You’d think that paying for your house in cash would keep you out of this drawn-out foreclosure mess the country is facing, but that’s not what happened to Warren Nyerges and his wife, Maureen Collier. The two paid $165,000 for a house in Naples, Fla., in 2009 — only to have Bank of America try to foreclose on them anyway. After months of legal hassle, the bank dropped the matter, but not until after the couple had spent more than $2,500 defending their claim to their own house. The pair asked Bank of America to reimburse those costs but got nowhere, even after they got a court order in their favor.
So the couple’s attorney, Todd Allen, began foreclosure proceedings against the local Bank of America branch. An hour after members of the sheriff’s department showed up with plans to remove cash, furniture, computers and other assets, BofA apologized and wrote a check to the couple for $5,772.88. The bank blamed an “outside attorney” for botching the reimbursement.