Middle Class Refi Victims Don't Get Much Sympathy...

So our friends who got a couple of bad refi's to fix a botched loan (see 7/26/07) tried talking to several lawyers about their options. Two of the lawyers said flat out that they would never have a chance because no one would believe that educated professionals like them would have signed off on a loan they didn't understand. Ouch.

But that's just the point. If you can rip off people who are supposed to know better, and they can't do anything about it because they went to college, then who's left to fight? The elderly, the infirm, the people who are struggling to get into the middle class? How far can they get in a legal battle on their limited time and resources?

In the meantime, our friends report that their original lender's company has gone under. The office is dark and empty. They've tried calling the loan agent himself and keep getting a recording message that doesn't mention his current company's name. He hasn't called them back.

With taxes and insurance, their current mortgage payment is a whopping $4700 a month, and that's interest only, fixed for 5 years. They wouldn't even be able to rent their house out for $3000 a month. Our friends have good jobs, but they have small children in daycare (their other large monthly bill), and they're unable to save at all for the future. Now, there are some people out there who benefited from their misery--shouldn't these individuals be held accountable, regardless of the fact that these two made the fatal mistake of trusting so-called experts to put together good loans for them?