Man receives shocking reply from Countrywide Mortgage Company

A local homeowner facing tight times wrote a letter seeking help with his mortgage, and was shocked by the response.

Daniel Bailey has gotten in too deep.

He wrote a hardship letter to Countrywide Mortgage Company to try and keep from losing his home. He says a nasty reply to his e-mail made him feel even worse about his financial situation.

Bailey never thought in a million years that he would find himself writing what’s called a mortgage hardship letter. For him, times are the worst they’ve been.. So he needed to ask for help.

“The goal of the letter was to renegotiate my loan, to something more affordable,” said Bailey.

He sent the letter in an e-mail saying he would pay every nickel he owed to mortgage company Countrywide, if they would shift his payments a little so he could manage his money better.

He got an email back, but it wasn’t what he expected.

“Basically calling us homeowners who got shafted by mortgage companies, disgusting, ignorant people,” said Bailey.

That email was from co-founder of Countrywide, Angelo R. Mozilo.

Mozilo likely meant to forward it to a co-worker, but pressed reply instead.

Bailey said, “Where I stand right now is I don’t want to lose my home. I remodeled it myself. I’m not living above my means. Its not a 3000 square foot home, it is a small 900 square foot bungalow. I don’t want to lose my home.”

Bailey says he’s getting by with the bare necessities. He doesn’t own a computer, or a television set.

“These companies force you to live well out of your means, and there is nothing you can do about it,” said Bailey.

Bailey contacted a lawyer who hopes to negotiate with Countrywide before it is too late.

Repeated calls to Countrywide by WWAY were not returned.

Incidentally, the New York Times wrote a story about Dan Bailey and the infamous countrywide e-mail, and the mortgage company didn’t respond to them, either.