When I was in high school I came across Weetzie Bat and fell in love with Francesca Lia Block’s novels. With the perfect combination of magic and grief, struggles and hope, it was exactly the kind of book I needed at the time. So I’m very sad to hear Block is going through such a hard time with her home:
“For close to a year, Block, author of the Weetzie Bat books for kids, has been calling and talking to various representatives at Bank of America. Some call her back, some disappear, some give one answer, some another. She says she’s underwater on the mortgage but has never missed a payment — all she wants to do is renegotiate terms and save her house. On Friday afternoon, she posted a record of her travails on Facebook and a new blog, Save Francesca’s Faerie Cottage.”
It sounds like the media attention might get Bank of America to look at her mortgage. It’s also a good reminder that there are lots of people across the country who are hardworking people and got really bad mortgages when the market was up. I can’t even imagine dealing with that and not being able to get any media attention. I hope Francesca’s campaign is able to help her family, and also to bring to light what other families are going through.
BOA won’t care. Did you hear about the guy who was listed as “legally dead,” in the BOA system for the past 10 years, despite having two very active personal and business bank accounts with them over that length of time? And he didn’t find out about it until he tried to get a mortgage for his home and they denied him due to the fact that they believe he died years ago. It’s been more than four months of being passed from one representative to another and–despite going to the press–BOA will only respond with “we’re looking into it.”
I went through a similar issue recently and had no positive results; they would “redistribute employees” and give me a new “point man” on my complaint file every few months and we’d have to start from the beginning, filling out the same paperwork over and over again. I hope Mrs. Block has more success than the rest of us!
Very good point. BOA is an enormous company and I’m sure all they really care about is the bottom line. But hopefully since Block’s issue is in the news now, it will put more pressure on them to respond in a timely manner and maybe help her family out. And I really hope things work out for you, too. I can’t imagine how frustrating that is!
I ended up giving up, buying a different property, and getting a private mortgage through a relative. I’m so happy in my new place! BOA’s loss, not mine, is my thinking.
I JUST heard about this when I was writing up my blog for today – I HAVE to donate, she’s lovely and Weetzy Bat is as well.
Agreed! I really hope it works out for her. Her books were a major part of my teen years.