Then Asher saw a separate entry marked with an internal code.
Insurance proceeds received.
The amount was almost equal to the remaining balance on the mortgage.
He leaned closer to the screen.
The payment had arrived seventeen days earlier.
Instead of being applied to the loan, it had been placed in a suspense account because the system could not automatically match the insurance certificate to the borrower’s file.
The company had received enough money to satisfy nearly the entire debt.
Yet it was still preparing to sell the house.
Asher turned the laptop toward Mrs.
Morales.
“Did your mother have mortgage protection insurance?”
“She handled the original loan,” Mrs.
Morales said.
“After she died, I found a policy paper in her desk.
I sent it with everything else.”
Principal Porter searched the folder and found a folded certificate behind the copy of the deed.
The policy named the grandmother as a protected borrower.
Upon her death, the insurer was required to send proceeds directly to the mortgage holder.
It had done exactly that.
Collins Residential Holdings had accepted the money.
Its automated system had failed to apply it.
Then the same system had charged Mrs.
Morales additional legal fees for a debt that should have been almost completely satisfied.
Mrs.
Morales stared at the screen.
“They were paid?”
“Yes.”
“And they were still taking the house?”
“Yes.”
Lucy looked up from her sandwich.
“Are we moving?”
Her mother opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Asher crouched beside the twins.
“No one is taking your home on Friday.”
Mrs.
Morales stiffened.
“Don’t promise them something you can’t guarantee.”
He met her eyes.
“I can guarantee the sale is stopped.
The rest will be decided by the documents, not by a favor.”
He called the operations office again and placed the phone on speaker.
The same representative returned with another executive from the servicing division.
Asher described the insurance payment, the suspense account, and the false late-document notation.
The executive responded carefully.
“The proceeds were not matched because the borrower identification was incomplete.”
“The policy number, property address, and grandmother’s name were all included,” Asher said.
“The automated process may have failed to recognize them.”
“Then why did no person review the file before authorizing a foreclosure sale?”
“These are low-balance accounts,” the executive said.
“Manual review is not standard unless the borrower completes an escalation request.”
Mrs.
Morales stepped closer to the phone.
“I submitted two appeals.”
The executive fell silent.
Asher asked, “Where are those appeals?”
A keyboard clicked on the other end.
