Here’s a letter we’ve finally written to our Congressman, Bill Owens, corporate officers of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (the parent company), corporate officers of CCO Mortgage, and others regarding our experience with CCO Mortgage.

I urge anyone reading this to be very cautious about getting involved with CCO Mortgage.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I’m a psychotherapist in the Malone, NY area. My wife and I are having financial difficulties during this time, as so many are.

We applied for a modification of our mortgage with CCO Mortgage in January of this year. We don’t understand what is happening but fear we are getting some kind of run around that may cost us our home.

We have faithfully filled out every form, submitted every financial document, and answered every question that CCO has asked of us. But we are told week after week that the person we need to talk to, Tina, is not in the office—and to call back the following week.

This has been going on for approaching 6 months. On May 28, we received a letter from CCO statimng, “YOU COULD LOSE YOUR HOME,” demanding a payment of $1,915.27 before June 27, 2010. We have no hope of pulling this amount together by that date.

Naturally we were very concerned and called CCO. The gentleman who took our call indicated the letter was just a “legal formality” and that our house was not scheduled for sale “at this time, so not to worry.”

I stated that I believed the letter gave CCO the right to seize our house, which didn’t seem right as we have been trying to arrange for a modification for nearly 6 months—and that it was being held up by CCO itself.

We were again told that the application was simply awaiting approval, but again the woman we were supposed to talk with, Tina, was not available this week—we should try calling again on next Monday.

I objected saying I couldn’t understand how this situation has gone on for so many months and asked to talk with a supervisor. I was told that I couldn’t, but that the person taking the call would pass on my request to the supervisor, who may or may not respond.

We are beginning to fear that there is some deadline that we are not aware of for the Loan Modification program and that CCO is stalling us until it is too late—or perhaps racking up fees and interest to increase their profit or something similar.

Is there anything we can do to get some help from your office? I could be wrong, but this sure seems like some type of predatory practice on the part of CCO Mortgage. There have been many similar complaints posted about CCO Mortgage: http://www.viewpoints.com/CCO-Mortgage-reviews .

I am also contacting the Better Business Bureau and the Franklin County Community Housing Council to seek their assistance.

Thank you,

John M. Knapp, LMSW