Sold!
Jun 8, 2004It took over four hours, a record long time for our co-op, but we closed on thensale of our apartment.nnOur bank, [Washington Mutual](http://www.wamu.com) failed to sendncrucial documentation (let alone a representative): the stock certificate, leasenand UCC3. nFor reasons no one can explain, [WaMu](http://www.wamu.com)nexpected the buyer’s bank to ntake their word for it and just hand over the payoff funds and thenpaperwork would catch up in thirty days.nMy lawyer didn’t notice this foul up and the whole deal nearly nwent into the can. Even if he had noticed when we received the downpayment,n[WaMu](http://www.wamu.com) requires 30 days to retrieve documents andnwon’t file for a lost document certificate until after 45 days, so we would stillnhave been stuck.nnThe lawyers- mine, theirs, their bank’s, my bank’s (by phone) and the nco-op’s wrangled for two hours. Finally, they reached agreement. [WaMu](http://www.wamu.com) walked over a letter declaring their intent tonproduce 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 upntheir own letter to allow the sale to proceed. I had to sign a bunch of indemnitynforms.nn[WaMu](http://www.wamu.com) wants to operate in the New York City Co-Opnmarket and has competitive rates but is under the misapprehension thatnthey can handle these deals like any other mortgage. At least Dime banknhad the good sense to admit they didn’t do it well and stay out. nTheir origination people are all but entirely uninformed and thisnwas compounded by our mortgage broker’s colossal ineptitude and ignorancenas they themselves tried to get into the Co-Op mortgage market. nTheir customer service people are pleasant but also uninformed about Co-Ops. nnI would never consider them for a Co-Op loan in the five boroughs.