Short Sale Issue

[Anonymous]

I had a mortgage on a house which for what it's worth was with a different company and was sold to the larger mortgage company a short time after I originally got the mortgage originally. It ended up going past due around 5 years ago. After it went past due, the (large) mortgage company on several occasions indicated they wouldn't accept payments any longer unless it was the full current amount due (so, if it was 61 days past due, they would only accept 3 payments, etc.) That information was relayed to me by several representatives. Long story short, this caused a situation that eventually meant the house was short-saled. 

I found out several years later that this actually wasn't their policy, tried to get them to address the credit reporting situtation. I escalated with them and they tried to pull call recordings when I was calling to have an unrelated situation fixed on my credit report with them. Apparently although they saw I called in, the call recordings don't go back that far. I have a letter from them indicating that they don't go back that far and as such can't make any changes.

Do I have any options to attempt to get the short sale off of my report, etc... since although the house obviously did sell for less than the value - I don't feel that it is entirely fair to report the payment history the way it is given the situation with the payments. Especially since they convienently don't have call recordings.

[Anonymous]

Related: the account was setup for electronic statements only, and online access was apparently suspended when it went past due.

[bass_playr]

Unfortunately, I don't see much area for improvement on this.  Ultimately, it's the consumer's responsibility to make sure that payments are made.  I have had some similar issues with HSBC in my own situation years ago, and despite their interference, it still comes down to whether or not we paid.  There is such a thing as interference with a contract, where you could claim that their actions made it impossible for you to fulfil your end of the deal, but IMHO the situation you described does not rise to that level.  It did with mine, when they actually told me 8 years ago to simply stop making payments---they threatened foreclosure, but at the time they did not accelerate the note.  And since I was told that they had (early 2010), and then they refused to accept any more payments from me, that to me is a level of interference that made it impossible for me to live up to my end.  I've been in litigation with them twice since 2010--they tried twice to foreclose.  They lost.

The question that they would address now, if for example you disputed on your credit reports, would be whether or not the reporting of 30, 60, 90, etc late was accurate, and also, if the short sale info is accurate as well.