ($1900) and another partial payment when I got my disability check in November. I was told no, that they couldn't take any partial payments; it had to be paid in full and that additional fees would accrue causing the amount to increase the longer it went.

I don't have that type of upfront money and don't have anyone that I can borrow it from. As you can imagine, my credit is shot, which has disqualified me from personal loans, as I already called banks and asked.

This all leads me to swallowing my pride and asking for help. I truly don't know what else to do other than pray. I know everyone is struggling right now and 100% understand if you aren't in a situation to help. If anyone is able to help, just know I am extremely grateful, and if I am ever in a position to return the favor, I will.

Thank you,

The Bouchard Family