My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: VA
I had an SBA loan defaulted back in 2006 due to a failing business, prior to that I had been making payments even post business close on the loan. The loan is guaranteed against my house, and I attempted to settle with the SBA a few times, and made a few mistakes:
1. I filed a few OIC's and worked with an SBA officer to do so the first time around 2009 ish, everything seemed to be going well, i submitted an OIC, and ... nothing .. no response for almost a year and a half and attempts to contact the SBA for status were unsuccessful, finally (2012) I found out the loan had been pushed to the treasury TOP program (without any response from SBA) and that the loan officer working with me had changed job.
2. I pulled the loan out of TOP (2013) (my mistake), when I came into some $$ in order to pay it off, this time (as my home had gained value), the OIC was rejected, I (stupidly) assumed the loan would go back into TOP, it did not and I received a treasury collection letter in 2015.
3. Upon receiving the collection (2015) letter I contacted SBA, i got them to take back the loan, i worked with a new loan officer there, I filed multiple OIC's amending them, and accepted a SBA counteroffer, I prepared for it by borrowing 100k and restructuring my finances - retained an accountant/attorney etc., at committee approval of their own counteroffer (this is 9months into the process), they told me my loan should never have been taken back from treasury and they rejected it.
4. I negotiated with treasury, submitted an offer to them, they countered and I accepted their counteroffer, which they then again rejected (6 months later) which brings us to now.
It should be noted that in all cases except 1. I've offered to pay for the entirety of the original loan amount, and in some cases the loan + interest to that point (3)
I'm preparing to potentially file chp13 bankruptcy, but prior to that, I'd like to know if their is legal recourse in filing a lawsuit or similar against the government. I don't see how it's fair/reasonable to take my (1.) OIC to committee and not respond (while charging interest) then send the loan to TOP without followup/consultation of the OIC status. (3) Take the loan back from treasury, tentatively accept my offer and then almost a year into the process say that they shouldn't have taken it back from treasury. (4) Offer a counteroffer, and then reject my acceptance of their own counteroffer, i mean this seems to be the definition of bad faith negotiation, how can this even be allowed all the while accruing fees/interest and forcing me to restructure finances and take on legal/accounting costs. My Attorney has offered additional suggestions as far as other programs, or attempts he can make but outside of that:
Is there legal recourse or a case for filing a lawsuit against the government for their actions in this case, I can pretty well document all of the above, it just seems asinine to me that the behavior of the government is acceptable, I don't see a possibility for resolution when the other side can force a situation where they delay infinitely and accrue interest during their own delays, lose the loan and find it again and submit to treasury (+28% fee) without responding to my OIC, or offer counteroffers in bad faith. I had other obligations from the business failing and ultimately I settled them all, its only this process which has been (seemingly) impossible to resolve.
Thanks,
-EJ

