Consumer complaint received 2023-06-29
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I have a VA loan with Freedom Mortgage and feel that they are is engaging in unethical servicing practices and obstructing me from being reviewed for options such as deferment, partial claim, loan modification or repayment plan. My family went through loss of income and hardship due to the Covid 19 pandemic which led to payment struggles and Freedom offered a 6 month forbearance which was helpful at the time and now the hardship is resolved. The problem is that Freedom Mortgage has been misplacing documents and slow walking the review of my information for a solution to pay off the arrearages. I was told I was being considered for a 6 month repayment plan, then I was told they did not have the right information so I sent in more paperwork for a review for 12 month repayment plan and no one at Freedom has answers. I do not want to go into foreclosure and I do not want to lose my home. My wife and I are both back working full time and the hardship is resolved. The issue is the delinquent payments, we are not in a position to pay this all back in one lump sum reinstatement but seek a reasonable plan to address this. 

I was a United States XXXX and was XXXX in the XXXX XXXX as part of XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX as well as a tour in XXXX with a final rank of XXXX. I was on XXXX XXXX for XXXX  years and XXXX and then served as a reserve and then with the XXXX XXXX XXXX . I now work as a XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX XXXX XXXX for 17 years. We refinanced into this loan in XX/XX/2022 and took out some money for repairs of our roof and driveway and painting. Shortly after we refinanced my wife caught XXXX  and was unable to work. We thought this would be a short break in employment but she was out for 10 months which affected our household income and due to the repairs on the house had no savings. In XX/XX/2022 it caught up with me and the mortgage payment was late, and then I was unable to make the XXXX payment because we were struggling financially. I spoke with an agent at Freedom and they told me I qualified for the Covid forbearance and that for XXXX months I did not have to make the payment so we could get back on our feet. The good news is that our hardship was resolved by XXXX and I contacted Freedom to see about resuming my mortgage payments early. 

I was told by their agents that they would not accept a regular mortgage payment from me and that I had to make a lump sum payment to catch up all the past due payments or send in documents to be reviewed for a plan to catch me up. I sent the paperwork in multiple times and feel that the company has been stringing me along while the amount of late payments grows. ( about $ XXXX ). I have called multiple times to follow up and no one has answers, they just tell me to send more documents or pay the whole past due amount, or they will foreclose on me. 

Freedom Mortgage has never evaluated my ability to pay, Freedom Mortgage has never considered me for government programs to help struggling homeowners who need assistance such as loan modification, forbearance, partial claim, deferred principal or repayment plan and instead demand that we make a lump sum payment of full past due amount. 

There are XXXX people in our home and we do not want to lose it. My hardship is resolved, I have a good job and I really need Freedom Mortgage to make my case a priority and work with me to figure out a reasonable and affordable solution so that I can keep my home and get back into good standing with this loan.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation