It took over four hours, a record long time for our co-op, but we closed on the sale of our apartment.

Our bank, Washington Mutual failed to send crucial documentation (let alone a representative): the stock certificate, lease and UCC3. For reasons no one can explain, WaMu expected the buyer’s bank to take their word for it and just hand over the payoff funds and the paperwork would catch up in thirty days. My lawyer didn’t notice this foul up and the whole deal nearly went into the can. Even if he had noticed when we received the downpayment, WaMu requires 30 days to retrieve documents and won’t file for a lost document certificate until after 45 days, so we would still have been stuck.

The lawyers- mine, theirs, their bank’s, my bank’s (by phone) and the co-op’s wrangled for two hours. Finally, they reached agreement. WaMu walked over a letter declaring their intent to produce the paperwork and the UCC3 form retiring the loan, the buyer’s bank accepted the UCC3 and the co-op’s lawyers made an exception and drew up their own letter to allow the sale to proceed. I had to sign a bunch of indemnity forms.

WaMu wants to operate in the New York City Co-Op market and has competitive rates but is under the misapprehension that they can handle these deals like any other mortgage. At least Dime bank had the good sense to admit they didn’t do it well and stay out. Their origination people are all but entirely uninformed and this was compounded by our mortgage broker’s colossal ineptitude and ignorance as they themselves tried to get into the Co-Op mortgage market. Their customer service people are pleasant but also uninformed about Co-Ops.

I would never consider them for a Co-Op loan in the five boroughs.