Product: Mortgage

On XX/XX/XXXX I applied for a conventional mortgage with Delmar XXXX I submitted an application and pre-approval financial documents including tax returns, and I also verbally and in writing made it known to my mortgage loan originator that my income, while quite good in XXXX, declined in XXXX due to the pandemic and my being a cXXXX XXXX  XXXX. I said this to make sure the decline in income would not be a problem later, and was assured it wouldn't. My application was accepted and I received pre-approval, and was asked to pay a refundable {$500.00} lock-in fee, which I was told would be applied as a credit at closing, or returned to me if the loan was not approved. The only event in which I would forefit the {$500.00} deposit was if I chose to walk away from the loan. The contract I signed stated the {$500.00} deposit would be returned if the loan was not closed through no fault of the borrower. 

We proceeded with the mortgage process for about three weeks, during which I was never given an indication there was anything wrong. I was putting down a large down payment and had good income and credit, so I didn't expect there to be any issue with my approval. I had pointed out the decline in income in XXXX ( which was already showing to be going back to normal in XXXX ) but was assured there was no problem. My financing period ended and my deposits on the home I was purchasing went hard. 

On XXXX, almost three weeks into the process and two weeks away from my closing, I was told that my loan was being denied. The reason I was given was because my income declined in XXXX. The size of my down payment, my credit, the actual amount of income or the amount by which it declined did not matter. The mere fact it had declined meant they would not be approving my loan. This left me in an extremely tough position, as I had just over two weeks before my closing date and my lender had just fallen through. I was forced to scramble to search for another lender. However, none of this is at the core of my complaint. 

The core of my complaint is that Delmar XXXX XXXXter declining my loan out of the blue for the stated reason of a decline in income in XXXX which they had been made aware of at the very beginning of the process, informed me that the {$500.00} lock-in fee would not be refunded, because the loan had failed to close due to my actions. They stated I misrepresented my income in XXXX which is provably and verifiably false via many emails and the financial documents I submitted to them. I spoke to an attorney who reviewed the contract and agreed that I was owed the {$500.00} refund. The attorney sent a demand letter requesting immediate payment, however the company continued to refuse. Unfortunately, the amount of money is too small to make litigation worthwhile, as I would almost certainly rack up more in legal fees than I would be recouping. 

This company either did not know their own policies with regards to loan approval, did know and willfully concealed from me the fact that based on my XXXX income I would never qualify for a loan, or is concealing the true reason why they decided to reject my loan. I am a very qualified buyer with a credit score over 700 and a down payment of 40 %, so it is very puzzling why they would come to this decision. They are then refusing to return the {$500.00} deposit that their own contract says is refundable, because they're claiming I am at fault for misrepresenting my income, which is provably false.