Until last summer, Cheryl and Steven Mount lived in the same home for 23 years and were always current on the mortgage.

But illness and mounting medical bills put them behind. They lost the home to foreclosure after an unlicensed mortgage-relief company failed to renegotiate their note with the lender as promised.

On Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Finance ordered National Foreclosure Relief Inc. to stop doing business in Idaho. The Federal Trade Commission sued the company in February, citing misrepresentations the company made to consumers.

Cheryl Mount says when her husband, Steven, 53, suffered the second of three pulmonary embolisms in 2007, the couple needed money. So they took a second mortgage to pay medical expenses.

They soon fell behind on their payments. In a last-ditch effort to avoid foreclosure, Mount answered a solicitation from National Foreclosure Relief that she got in the mail.

"Everyone in Valley County got them," said Cheryl Mount, 49, who works in home health care. "I saw them in the post office and in my friend's homes."

National Foreclosure Relief promised to renegotiate her mortgage with the lender, get the payments lowered and stop the foreclosure - "guaranteed."

Mount paid almost $1,900 in initial fees to the company. The company then withdrew three $1,200 payments from Mount's checking account and said the money would be applied to the couple's mortgage payments.

Mount said she continued to receive notices from the lender, Beneficial Finance, saying payments were not being made. She says she called Beneficial but could never reach anyone who could help. Beneficial did not return a Statesman call seeking comment.

She called National Mortgage Relief. "They said don't worry, the checks are just passing in the mail, we'll take care of it," she said.

The money never reached Beneficial. In March, the sheriff was on the Mounts' doorstep with a foreclosure notice.

The Idaho Department of Finance said Wednesday that it has ordered National Foreclosure Relief to stop doing business in Idaho because it is not licensed as required by state law.

But that will be difficult to enforce, said Mike Larsen, chief of the department's Bureau of Consumer Finance.

"Many of these companies don't even have a physical presence - they just operate out of post-office boxes," Larsen told the Idaho Statesman. "The chances of recovering any money are very slim."

A Statesman call to National Foreclosure Relief was not answered.

Larsen said the Idaho Department of Finance is sharing information with the FTC.

The Mounts left their home behind in May and are still looking for a place to live. Every empty home Cheryl Mount has looked at is in foreclosure and not for rent, she said.

"I just keep packing boxes and praying for a miracle," she said.

Brad Talbutt: 672-6737