BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Mark Carey lost at every turn to keep his deceased father’s Buffalo house in the family.
After all, that was Ronald Carey’s wish before his death in 2015.
Initially, paying the mortgage held by First Niagara was smooth. The bank had no issue with Mark taking over payments as an heir of the estate.
But that all changed in 2016 when KeyBank acquired First Niagara.
“They wouldn’t take payments from me,” Mark said.
He said KeyBank refused to discuss the loan with him and how KeyBank representatives wouldn’t tell him the monthly payment, late payment fees or what was owed. It didn’t matter if he went to the bank in person or called.
Mark’s aunt, Linda Carey, is the executrix of the estate. She sent KeyBank letters of authorization to allow her nephew to manage the account.
“And they would acknowledge receipt of the documents, and receipt of the paperwork, and receipt of my requests, and then it would just fall apart, again and again,” Linda said.
Call after call. Email after email. Letter after letter. Nothing worked.
To make matters worse, KeyBank oftentimes wouldn’t acknowledge either of them. Whether the communication was by letter or a returned phone call, the bank’s representatives would ask for their dead loved one, Ronald Carey.
It happened recently on July 1, by a letter sent to Linda’s house in Massachusetts, but for her dead brother. She said this happened a lot.
“And I’d have to tell them for the fourth time, the umpteenth time, Ron’s gone,” Linda said. “If I could speak to him again, I would love to, believe me. But he’s not here. So, neither of us can speak to him. And it just went on.”
Charles Wallshein, a Long Island attorney who specializes in foreclosure law, said KeyBank would have gotten paid if it had handled the account properly, and the Careys would still have the house.
“What happened to Mr. Carey should not have happened,” Wallshein said.
By January of this year, the bank foreclosed the house and sold it in an auction for $280,000. Only $94,000 was owed on the mortgage.
The disagreements now have reached the courtroom.
KeyBank sued the Careys to move forward with the foreclosure for not paying the mortgage since February 2019.
The Careys sued KeyBank for “egregious abuse.”
KeyBank declined to answer questions, stating that “due to privacy regulations, KeyBank is not able to discuss matters involving clients, and is not able to confirm whether a person or business is a client.”
Unable to pay
Linda said that after her brother’s death in 2015, she presented First Niagara the will showing her nephew was an heir to the estate, and a letter of testamentary authorizing him to do whatever was needed for the estate.
“It was as smooth as silk,” Linda said about the communication with First Niagara. “No problems there whatsoever. I had nothing but praise for them.”
It wasn’t until after the banks merged that the Careys began to encounter obstacles.
Linda made her nephew an authorized user of the KeyBank mortgage account, which should have allowed him access.
But Mark, who is an attorney himself, said KeyBank had no idea who he was when he tried to pay the note.
“I would give them by dad’s social, I would give my social security — everything they would ask of me,” he said. “And they said, ‘sorry, we can’t discuss this with you, and we can’t take payment.’”
Linda said she sent the authorization letter to KeyBank again. And again.
“And each time she had those conversations, they assured her, ‘we’ll get this taken care of, it’ll be fine, don’t worry,’” Mark said. “It never did.”
Meanwhile, the Careys would receive periodic phone calls or letters from KeyBank representatives asking for or addressed to their loved one who died years earlier.
“It was devastating for my aunt to get these repeated calls asking to talk to her dead brother,” Mark said. “She couldn’t grieve.”
In 2017, Linda emailed an attorney for the bank, stating that she and her nephew were at their “wits’ end” and were considering legal action.
“Managing my brother’s account with KeyBank has been a (wholly unnecessary) nightmare from day 1,” she wrote. “Mark was repeatedly denied access to the account, and was often unable to pay the mortgage in a timely manner, resulting in late fees, and just an overall emotional battle every month to handle this mortgage.”
On Halloween 2017, the Careys thought they had finally reached a solution.
One of KeyBank’s attorneys confirmed she received the Careys letter of authorization to add Mark to the account.
“That has been entered into Key’s system, and going forward, Mark will be able to obtain information regarding loan payments, outstanding balances, and anything else concerning the loan account,” wrote KeyBank’s attorney, Siobhan Moran. “I am hopeful that this matter has now been resolved once and for all, and to your satisfaction.”
That hope shattered that same afternoon, when the bank again refused to accept Mark’s payment, he said.
Dismayed by being turned away again, Linda sent a second email to the same lawyer stating that the mess is causing emotional distress.
“If you’ve ever lost a loved one, can you imagine how difficult it is to be called nearly every month and asked to speak to the descendant?” Linda wrote in the email. “It is not only excruciatingly painful, but frustrating, too. And when it’s due to incompetence, it’s even more upsetting.”
On Nov. 1, 2017, the bank emailed Mark to call different phone numbers to provide his personal information and make payments.
“They should be able to pull it up at that point without any further problem,” a bank representative wrote to Linda. “The account has been noted regarding the written authorization that we received, in order to allow Mark to have access to information concerning this account.”
Mark said he made one payment before being cut off. No payments have been made since Feb. 1, 2019.
The problem continued until 2022, when KeyBank sought a foreclosure of the North Buffalo house.
Wallshein, the Long Island attorney, said KeyBank should have escalated the problem to someone who could get a resolution.
“The real shame in this — it wasn’t a lot of money,” Wallshien said. “They could have easily made payments, and I don’t think that KeyBank’s internal, I don’t think the people that answer the phones, the customer service people have any idea what Mr. Carey’s rights were or what the bank’s obligations were.”
Fight goes to court
In December 2022, KeyBank filed a complaint in the Erie County Supreme Court for approval to move forward with foreclosure and sell the house at auction. The bank’s position was that the Careys defaulted by not making payments since February 2019.
Mark said while KeyBank’s position may be accurate, “what they don’t say, and what they never told the court, was that they wouldn’t let me make the February 2019 payment.”
Mark said he sought discovery from KeyBank, such as phone call recordings of him trying to make mortgage payments and being turned away.
But he lost again after Justice Raymond W. Walter ruled in KeyBank’s favor to dismiss the complaint.
Mark requested to reargue the family’s opposition to the court’s decision, but Walter denied the request, stating that the Careys failed to make the February 2019 payment and failed to make any argument for why they did not pay.
In September 2023, the Careys filed a federal complaint in the Northern District of Ohio against KeyBank, for “egregious abuse by a mortgage lender and two law firms of two debtors which refused to recognize their assumption of a note and mortgage from a dead relative from its predecessor for reasons unexplained.”
They sued for breach of contract, fraud and conspiracy.
Mark asked the federal court in Ohio to transfer the case to the Western New York division, which KeyBank deemed a “frivolous” attempt to delay and “harass KeyBank and its counsel.”
“I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t in this case,” Linda said. “I just don’t understand why it’s gone on like this. What made it so difficult?”
The Careys made one last-ditch effort to keep the family home.
They asked to pay the full mortgage by the end of January 2024.
KeyBank agreed to give the Careys a few more days to pay off the loan, but the bank wanted a host of demands, including dismissing all claims pending in court.
The foreclosure moved forward, and on Jan. 29 of this year, the house was sold by auction.
Mark said he feels guilty that “I failed my dad” by losing the house.
“I’m not going to get my house back,” Mark said. “I mean, it’s been sold. But if something like this can happen to me, and I have at least the education and the resources to try to fight it and bring it to someone’s attention — I know it’s happening to other people.”
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Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.
Luke Moretti is an award-winning investigative reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2002. See more of his work here.
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