Consumer complaint received 2020-08-12
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
I applied for a {$50000.00} HELOC though PNC in order to do repairs to my house. I provided all the information necessary. After a couple weeks I received a letter stating that my financially my loan had been approved based on my income and credit score. At that time all that was pending was confirmation of the security for the HELOC. A few days later I received an email stating that my loan application had been approved.

When I called in to schedule the closing I was told for the first time I would have to pay off a private loan in the amount of {$9000.00} ( I was fine with this ) and a student loan in the amount of approximately {$35000.00}, leaving an available credit of {$6000.00}. I was told this was necessary due to my debt to income being over 55 %. I was told due to COVID-19, their regulations had changed and there was no way to go over that amount, even though all parties agreed I could pay the loan as the maximum loan amount was less that the payment on the personal loan.

Upon further review, we determined that the student loan payment being used was wrong which was improperly inflating my debt payments per month. PNC was using the contractual payment to determine my payment and not the income based repayment I was paying, as allowed under Federal Law. I provided updated figures showing my payment being made along with statements, and proof of income based repayment application being approved for 2021 and the payment though 2021. After review PNC underwriting refused to accept this information and lower the debt because I have to reapply for the income based repayment every year.

I should not be punished because I have income based repayment on my student loans.

After PNC refused to re-review I provided proof of additional income via a lease agreement for my roommate. This was provided after discussion with my loan officer who advised that the lease can be submitted as proof of income. I provided the lease per the request of the loan officer.

The loan went back to underwriting and was approved again with the same payoff conditions. When I spoke to a loan officer after I was advised that the lease income was used and the underwriter was just refusing to remove the student loan payoff even though my debt to income was now under 50 %. I requested this be escalated as PNC told me it would be removed should by debt to income fall under 50 %.

After not receiving a response to my multiple calls or my email or emails over the next day, I finally was able to get a hold of my loan officer. Suddenly the information I was provided the day before was wrong. Even though I was originally informed that the income from the lease was used, I was later notified that the lease was not used because it comes from a single family detached home and not a multiple unit home.

I have done everything I can to try and get this resolved with PNC and they have refused to follow their own offers.

They also refused to provide the survey via email and lien about a regulation for some odd reason.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation