Law Offices of Joel M Feinstein APC

We contacted Mrs*** and we are working diligently to resolve her concerns

Review: I had hired Joel Feistein's law firm in January 2013 (approx). Though I have NUMEROUS issues, this complaint is solely for the following: Per my conversation with Joel Feinstein (date and time available if needed), Joel has agreed to assist me on outstanding items if I am unable to resolve my issues alone. Joel's staff ([redacted]) had directed me to execute a Quite Claim Deed on our home removing my brother from the Deed. [redacted] did not go into detail as to what a Quit Claim Deed was, nor did he tell me the repercussions of executing a Quit Claim Deed. He only told me the Quit Claim Deed was required to move forward with the loan modification.The loan modification ended with the bank reinstating the EXACT terms we had prior to the loan modification process began.It wasn't until the loan modification was complete that I received a supplemental property tax bill. The bill was a result of removing my brother from the deed (a reassessment/appraisal of the residence).I attempted to contact the assessor's office to deny this bill. The assessor informed me this could not be removed, and I owed the supplemental tax bill. The assessor continued to say I could complete a cancellation-type deed which would eradicate the Quit Claim Deed. The assessor suggested not to do this as ANOTHER assessment/appraisal would be done, which would likely result in an additional supplemental tax bill.I request for Joel Feinstein's law firm to reinstate me to the terms I was before this loan modification as previously discussed by Joel Feintstein. This would include not paying supplemental tax bills - now or in the future, and my property tax bill would remain the same as it was before this loan modification.I had prior issues outstanding with Joel Feinstein's law firm that took three weeks before I finally received a reply from Joel (this is after leaving numerous voicemail messages, emails, and sending a certified letter); thus the need to complete this Revdex.com complaint.Desired Settlement: As indicated above (parenthesis added for clarification):I request for Joel Feinstein's law firm to reinstate me to the terms I was before this loan modification as previously discussed by Joel Feintstein. This would include not paying supplemental tax bills - now (which I have already paid as it is due 03/2014 via the required escrow account attached to my mortgage) or in the future, and my property tax bill would remain the same as it was before this loan modification.

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted] retained our firm to file a law suit against his lender for various causes of action related to his mortgage loan. He was seeking for us to resolve with his the lender a dispute and was hoping that this course of action would result in more favorable terms than he had at the time he retained our office. Based on the facts and circumstances of Mr. [redacted]'s situation, we prepared and filed a complaint against his lender and pursued the litigation process until the matter was ultimately settled.

Review: Attorney charged me fees upfront for a loan modification, and did not do what he promised. He botched the negotiations leaving me in a worse position.

I hired Joel Feinstein Attorney at Law in January 2012 to negotiate my loan modification, and was promised that they would get my interest rate lowered and my payments would be between $1500 and $1800 per month, including the impound account. I was told that they would negotiate my second mortgage and either make it go away or get it lowered to about $5000 if I made a down payment toward the balance owed.

I was told that the fee for negotiating my loan modification would be $3995. I was charged $2000 upfront before they even contacted my lender, which I found out later, is now illegal. Then they charged me another $1500 for a litigation fee. I paid $300 a month while they were working on my loan modification. They got the loan modification approved in May 2012, but the terms they agreed to were nothing like what they promised to accomplish. He took advantage of the fact that my home was about to go to auction, so I had no choice, at the time, but to agree to the terms he had negotiated because my home had been in foreclosure for over three years.

Not only did they not get me a conventional loan, they allowed the lender to change my 30 year mortgage to a 25 year mortgage, which drove my payments up so I only got a $194.83 reduction in my monthly payment, and no reduction in my principal, along with all the past due amounts, the late charges and other miscellaneous fees tacked onto the back of the loan. They put me in a variable rate loan, starting at 2%, going up to 3.5% in one year, and 3.75% interest for the life of the loan, which will drive my payment up so high I won't be able to afford it. I told him that he set me up to lose my home. My payments have already gone up because the tax assessor reevaluated the value of my home. My original payment for my first was $2157.96, and the second mortgage payment was $364.84, for a total of $2522.80. My new payment was $2352.79, and now it is $2366.40, and that is just for my first, so my reduction only came to $181.22. I was never told that they did not do anything about my second mortgage, and suddenly, I am receiving threatening phone calls from that second lender, saying they have a lien against my property, and they can foreclose if I don't pay them at least $200 a month. This will bring my payments up to $2566.40, which means my payments are higher than they were before I went into foreclosure.

They did not litigate, but I was charged a litigation fee. I had also had a forensic loan audit done before I hired the law firm and was referred to him by the company, Compliance Review Group, who did the audit. He did not even use the audit as a negotiation tool, saying that he did not ask me to have it done, so he didn't use it. I paid $3000 for the audit, and it showed seven severe violations in the original loan documents, but he didn't think he needed to use it. This attorney took advantage of my situation and did the least amount of work on my case as he could, and he broke the law. My question is: did he know he was breaking the law and didn't care, or did he not keep up with the changes in the law, so he didn't even know he wasn't legally allowed to charge fees upfront? Either way, he is not a good attorney if he is running his practice this way.Desired Settlement: I want a full refund, and I expect him to fix what he botched.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I hired The Law Offices of [redacted] to negotiate a loan modification in January 2012. I filed a complaint with the Revdex.com in 2013 because he not only broke the law, he failed to perform all services I paid for, and that were stated in my contract. After he heard from the Revdex.com, Mr. [redacted] agreed to rectify everything his law firm did wrong on my case. Not only did he string me along for months at a time, twice, after agreeing to rectify all the mistakes and negligent actions, he didn't follow through. He left me hanging, and became impossible to get a hold of. His staff would always tell me that he assured them that he would get back to me, but never returned my phone calls or emails. When I first hired him, he was supposed to negotiate my first and second mortgage. He never even contacted my second lender, and I when asked why, he told me that it was his call and he didn't think it was necessary, even though I paid him to negotiate for both. I am filing seven complaints against The Law Offices of [redacted]. 1) He required me to pay fees upfront to negotiate my loan modifications. 2) He charged me an extra litigation fee of $1500 after he told me that the fee for his services was $3995, but he never litigated. 3) He failed to provide me with a written copy of my contract. 4) He was negligent by not representing my best interest. He never negotiated anything, but instead, enabled the lender to put me in a loan modification that made my situation worse, and he did not use the forensic loan audit I paid $3000 for. 5) He was in breach of the contract by failing to perform all the services he was paid for and agreed to provide; that were stated in our contract and discussed upon hiring his firm. 6) He did not communicate with me about my case. He made decisions that adversely affected my situation without ever giving me the option to reject his decisions. 7) He left my case unfinished and failed to inform me that he was no longer going to represent me.

I want a full refund, plus interest. I want Mr. [redacted] to be held accountable for breaking the law and not performing all the services he was paid for. I want to make sure no one else falls prey to his incompetence and negligence.Regards,

Review: The Law offices of Joel Feinstein were hired by and paid in full by us in February of 2014 for ch. 13 bankruptcy. All paperwork had been submitted to proceed with the chapter 13. However, the process had been placed on hold by Mr. Feinstein due to our home was going on the market as a short sale. However, our home was never sold and we began the loan modification process with our lender. As we continued email back and forth with Mr. Feinstein, we kept being told to hold off to determine the outcome of the loan modification. In April 2015, our loan modification went through. We did not proceed with the ch. 13 bankruptcy. I have sent several emails to Mr. Feinstein regarding a refund on all services not completed and we continue to not receive any response from him or his office. We are just requesting a refund on all services that were not performed. I am not sure of what that amount would be as we have never received an itemized list of charges.Desired Settlement: We would like a refund on any services that were not completed, along with an itemized detail list of all charges.

Business

Response:

We contacted Mrs. [redacted] and we are working diligently to resolve her concerns.