Pursued for Balance After Deed in Lieu Despite Agreement

[strokeraze]

My question involves a mortgage in the state of: Indiana

After years of faithful payments, never late, never missed, we requested a Deed In Lieu from our lender, specifically stating that we wanted a straight deed for debt forgiveness arrangement. After an appraisal and inspection, they verbally agreed to those terms in our kitchen and confirmed we would not owe them anything later after they sold the home. Before signing the contract, we again confirmed those terms with them verbally. We also have an email stating that "the deed in lieu takes care of everything." Now 19 months later, they have sold the property in question and are holding us responsible for the shortfall between sale price and debt forgiven. We arranged a meeting and the bank representative stated that he didn't recall any discussion of terms and that he thought it was just a standard DIL. Do we have a case? We want to be very sure, since lawyers are expensive and we could not afford to retain one and then lose. Thank you for your time.

[Mr. Knowitall]

We also have an email stating that "the deed in lieu takes care of everything."

Potentially helpful. This is an email from your lender? Is that all it says, or is there a greater context?

Do we have a case?

Fill us in on the details of the email. Also, are you stating that the only thing that's in writing that suggests that your bank was waiving the deficiency is that email?